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EP-3994591-B1 - MOBILE-ENABLED VOICE SEARCH OF MEDIA ITEMS FOR DISPLAYING ON ALTERNATIVE PLAYBACK DEVICES

EP3994591B1EP 3994591 B1EP3994591 B1EP 3994591B1EP-3994591-B1

Inventors

  • PATWARDHAN, JAEE
  • MITHANI, Sana
  • MILLS, ALLAN
  • KLEIN, NICOLAS
  • MURPHY, Yakka Nakia
  • HARRISON, ADAM

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20190701

Claims (13)

  1. A method comprising: receiving (410), at a mobile device and from an alternative playback device, an indication of a user request to perform a voice search on the mobile device; upon receiving said indication, presenting (420) a voice search GUI element on a GUI presented on a screen of the mobile device, the voice search GUI element representing the voice search; responsive to receiving confirmation to perform the voice search, prompting (430) the user to providing an audio input;receiving an audio input of the user to request a search of one or more media items, the audio input specifying one or more search criteria for the search; submitting (450) a textual search query derived from the audio input for processing, wherein a result of the search is presented to the user on a screen of the alternative playback device.
  2. The method of claim 1, wherein the result of the search is not presented to the user on the screen of the mobile device.
  3. The method of claims 1 or 2 further comprising: receiving, at the alternative playback device, a user selection of a voice search GUI element.
  4. The method of claim 1, wherein submitting the textual search query for processing further comprises: submitting the textual search query to at least one of the alternative playback device or a backend server for processing.
  5. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the alternative playback device is a television system.
  6. The method of any preceding claim, further comprising: responsive to submitting the textual search query, displaying, on the screen of the mobile device, a navigation GUI element to navigate the result of the search on the screen of the alternative playback device.
  7. The method of any preceding claim, further comprising: displaying, on the GUI, a voice search tip to prompt the user to provide the audio input; and activating an audio input receiving feature of the mobile device to receive the audio input from the user.
  8. The method of any preceding claim, wherein presenting a voice search GUI element on the screen of the mobile further comprises: initiating a session between the mobile device and the alternative playback device.
  9. The method of claim 8, wherein the session between the mobile device and the alternative playback device is a casting session.
  10. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the result of the search query is selected by a content sharing platform based on a device type of the alternative playback device, and wherein the result of the search query is transmitted, by the content sharing platform, to the alternative playback device for display.
  11. The method of any preceding claim, further comprising: responsive to failing to receive the audio input of the user to request the search: deactivating an audio input receiving feature of the mobile device; displaying, on the GUI, a tip to prompt the user to make a selection of the voice search GUI element; and responsive to receiving the selection of the voice search GUI element, activating the audio input receiving feature of the mobile device to receive the audio input from the user.
  12. A system comprising one or more apparatuses, the one or more apparatuses configured to carry out the method of any preceding claim.
  13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium configured to store instructions, which when executed by one or more processing devices, cause the one or more processing devices to carry out the method of any one of claims 1 to 11.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD Aspects and implementations of the present disclosure relate to a voice search, and more specifically, to mobile-enabled voice search of media items for displaying on alternative playback devices. BACKGROUND Various platforms may provide media content items that are shared by users (e.g., user-uploaded videos, live-streaming videos) and/or provided by various entities (e.g., movies and/or television shows made by production studios). The media content items may include pre-recorded or live-streaming content that is presented to a user on a big screen client device via a user interface of the platforms. The user may access the user interface and use a virtual keyboard to enter a search query for a desired media content item to consume, especially when voice enabled remote control may not be available. Using certain electronic devices to input characters with conventional virtual keyboards may be tedious and entail pressing an inefficient number of key inputs to enter the desired characters. US 2014/130101 A1 discloses a system for remotely controlling a television receiver using a smartphone. SUMMARY The invention is defined in the appended independent claims. Advantageous embodiments are defined by the dependent claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Aspects and implementations of the present disclosure will be understood more fully from the detailed description given below and from the accompanying drawings of various aspects and implementations of the disclosure, which, however, should not be taken to limit the disclosure to the specific aspects or implementations, but are for explanation and understanding only. FIG. 1 illustrates an example system architecture for mobile-enabled voice search for media content items, in accordance with one implementation of the disclosure.FIG. 2 depicts a flow diagram of aspects of a method for performing voice search for media content items, in accordance with one implementation of the present disclosure.FIG. 3 depicts a flow diagram of aspects of a method for performing voice search for media content items when attempts to receive audio input fail, in accordance with one implementation of the present disclosureFIG. 4 depicts a flow diagram of aspects of a method for performing voice search for media content items initiated from a GUI element on a TV screen, in accordance with one implementation of the present disclosureFig. 5 illustrates an example system that includes a mobile device initiating a casting session with an alternative playback, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.Fig. 6 is an example system that includes a mobile device with a first GUI to record an audio input from a user and to send a derived textual search query to an alternative playback device, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.Fig. 7 is an example system that includes a mobile device with a first GUI to navigate media items in search result displayed on a second GUI on a screen of an alternative playback device, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.FIG. 8 illustrates an example block diagram of a computing device operating in accordance with one or more implementations of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION A technical problem addressed by embodiments of the disclosure is that unnecessary processing resources as well as a poor user experience may occur when typing characters on a search user interface on a playback device such as a television (TV) system when searching for media content items to be played on the TV. For example, when a user is watching a media item on a TV with a remote control that does not support voice search, the user may need to type a search query to find a particular media item to consume. Typing a search query often includes numerous key-presses to navigate a virtual keyboard displayed on the TV screen and to select characters using a directional pad. The multiple key presses can undesirably consume processing resources on both a remote control (if used) and a TV (which displays the virtual keyboard). Additionally, this is particularly problematic due to the undesirable user experience of having to click potentially tens of keys to form a search query in order to find a certain media item that the user is interested to play. Further, each time a character is entered by a user using the virtual keyboard, the character is transmitted from the TV to a server to look-up media content items based on the entered character. The server may transmit information pertaining to the found media content items that include the entered character in their titles as suggestions to the TV that is displaying the search user interface. The information pertaining to the found media content items may include, for example, a thumbnail, the full video file of the media content item, metadata (e.g., title and description of the media content item), etc.. Sending multiple data payloads with the above information as the