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Google Develops Context-Aware Voice Search For TV
jfruh writes "Google TV, despite bold predictions from the company's execs, has singularly failed to take over the TV world. Nevertheless, the company is still plugging away, and one development that might have far-reaching implications is its new context-aware voice search. 'Context aware' is the key to revolutionizing the TV-watching experience: you can say the name of a TV show, the name of a channel, the description of a show, or the description of a kind of video you'd like to find on YouTube, and the TV will show it to you."
Hopefully they don't use this technology to eavesdrop and make sneakily custom-tailored ads based on your conversations. Actually, I bet that they (or someone else) will do that.
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Like... I had cable, and I dumped it in favor of higher bandwidth for WoW, but right now I want to watch something that will make me forget the fact that my existence is defined by my patterns of consumption which Google knows intimately and can therefore extrapolate from their database that which will fulfill my dream state for the evening?
Like that kind of context?
Since context is the key to understanding meaning and intent, a search engine that could understand what the viewer is currently watching - not just the name of the show but take into account what situation the characters are in at any time, and what emotions they are portraying, this could be the begining of a true, interactive AI interface. Admittedly, there is a long way to go, but with Google's experience in context-based voice recognition, visual search development, already indexing the data of the world, and their ability to throw wads of cash and creative minds at an endevor like this, I wouldn't rule the possibility of a stab at AI being next.
Sent from my ENIAC
Give me a glass of water - 5 degrees..
...if I tell someone I'm getting up to take a crap, it'll switch to Fox News?
Great. My kid clearly articulated "chipmunk" to Google and it consistently came back with "Kiss My Ass". Looking forward to a TV does that hears as well.
TV! FIND ME SOMETHING WORTH WATCHING!
I'm sorry dave, i can't do that. (changes channel to honey boo boo)
Sadly, until the major networks stop blocking GoogleTV access to their broadcasts/content who cares if Google TV can contextually search shows.
So what happens if a TV show initiates the voice recognition (says tv listen or whatever in the dialog of the show) and changes the channel on mistake, or deletes all your dvr shows....
"KARDASHIANS."
"JERSEY SHORE."
"MARRIED WITH CHILDREN."
"JACKASS."
"MORE JACKASS."
"O'REILLY FACTOR."
"MTV."
"NASCAR."
"BLUE COLLAR COMEDY TOUR."
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"'Context aware' is the key to revolutionizing the TV-watching experience: you can say the name of a TV show, the name of a channel, the description of a show, or the description of a kind of video you'd like to find on YouTube, and the TV will tell you it's not available in your country or requires upgrading to a package of subscription."
Fixed it.
tone
i think youtube has replaced a very large amount of TV use. it's quite plain to see. my large TV is just sitting there these days, and only gets fired up if someone on facebook says to watch something they've worked on.
Context aware would suggest to me that it knows something about what you're presently watching or talking about to interpret what you mean when you tell it what you want. Now I have to RTFA to figure out what the summary botched.
..and I am thinking of the requests she got when she worked information, and how this device might respond to similar. "Hey, I want this show where there's this guy, and this girl, and there's this other guy, who's funny, and there's always something wacky happening..." The real killer app for this is, of course, porn. Google can surely do it, but probably is wondering how to market it properly. You need a program that can "watch" a clip and correctly identify any relevant traits -- number of participants, actions performed, hair color, ethnicity, physical traits, clothing styles, location, etc. Most porn search engines barely work because the site owners throw in every possible keyword, relevant or not. Or, uhm, so I've heard. From friends. Distant friends. Acquaintances, really.
So I bought a nice logitech review the month they came out. Lesson learned. Never buy a gen 1 google device.
Raise your children to talk wrong. Remember also to teach them, "mambo dogface to the banana patch" means "can I go to the bathroom"? You'll get hours of laughs when you send them off to school for the first time.
this can also be used to remind people to participate in their daily Physical Jerks and the Two Minute Hate.
Providing all the context IN a search is NOT a context aware search.
Tangis started down the road of Context Awareness years ago and got nowwhere becuase they bit off way more than they could chew. They wanted database driven software that 'understood' what you were doing, who you were with and what might be relevant to your use of the information you had previously stored. It was an immense undertaking.
Now Google is limiting context to video content, most of which they've collected via donation of the unwitting, where you have to specify the context and someone is getting excited?
Get back to me when I can express my frustration regarding my lack of understanding and this voice driven interface will understand what I need to know in order for me to extend my own knowledge. Then we'll have something to talk about, not just something else to entice me to sit through some more ads.
TV is, strangely, one of those things that's begging to be reinvented in a way that integrates all of the great potential of internet + TV + consoles + disc players + multi-channel / caching devices, etc. Typically we'd look to Apple to show everyone how a problem like this really should be solved, but I think we all know how well that's gone. Speaking for myself, I will continue to simply plug in my laptop to my flatscreen's HDMI port and not bother with silly things like cable or satellite subscriptions. Until you can give me a way, for example, to watch HBO (and not Lifetime, or MSNBC, or any of the other 500 channels I'd never touch with a 31.5-foot pole) without paying hundreds of dollars a month for the Super Platinum Ultra cable package, the value just isn't there. A handful of networked (and some cable) shows are already doing this on Hulu, but the push for Hulu Plus subscriptions (and accompanying limitations on free Hulu) is really starting to get annoying.
In the long run, I think Google's approach is the one that time will show to be the winner. They're constantly looking for ways to extend search for better monetization (and after all the hammer thinks everything is a nail), but I think that's going to be the sustainable market path that can eventually take us to a day when I can--for example--pay a $10 subscription fee to watch real-time releases of Game of Thrones in the same way I can pay a modest fee for privileged access to my favorite Twitch channels. When the monetization comes full circle, and starts feeding back into investment and production of shows, it will produce a much tighter feedback loop and much better programming, much the same way cable did when it originally had its heyday so many years ago.
Who still has a television anyway?
I was an early "adopter" and quickly abandon google TV. Part of the problem was it was dependent on me having either satellite or cable. And part of the problem was my perception that it could get rid of cable or satellite. And from what I have read and heard, that's been most peoples experience. Its really nothing more than a "android" console in the entertainment cabinet.
I've always said English was my second language. Had Romeo and Juliet been written in C, I might have understood it.
This is like adding clap-activated on/off-switching to an *oil lamp*. Or a speedometer to a *horse carriage*.
TV died a decade ago. Some backwards rednecks of course linger on. But who gives a fuck about them? They are *always* decades behind.