Voice activated remote control. Why do we not have this yet?

I've already blogged about this subject before, but I felt like revisiting the topic after talking to my friend Ernest.

I'm certain that there is a substantial segment of the population that just can't navigate the complexity of their audio and video system components with the supplied remotes. Although friends have suggested alternate universal remotes, I don't think the perfect universal remote has been invented yet. Why? Because it still requires you to press the right combination of buttons.

What we need (and certainly have the technology to pull off) are remotes that respond to voice commands. You might need a techno-savvy individual to set them up, but once that's done, operating your gear should be as simple as ordering "Turn the TV on!" There are so many technically challenged folks out there (not their fault), people who can't see the buttons well along with any other handicaps that prevent the successful use of remote controls and voice command would solve most of these issues. The remote could even ask for confirmation when it interprets a command that could be potentially annoying if obeyed by mistake. Example:

User (U)"Turn everything on."
Remote (R) "Do you want all components to be turned on?"
(U) "I just want to watch TV."
(R) "I will turn on the components necessary to watch TV."
Later....
(U) "Louder."
(R) "Is this loud enough?"
(U) "That's fine."
Later still....
(U) "11 O'clock news."
(R) Switches to the channel most watched at this time, further narrowed down based upon scanning online TV listings for news broadcasts. "Is this the right channel?"
(U) "Yes."
After midnight....
(U) "ZZZzzzzzzzzzz." (snoring)
(R) Slowly adjusts volume down to zero. Waits one minute, slowly turns down TV picture brightness. Waits 5 minutes, then turns all components off.

Another example:
(U) "Watch TV"
(R) Switches on the components necessary to watch TV.
(U) "Start surfing."
(R) Switches every 3 seconds to the next higher channel
(U) "Faster!"
(R) Switches every second to the next higher channel
(U) "Stop!"
(R) Stops changing channels immediately.
Phone rings...
(R) Automatically mutes sound to allow user to answer phone.
Call is finished...
(U) "OK, I'm done, put the volume back up."
(R) Re-adjusts volume back to previous level.

This remote could be programmed to respond to a variety of commands natural to the user while also learning the viewing habits of the user to more intuitively interpret their spoken commands. This might create some comedic situations if the user is drunk or otherwise under the influence, but then the user likely doesn't have much success with regular remotes in this situation anyway. Hopefully there isn't an issue with people who yell at their TVs in response to what they're watching, like a hockey game for instance.

(U) "Awwww geez! That net was wide open!"
(R) "What?"

P.S.: I think we could fix that - preface every command with the word 'remote'.