OpenTV and Jinni To Offer Mood Search & Recommendation Television

OpenTV Corp., a leading software and technology provider of advanced digital television solutions, and Jinni, the developers of a unique personalized discovery engine for premium content, are bringing next generation search and recommendation functionality to the television that will allow viewers to find the content they want quickly and intuitively. The feature is expected to be part of the latest release of OpenTV Core2™ middleware which will be available in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Enhanced by Jinni technology, an innovative approach to analyzing video content by moods, plots, and generate recommendations based on a unique approach to modeling personal preferences, OpenTV Core2’s integrated search will allow viewers to find content across multiple sources as well as get programming recommendations based on personal tastes, taking the headache out of choosing what to watch on TV.

“This collaboration will change the way content is discovered on television,” said Tracy Geist, SVP of Business Development, OpenTV. “Jinni’s unique approach to search, discovery, and recommendations is the perfect complement to our middleware technology allowing consumers to easily find what they really ‘feel’ like watching. By integrating the Jinni technology with the integrated search features of our Core2 middleware, we’re enabling our customers to deliver a television-centric search product far beyond what is available today and we believe this unique capability will be an exciting differentiator for our customers as they define their consumer experience.”

“We’re thrilled to be bringing this functionality to the television with OpenTV,” said Mike Pohl, CEO of Jinni. “Finding a program you’ll like has always involved a lot of guesswork, people are reluctant to explore. Choosing what to watch should be fun! Taking into consideration the personal and emotional aspects of choosing a movie, by reflecting how people think and talk about what they watch, we’re making it easier for viewers to find the content they want without all the hassle.”

The OpenTV-Jinni mood-based functionality goes beyond basic search for programming titles viewers know they want to watch by providing choices based on what they feel like watching. If a viewer wishes to watch a “thrilling, film noir, dark comedy,” they can search for just that, without needing to recall exact movie titles as is the case with basic search implementations. Viewers can search directly for moods such as “funny,” “dark,” “suspenseful,” or “gripping,” removing the cumbersome middle step that often prevents people from using search. Viewers can also add moods to more common search strings such as “era,” “actor” or “genre”: for example, a viewer can search for a “1980s mystery” or a “suspenseful Tom Cruise” movie, making finding relevant choices even easier.

Other highlights of the OpenTV Core2 search solution include:

• Integrated Search: A functionality which goes beyond a simple “program title list” search allowing viewers to search all program information including synopsis, ratings and actor/actress information;
• Extended Search: Allowing for searches beyond the set-top box, by including on-line databases. This allows network operators to store vast amounts of content, without the overhead of having to update and communicate an entire inventory to the set-top box.
• Predictive Text Entry: A high-end search feature requires an easy and fast way to enter in search strings using a standard television remote.

Features of the solution will be showcased at IBC 2009 to be held next September 11-15 in Amsterdam, Hall 1 Booth C81, www.opentv.com/ibc2009. Follow OpenTV on Twitter @opentv_at_ibc.

About OpenTV
OpenTV is one of the world’s leading providers of advanced digital television solutions dedicated to creating and delivering compelling viewing experiences to consumers of digital content worldwide. The company’s software has been integrated in more than 133 million devices around the world, and enables advanced program guides, video-on-demand, personal video recording, interactive and addressable advertising and a variety of enhanced television applications. For more information, please visit www.opentv.com.

About Jinni
Jinni offers an innovative content discovery solution tailored for entertainment. Jinni's semantic search-and-recommendation engine is based on content genetics and user psychographics. With a taxonomy designed by film professionals, Jinni uses a proprietary Natural Language Processing technology to automatically index video titles by mood, story, etc., resulting in a superior user experience that increases content consumption over TV and Internet and reduces churn. To see our engine at work, visit www.jinni.com.

source: www.businesswire.com