如
今的电视产业可谓今非昔比。随着越来越多的新的互联网内容和移动设备占领人们的起居室，看电视成了一个复杂的动作。本周的消费电子产品展(Consumer Electronics Show)上最热门的话题之一就是如何让这个娱乐大块头重现生机。增加频道和屏幕上的指南这些老办法似乎不再管用。
全球发货量最大的电视制造企业三星电子集团(Samsung Electronics Co.)正在利用此次展会展示一台不需遥控器即可通过声音和手势控制的电视。LG电子(LG Electronics Inc.)推出了一款由声音和手势启动的遥控装置。语音识别专家Novauris公司正在与松下(Panasonic Corp.)合作，为电视和其他设备引入语音识别技术。
同时，苹果公司(Apple Inc.)的声控技术Siri已经应用于最新的iPhone，预计将在某个适当的时间应用在其生产的电视上。消息人士说，这家硅谷的公司最近同媒体的管理人员讨论了能够通过声音和手势控制电视屏幕的新技术。在消费电子产品展上没有正式露面的苹果公司没有对该计划进行证实。
除了内容繁多，一些行业巨头的做法也使找到心仪的电视节目的过程变得十分复杂，比如包括有线电视和卫星电视公司，还有苹果和亚马逊公司(Amazon.com Inc.)在内的公司正在制作大批的视频节目，而且对于方便其他公司从中搜索资源并没有什么兴趣。
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1月9日，在拉斯维加斯消费电子产品展上三星公司展出了一台ES8000电视。
有线电视和卫星电视服务已经控制消费者看电视的体验长达几十年，它们现在正在努力升级其界面，解决关乎搜索查找的问题，从而击败竞争者。到目前为止，大多数的有线电视和卫星电视都专注于通过平板设备使内容导航更为便捷。
不是所有人都意识到这个问题。根据国际市场调研公司Parks Associates的数据，约2,500万美国家庭现在拥有行业中称之为智能电视的产品，该电视有内置的网络连接装置。但该公司估计，其中仅有55%的用户将智能电视接入了互联网。
从电视上看互联网内容的想法最早出现在上世纪90年代中期，此后却不为市场所接受，直到人们的收视习惯开始发生变化这种局面才改变。消费者已经有了观看谷歌（Google Inc.）YouTube网站上电脑用户自制网络视频的习惯。还有一些消费者则习惯了从苹果公司（Apple）iTunes 网店等网站下载节目和从Netflix公司的网站观看流媒体播放。
虽然智能电视机和机顶盒已经能够帮助用户将这些内容从电脑转移到电视中，但大多数用户目前使用的服务是获得一批已经选出的格式化内容，而不是一个可以去浏览任何网站的浏览器。这些内容有时被设计成应用程序(app)的式样。
法国公司Technicolor的子公司MediaNavi已在帮助客户利用iPad等平板电脑来搜寻存放在互联网上的各种内容。这家公司今年春天计划发布一款被称作M-GO的应用程序，巴特说，这款程序能够追踪家中多名用户的收视习惯，并向他们提供个性化的收视建议。
虽然这款程序是免费的，但巴特说，MediaNavi计划通过对外租赁或出售自己收藏库中的电影来赚钱。
尽管相当一部分通过互联网供应的视频内容目前是在用户表达需求后提供的，但针对直播内容的某些限制正在放松。硅谷公司RGB Networks的首席执行长格雷厄姆（Jef Graham）说，这将为针对那些正在观看电视直播的用户向其iPad或笔记本电脑中发送补充性内容创造机会。这家公司向有线电视和电信公司提供视频处理服务。
要做到这一点，知道用户正在观看什么电视节目是有帮助的。雅虎公司（Yahoo Inc.）去年收购了初创企业IntoNow，这家公司通过分析电视节目的声音来识别用户都在看什么节目。该公司说，这一技术有助于为收看电视直播的用户提供互动式体验；雅虎公司负责互联网电视业务的副总裁雅各比（Ron Jacoby）举例说，正在观看摔跤比赛直播的人可能会被要求参加有关谁最有可能赢得比赛的现场民调。
Gracenote是一家被索尼公司（Sony Corp.）收购的初创企业，该公司以其拥有一个有关音乐和视频信息的庞大数据库而闻名。Gracenote说它正在进一步开拓自己的业务。该公司将把通过电脑对声音片段进行的分析与它通过人力协助汇编的电影和电视节目中物体和人物的有关信息结合起来。
Gracenote在本届拉斯维加斯消费电子展上宣布的这项技术被称作Entourage，该公司总裁怀特（Stephen White）举例说，这一技术能够识别出用户正在观看有一款特定跑车的视频画面，并能迅速向用户提供有关这款车及如何购买它的信息。
三星等许多电视机生产商正在给电视机添加新的功能，希望这能抵消电视机价格稳步下跌给公司业绩造成的不利影响。三星计划今年第一季度给其智能电视机增加语音识别能力。该公司电视机业务的总裁尹富根（Boo-Keun Yoon）不愿透露具语音识别能力电视机的价格，但他估计，电视机的成本将因这项能力增加300至500美元，具体增加多少取决于其型号。
Don Clark / Jessica E. Vascellaro
（本文版权归道琼斯公司所有，未经许可不得翻译或转载。）
The boob tube has come a long way.
