One of the things we were most impressed by at CES, in terms of potential, was the ability of a Gracenote app to determine what a user was watching on TV in a matter of seconds, though at the time Gracenote said it was developing the app to sell to others not directly to consumers which seemed like it might be missing out on a significant market.
Testing out how big that market is will be IntoNow, which is basically a Shazam or SoundHound for TV. IntoNow is both a new startup and an iPhone app that launched this week and is able to recognize what show is currently being played on a TV set.
Using an algorithm to pattern-match a TV show’s audio, the app can match shows to their proper show title, episode title and season.
Instead of coming at this from the Shazam angle of discovering the content a user didn’t know the name of, IntoNow is aiming itself to be a service that shares information about the show in question and lets the user share that they are watching it. Currently, it allows couch spuds to share information across Facebook and Twitter.
Users set up an account and then hold their device near a TV. Pressing a green button will fill the screen with a colorful graph akin to those that demonstrate sound levels, and within 10 seconds the program is identified.
From there, users can:
- See basic show and cast information.
- Share their activity and thoughts via Twitter or Facebook.
- Post information on their IntoNow account.
- Look for the content on sale via iTunes.
- Check for the content’s availability on Netflix through their existing account.
- See related information provided by IMDb.
IntoNow said it sees itself as the link between friend and TV interactions. This connection includes friends on social networks and on IntoNow itself, which gives users a profile that aggregates their activity on the service. Users can also comment here similar to a Facebook wall.
Initial test shows the service identifying a lot of new primetime content. It recognized roughly 90% of what we tested from Hulu Plus and broadcast TV. When playing older content from Netflix, the service stumbled a bit more and was identifying around 70% of the content tested.
Behind the Scenes
The technology, called SoundPrint, monitors 130 channels of live TV, creating sound fingerprints of each shows episode. This is what is the app compares future audio against. As the service adds in new episode indexes, the time to identify content will increase. It is unclear whether or not the service will be able to immediately identify content that is premiering on TV when a user attempts to identify it.
And while this technology is initially being targeted to users, it’ll likely end up behind the scenes. While the company confirmed plans for an Android and WebOS app down the line, it has plans for an open API to allow third-party developers to integrate the service into their own apps.
Like Gracenote’s content ID systems, IntoNow will begin targeting STBs, Blu-ray players and smart TVs with its SoundPrint technology. The likely next step after that is more along the lines of a Yahoo play, extending it to identifying advertisements and shopping content, increasing engagement and hopefully opening wallets.
One thing about these services is that, for the time being, they’ll require both on-screen support and support of additional devices to reach all of their potential customers. Direct television access will secure users that don’t want any extra steps to get the full engagement in their content, while peripheral device support will allow the services to target multiple users in the same household at different points during the shows or commercials in question.
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