Samsung See’N’Search to bring simpler Internet to TVs

Samsung today said it had developed a new technology that could effectively wipe out the need for a keyboard to provide real Internet access for TVs. Nicknamed See'N'Search, the technique not only finds metadata from the closed captioning found in many TV shows but also uses its own algorithm to study the picture itself for text and other information that reveals the content. It then automatically scours the Internet for videos and websites that relate to that content; users can simply use a remote to pick items from a list that appears automatically instead of typing out information.

The company also explains that the information is not isolated to the TV. Viewers who want to explore the information in more detail can broadcast the information over the local network to a computer, handheld, or phone as long as the device has both a connection and a web browser.

Samsung does not say when it expects to implement See'N'Search in shipping TVs, though it intends the technology to be used in set-top boxes; its newest 6- and 7-series LCD TVs include Ethernet and could use the feature themselves, though Samsung has not made it clear today that either series will receive See'N'Search as an option.

Filed under: gadgets, software, networking
Other story tags: Samsung