TV watching is more complex these days as a flood of new Internet content and mobile devices reaches the living room. One of the hottest topics at this week's Consumer Electronics Show is how to make sense of the entertainment chaos. The old methods -- channel surfing and on-screen guides -- no longer seem to cut it.
Samsung Electronics Co., the world's biggest TV maker by shipments, is using the conference to show off a television set that responds to voice commands and gestures without the need for a remote control. LG Electronics Inc. revealed a voice-and gesture-activated remote control, and speech-recognition specialist Novauris Technologies Ltd is working with Panasonic Corp. to bring voice-recognition technology to TVs and other devices.
Meanwhile, Apple Inc. -- whose voice-activated technology, called Siri, helps command its latest iPhone -- is expected to apply the approach to TVs at some point. The Silicon Valley company has recently talked to media executives about new technology that could control television screens via voice and movement, according to people familiar with the matter. The company, which doesn't have an official presence at CES, hasn't confirmed such plans.
Besides the sheer quantity of content, finding programs is complicated by the fact that some powerful players -- such as cable and satellite companies, as well as Apple and Amazon.com Inc. -- are building vast repositories of video programming and aren't necessarily eager to let other companies search through it.
'The hurdles on content are less about technology than rights issues,' says John Batter, chief executive of MediaNavi, one of the companies trying to make it easier to search through a large array of video sources.
Cable and satellite services, which have controlled how consumers watch television for decades, are working hard to update their own interfaces and solve the discovery problem to fend off competitors. So far, most have focused on making their content easier to navigate via tablets.
Not that everyone is aware of the issues. About 25 million U.S. households now have what the industry calls Smart TVs, which have Internet connections built in, estimates market researcher Parks Associates. But only 55% of those users have actually connected the sets to the Internet, the firm estimates.
The very idea of viewing Web content on TVs, which emerged in the mid-1990s, ran into a backlash that persisted until viewing habits began changing. Consumers acquired a taste for online fare such as user-posted videos on Google Inc.'s YouTube service. Others have become accustomed to downloading programming from services like Apple's iTunes store and streaming shows from Netflix.
Smart TVs and set-top boxes have helped shift such content from PCs to TVs, but most consumers are using services that offer a selection of formatted content -- sometimes styled as apps -- rather than a browser to any website.
MediaNavi, a unit of France-based Technicolor, has seized on tablets like the iPad to help search through separate content repositories. The company this spring plans to release an app called M-GO, which Mr. Batter says can keep track of multiple users' viewing habits in the home and make personalized recommendations.
Though the app is free MediaNavi plans to make money by renting or selling movies from its own collection, Mr. Batter says.
While a large portion of video served up via the Internet now comes on an on-demand basis, some restrictions over live content are loosening. That opens opportunities to deliver complementary content to the iPads or laptops of users also watching live TV, notes Jef Graham, chief executive of RGB Networks, a Silicon Valley company that provides video-processing services to cable and telecom companies.
To do that, it helps to know what users are watching. Yahoo Inc. last year acquired IntoNow, a start-up that developed technology to identify programming by analyzing sounds on TV shows. That technology, the company says, can help serve up interactive experiences to users watching live events; people watching a wrestling match, for example, could be asked to participate in a poll about who is most likely to win, says Ron Jacoby, Yahoo's vice president of connected TV.
Gracenote, a start-up purchased by Sony Corp. that is known for a large database of information about music and videos, says it is going further. It combines computer-based analysis of sound clips with information it is compiling with human assistance about objects and people in movies and TV shows.
The technology it is announcing at CES, dubbed Entourage, could identify that a user is viewing a scene with a particular sports car, for example, and quickly serve up information about the car and how to buy it, says Stephen White, Gracenote's president.
