Google Patent Reveals Means to Make Streaming Better Emulate OTA TV Viewing

Google landed a new U.S. patent that reveals details of the company’s plan to make online streaming look and feel more like over-the-air TV viewing by offering viewers the chance to channel-surf with familiar up-down hopping and instant picture previews. Current content streaming is too much of a computer experience rather than a traditional television viewing experience, says the patent, published July 19 by the Patent and Trademark Office, based on a May 2014 application. The viewer is faced with “vast amounts of content which require navigating through an endless hierarchy of menus and interacting with cumbersome search boxes,” it says. With TV viewing, “users often enjoy the somewhat addictive pleasure of scanning through content in search of something they want to watch,” it says. “In contrast, current on-demand interfaces often include elaborate text guides meant to facilitate quick surveying of available programming. But reading text requires the kind of cognitive effort that a user often attempts to avoid when watching television.” Google’s solution is to propose that as soon as the viewer accesses one content stream, the device automatically accesses a set of different content streams, chosen on a “more of the same” basis or tailored to the viewer’s preference profile, the patent says. So if the viewer chooses an action movie, the system automatically accesses several other action movies, choosing actors that the viewer has previously watched, it says. Some random content may be thrown in for serendipity purposes, it says. If the user previously has changed channels when things get scary on screen, the device steers clear of scary movies, it says. The extra streams -- Google suggests there should be at least five -- are buffered and labeled with names or numbers similar to those used by broadcast TV stations, it says. That way the viewer can get an instant preview of several online TV streams, just as if they were off-air broadcasts, it says. The buffering plays enough of the content to let the stream take over if the viewer chooses one to watch, it says. The system would work equally well with online radio stations or music delivery services, it says. Google didn’t comment on plans to commercialize the invention.