US 2006/0041926 A1 · Voice control of multimedia content

Abstract

Techniques are described for managing various types of content in various ways, such as based on voice commands or other voice-based control instructions provided by a user. In some situations, at least some of the content being managed includes content of a variety of types, such as music and other audio information, photos, images, non-television video information, videogames, Internet Web pages and other data, etc., which may be managed via the voice controls in a variety of ways, such as to allow a user to locate and identify content of potential interest, to schedule recordings of selected content, to manage previously recorded content (e.g., to play or delete the content), to control live television, etc. This abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring it, and is submitted with the intention that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method for controlling presentation of a plurality of types of content using voice commands, the method comprising:

at a computing device in a home environment that controls presentation of content, receiving a plurality of pieces of content of a plurality of types from at least one content server system and receiving metadata information about the received pieces of content, the plurality of types of content including at least one of audio content, image content, and video content;
and
under control of the computing device,
receiving a voice command from a user of the computing device that contains one or more criteria for selecting one or more pieces of content to be controlled and that contains an instruction related to a type of control;
analyzing the voice command to identify the instruction and the one or more criteria;
using the metadata information to identify one or more of the received pieces of content that correspond to the identified one or more criteria;
and
performing the identified instruction on at least one of the identified pieces of content.

5 more elements

A computer-readable medium whose contents enable a computing device to manage content based on voice-based control instructions, by performing a method comprising:

receiving metadata information for a plurality of pieces of content;
receiving one or more voice-based control instructions generated by a user that relate to a type of control of at least one of the pieces of content;
identifying one or more actions to be performed regarding one or more of the pieces of content, the identifying based at least in part on the received voice-based control instructions and based at least in part on the received metadata information;
and
performing the identified one or more actions regarding the one or more pieces of content, so as to manage presentation of content on one or more presentation devices local to the computing device.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Voice control of multimedia content

Life of this patent

Voice control of multimedia content

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20