Apple imagines future Siri enhancements to find, control live television content

If Apple ever gets its long-rumored web television service for Apple TV off the ground, a newly-issued patent shows that users may depend on voice navigation to find, watch, and record shows and events.

Titled "intelligent automated assistant for TV user interactions," the patent details a number of ways in which a virtual assistant — such as Siri — might help consumers interact with an over-the-top television service. Examples include searching program listings, recording live content for later viewing, and calling up previously-saved videos.

Importantly, Apple contemplates not just normal natural language processing, but also the concept of intent. Apple sees a Siri-like assistant understanding the questions asked or commands issued and responding appropriately.

Some of this is already on display in tvOS, the operating system that runs atop the fourth-generation Apple TV. Siri recognizes when users ask for details on a particular movie or show, and differentiates those requests from more mundane real-world queries.

For instance, asking Siri on tvOS for information on Gosford Park will return results related to the 2001 film, rather than the rural park found in Northern Ireland.

The new patent shows some more grand ambitions, as well. In one particularly interesting example, Apple imagines a series of networked devices connected to disparate displays — multiple Apple TV units in different rooms, each with their own television monitor — interacting with each other.

In this case, a user might tell their living room Apple TV to "play Silicon Valley in the bedroom," and the HBO series would begin playing on the specified television, rather than the one which heard the command.

Apple credits Marcel Van Os, Harry J. Saddler, Lia T. Napolitano, Jonathan H. Russell, Patrick M. Lister, and Rohit Dasari with the invention of U.S. Patent No. 9,338,493.

10 Comments

cali 3494 comments · 10 Years

About 8 years ago

I'd welcome any improvements. There's too much problems to fit in one post but a few are:

"I'm sorry I can't do that right now"
WHY?

Annoying computer/gender joke when asking for titles that include words such as "girl, girlfriend, boy, boyfriend".

(Heres a free TV show season with the word "girlfriend" by the way:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/crazy-ex-girlfriend-season/id1093947697 )*

Siri can't find certain titles that are on iTunes for some reason.

and the annoying "I can't search the web right now" when you didn't ask.

*edit: looks like they took down the whole free season and are only offering 4 episodes now. Correct me if I'm wrong.

asdasd 5682 comments · 21 Years

voice control is great but it doesnt work in most countries.

antonpablo 90 comments · 9 Years

After 5 years, Siri is still crap.

Viv is what Siri should have been by now. They c0ck block those guys that created Siri from doing what they envisioned to do, they left Apple, and now they've come up with a superior product in Viv. Perhaps Apple should buy Viv and this time they should let those guys do their thing.

eightzero 3142 comments · 14 Years

Meh. No thanks.

nolamacguy 4750 comments · 10 Years

antonpablo said:

After 5 years, Siri is still crap.

Viv is what Siri should have been by now. They c0ck block those guys that created Siri from doing what they envisioned to do, they left Apple, and now they've come up with a superior product in Viv. Perhaps Apple should buy Viv and this time they should let those guys do their thing.

its hilarious that you're comparing a canned presentation to a REAL product. Viv doesnt exist yet. its a tech crunch demo. call me when its a real product.

and unless you worked at Apple at the time, you have no idea what really happened there. i can spin a story, too -- maybe the Siri/Viv guys wanted to make a boatload of cash by selling out to Apple, realized they didn't like having bosses, and decided to slack it out until their contract terms were expired so they could do it all over again. sure why not. i wasnt there, you weren't there.