Apple has been granted a patent (number 10,049,663) for an “intelligent automated assistant for media exploration” with the goal of making Siri better at finding music and videos you wish to listen to or watch.
In the patent filing, Apple notes that, when managing music or other media, a digital assistant can be helpful in searching for or playing back specific media, particularly in a hands-free environment. In particular, a digital assistant can respond effectively to a request to play a specific media item, such as an album or a song identified specifically by title or by artist.
However, digital assistants can struggle with discovering relevant media items based on vague open-ended natural language requests, such as, for example, a request to recommend a song or album. Apple wants to change this.
Here’s Apple’s summary of the invention: “Systems and processes for operating an intelligent automated assistant to explore media items are provided. In one example process, a speech input representing a request for one or more media items is received from a user. The process determines whether the speech input corresponds to a user intent of obtaining personalized recommendations for media items.
“In response to determining that the speech input corresponds to a user intent of obtaining personalized recommendations for media items, at least one media item is obtained from a user-specific corpus of media items. The user-specific corpus of media items is generate based on data associated with the user. The at least one media item is provided.”
Of course, Apple files for — and is granted — lots of patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Many are for inventions that never see the light of day. However, you never can tell which ones will materialize in a real product.
