Systems and processes are disclosed for controlling television user interactions using a virtual assistant. In an example process, a virtual assistant can interact with a television set-top box to control content shown on a television display. Speech input for the virtual assistant can be received from a device with a microphone. The speech input can comprise a query associated with content shown on the television display. A user intent of the query can be determined based on one or more of the content shown on the television display and a viewing history of media content. A result of the query can be caused to be displayed based on the determined user intent.

Novel tools and techniques are provided for scene aware searching. A system may include a media player configured to play a video stream, a database, and a server configured to host an artificial intelligence (AI) engine. The server may further include a processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a set of instructions that, when executable by the processor to receive, from the media device, a search query from a user. The AI engine may further be configured to obtain the video stream associated with the search query, identify one or more objects in the video stream, derive contextual data associated with the one or more objects, identify one or more matches based on the contextual data, and determine a result of the search query.

Systems and methods are described herein for providing a search result based on an ambiguous voice query. The system comprises receiving an ambiguous voice query relating to an object from a user, retrieving a viewing history of the user for about a list of media assets viewed by the user, determining, from the list of media asset, a media asset that is likely to contain the object based at least in part on metadata of the media asset and the ambiguous voice query, searching content of the determined media asset to identify a segment within the media asset that contains the object, and generating a display of information about the object identified from the segment.

A method and apparatus for performing an integrated search is provided. An interface is provided that allows users to search and select any data related to a searchable term. Searchable terms may comprise titles of content, actors, and tags. Upon receiving results from the initial search, the user progresses through the initial search by selecting a result from the initial search and conducting a further search of that selection. The search may progress through many layers of searching in order to find information useful to the user and the user may perform actions based upon results of the search. The search implements a display with two columns, the first column displaying selectable data, and the second column displaying results to the selected data. The search is further customizable based upon a privacy level selected by the user.

Systems and methods for efficiently loading interactive media guide data based on user history are provided. A plurality of asset descriptions associated with a first media asset is received. A second media asset related to the first media asset is identified. An asset description is selected form the plurality of asset descriptions based on user history of accessing the second media asset. Data for the first media asset is loaded. Data for the first media asset comprises the selected asset description.

A system for a video sharing service for inmates in correctional facilities is disclosed. The system includes an inmate device of an inmate, a database storing inmate profiles, and a video sharing server configured to receive a registration request from the inmate device for registration of an inmate for the video sharing service, the registration request including user credentials of the inmate, retrieve an inmate profile of the inmate from the database, authenticate the inmate based on the user credentials and the inmate profile, create an account for the inmate for the video sharing service in response to authentication of the inmate, receive an upload request to upload a video from the inmate device, analyze the video for restricted content, and assign a rating to the video based on the analysis.

Methods, Systems, and Apparatuses are described to implement voice search in media content for requesting media content of a video clip of a scene contained in the media content streamed to the client device; for capturing the voice request for the media content of the video clip to display at the client device wherein the streamed media content is a selected video streamed from a video source; for applying a NLP solution to convert the voice request to text for matching to a set of one or more words contained in at least close caption text of the selected video; for associating matched words to close caption text with a start index and an end index of the video clip contained in the selected video; and for streaming the video clip to the client device based on the start index and the end index associated with matched closed caption text.

Methods and apparatus for generating personalized menus and a media content interface are provided. In one example, different device specific media asset lists are generated at different user devices for the same user based on the media consumption history at each device. In another example, media asset listings are displayed for multicast and on-demand media assets determined to be of interest to the user. An on-demand media asset is listed at a time when no other multicast media assets are listed. In another example, media asset listings for successive episodes of a media series are displayed in sequential order in response to an input to view successive episodes of a media series. In another example, a text search for media content is performed in which the search priority of media provider results is decreased relative to the search priority of media asset results as additional characters are added to a search string.

A system may perform operations including displaying a graphical user interface (GUI) for recording a video on a display screen of a user device, wherein the GUI comprises a plurality of features, including a prompt screen; displaying a content prompt on the prompt screen, wherein the prompt screen may be disposed on the GUI proximate to an edge of the GUI; displaying a video playback screen, which is one of the plurality of features, configured to display visual information in real time captured through a camera, wherein the prompt screen may be disposed at least partially within the video playback screen; and/or recording a video clip during the displaying the content prompt, wherein the content prompt comprises at least one of a text or an image configured to solicit at least one of a desired reaction or a desired information from a user during the recording of the video clip.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for distributing content are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes storing, in a data structure, data specifying a future live event. An opportunity to provide the specified content to a user at a user device is identified. It is determined that (i) a time of the opportunity is between a start time and an end time for the live event, (ii) that a user device is located in a same geographic region as the live event based on geographical data provided by the user device, and (iii) the user is interested in the live event based on attributes of the user matching attributes of other users that were identified as interested in the live event (e.g., based on evaluation of online search data). The content is provided for display at the user device.