Samsung is one of many TV makers adding new features to TVs in hopes of countering a steady drop in prices. It plans to add the voice-recognition capability in the first quarter to its Smart TVs. Boo-Keun Yoon, the president in charge of Samsung's TV business, wouldn't disclose pricing but estimated the new capability could add $300 to $500 to the cost of its TVs, depending on the model.
Don Clark / Jessica E. Vascellaro
TV watching is more complex these days as a flood of new Internet content and mobile devices reaches the living room. One of the hottest topics at this week's Consumer Electronics Show is how to make sense of the entertainment chaos. The old methods -- channel surfing and on-screen guides -- no longer seem to cut it.
Samsung Electronics Co., the world's biggest TV maker by shipments, is using the conference to show off a television set that responds to voice commands and gestures without the need for a remote control. LG Electronics Inc. revealed a voice-and gesture-activated remote control, and speech-recognition specialist Novauris Technologies Ltd is working with Panasonic Corp. to bring voice-recognition technology to TVs and other devices.
Meanwhile, Apple Inc. -- whose voice-activated technology, called Siri, helps command its latest iPhone -- is expected to apply the approach to TVs at some point. The Silicon Valley company has recently talked to media executives about new technology that could control television screens via voice and movement, according to people familiar with the matter. The company, which doesn't have an official presence at CES, hasn't confirmed such plans.
Besides the sheer quantity of content, finding programs is complicated by the fact that some powerful players -- such as cable and satellite companies, as well as Apple and Amazon.com Inc. -- are building vast repositories of video programming and aren't necessarily eager to let other companies search through it.
'The hurdles on content are less about technology than rights issues,' says John Batter, chief executive of MediaNavi, one of the companies trying to make it easier to search through a large array of video sources.
Cable and satellite services, which have controlled how consumers watch television for decades, are working hard to update their own interfaces and solve the discovery problem to fend off competitors. So far, most have focused on making their content easier to navigate via tablets.
Not that everyone is aware of the issues. About 25 million U.S. households now have what the industry calls Smart TVs, which have Internet connections built in, estimates market researcher Parks Associates. But only 55% of those users have actually connected the sets to the Internet, the firm estimates.
The very idea of viewing Web content on TVs, which emerged in the mid-1990s, ran into a backlash that persisted until viewing habits began changing. Consumers acquired a taste for online fare such as user-posted videos on Google Inc.'s YouTube service. Others have become accustomed to downloading programming from services like Apple's iTunes store and streaming shows from Netflix.
Smart TVs and set-top boxes have helped shift such content from PCs to TVs, but most consumers are using services that offer a selection of formatted content -- sometimes styled as apps -- rather than a browser to any website.
MediaNavi, a unit of France-based Technicolor, has seized on tablets like the iPad to help search through separate content repositories. The company this spring plans to release an app called M-GO, which Mr. Batter says can keep track of multiple users' viewing habits in the home and make personalized recommendations.
Though the app is free MediaNavi plans to make money by renting or selling movies from its own collection, Mr. Batter says.
While a large portion of video served up via the Internet now comes on an on-demand basis, some restrictions over live content are loosening. That opens opportunities to deliver complementary content to the iPads or laptops of users also watching live TV, notes Jef Graham, chief executive of RGB Networks, a Silicon Valley company that provides video-processing services to cable and telecom companies.
To do that, it helps to know what users are watching. Yahoo Inc. last year acquired IntoNow, a start-up that developed technology to identify programming by analyzing sounds on TV shows. That technology, the company says, can help serve up interactive experiences to users watching live events; people watching a wrestling match, for example, could be asked to participate in a poll about who is most likely to win, says Ron Jacoby, Yahoo's vice president of connected TV.
Gracenote, a start-up purchased by Sony Corp. that is known for a large database of information about music and videos, says it is going further. It combines computer-based analysis of sound clips with information it is compiling with human assistance about objects and people in movies and TV shows.
The technology it is announcing at CES, dubbed Entourage, could identify that a user is viewing a scene with a particular sports car, for example, and quickly serve up information about the car and how to buy it, says Stephen White, Gracenote's president.
Samsung is one of many TV makers adding new features to TVs in hopes of countering a steady drop in prices. It plans to add the voice-recognition capability in the first quarter to its Smart TVs. Boo-Keun Yoon, the president in charge of Samsung's TV business, wouldn't disclose pricing but estimated the new capability could add $300 to $500 to the cost of its TVs, depending on the model.
Don Clark / Jessica E. Vascellaro
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