Google working on voice controls for TV, files for patent

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Put down that remote. Google TV is about to bring a whole new dimension to being a couch potato. Soon, not even your fingers will have the benefit of channel surfing calisthenics. A newly uncovered patent suggests Google has some big things in the future when it comes to interacting naturally with your television. According to the patent, which was filed right around the launch of the iPhone 4S and its Siri virtual assistant, the Goog is cooking up a way for a user to simply ask as questions such as “When is Seinfeld on?” and be treated to the same results Google TV already provides.

While there is no telling how deep the service might go, on its surface it sounds a lot like Android’s Voice Actions tailored to TV. The patent mentions the ability to trigger voice commands using certain phrases, allowing users to channel surf without ever touching the remote. Diving deeper we find descriptions of a cloud-based system that uses the user’s smartphone to decode voice into text, send the information to the cloud to be processed, and then complete a process on the television set.

To go into more detail see the PatentlyApple source link below.

[PatentlyApple via GTVSource]

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Kevin Krause
Pretty soon you'll know a lot about Kevin because his biography will actually be filled in!

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13 Comments

  1. Oh I thought Apple was supposedly releasing “Voice controlled TV”

    Time to get the lawyers ready!

    1. i never seen google sue anyone in the courts…this should be interesting

      1.  Google won’t care, they’ll use it to send a nice letter to Apple the next time Apple tries to sue them.

  2. Pffft! Can’t patent that! People have been yelling at their TVs forever. :P

  3. I am not sure about voice but I know Apple was working on gestures for the TV.Even with that they need to be careful because of Microsoft Kinect which has something similar.

  4. All I know is I’m freakin happy as HELL that I bought my Logitec Google TV because this thing just keeps getting cooler and cooler and it was only $150 when I got it! I would’ve paid WAY more than that because Google is still paying a lot of attention to this lil set-top box. I just love Android so there’s nothing better than Android on your TV.

    1. I just wish that there was a native Amazon Instant video client for it.

    2. I love my Revue, got it for $49.00 I was the few who was able to use the accidental 50% coupon from logitech. My only problem now with the Revue on Android 3.2 is that it now seems under powered and sluggish.

      1.  i got mine for free from logitech during there competition

  5. patentlyapple.com?

  6. voice control for TV? tracy jordan will be happy to know that when he yells at his tv to turn on and go to pron that it will actually work

  7. Kevin, you’re actually using “When is Seinfeld on?” as an example ? How ’bout using something that didn’t end in 1998 and haunts us in syndication hell ?!

  8. Google may have home entertainment system all integrated..so excited google

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