Offering the Subtitles Before You Ask Adding a Useful Follow Up to a Voice Search

This application covers systems and methods for executing a supplemental function in response to a natural language query, so that a voice assistant searching for media does something additionally useful rather than answering and stopping. The applicant is Rovi Guides, Inc., part of the intellectual property group now known as Adeia.

The Problem

Ask a television voice assistant to find a film and it finds the film. That is the whole interaction. The specification describes conventional conversation systems as configured to respond to a user’s natural language query with results, such as media assets of interest, and little else.

Some systems add pleasantries. A generic pre-programmed response such as “Thank you” or “Good-bye”, or a time based one such as “Good Morning” or “Good Evening”. These are decoration. They are not responsive to what the user asked, they carry no information, and they do not help anyone do anything.

Meanwhile the query itself often reveals something actionable that goes unused. The worked example in the specification is a request to find the Korean film Oldboy. The system answers that Oldboy is available on demand, and there the interaction ends, even though a viewer searching for a Korean language film by name is fairly likely to want English subtitles. The information needed to offer that is already present in the query and the metadata, and the system does nothing with it.

What This Invention Does

The system executes a supplemental function derived from the query rather than a canned response. In the disclosed example, after answering that the film is available, the interface adds that the movie also has English subtitles available and presents a “Watch with English Subtitles” option the user can act on directly.

The inference chain is short and specific. The query names a film in a language other than the user’s; that combination implies a likely need; the metadata confirms subtitles exist; so the system surfaces the subtitle option as an executable action rather than leaving the user to find it in a settings menu after playback starts.

That is a different design stance to a recommendation engine. Recommendations suggest other content. A supplemental function acts on the content already requested, changing how it will be delivered. The claims cover determining that a supplemental function is appropriate given the query and its context, and executing it or offering it alongside the primary result.

Key Features

• Query derived supplemental function. The additional action is inferred from the specific query, not selected from pre-programmed responses.
• Beyond generic conversational filler. The disclosure explicitly distinguishes this from time based or generic pre-programmed replies.
• Metadata driven inference. Attributes of the requested media, such as available subtitle tracks, inform what supplemental function applies.
• Actionable interface element. The supplemental function is presented as a selectable option, such as watching with English subtitles.
• Applies to the requested content. The function modifies delivery of what the user asked for rather than suggesting alternatives.
• Natural language conversation context. The system operates within a conversational media search interface.

Who Is Behind It

Rovi Guides traces back to the electronic programme guide businesses that consolidated through Gemstar, TV Guide and Rovi, and later merged with TiVo. The resulting group separated in 2022, with the intellectual property licensing business becoming Adeia and the product business retaining the TiVo name. Rovi Guides holds a large portfolio covering media search, discovery and interactive programme guides, licensed widely across the television and streaming industry.

The named inventors are Sashikumar Venkataraman and Ahmed Nizam P. Mohaideen. The application is a divisional of Australian application 2017302604, the national phase entry of PCT/US2017/044302, claiming priority from United States application 15/223,150 filed on 29 July 2016.

Why It Matters

The 2016 priority date places this at the point when voice control was arriving on televisions and set top boxes in earnest, and when the gap between what those systems could do and what people expected became obvious. A voice assistant that answers exactly the literal question and nothing more feels less capable than the conversation it appears to be having.

The subtitle example is well chosen because it captures a real friction. Someone who wants subtitles on a foreign language film usually discovers this after starting playback, then navigates a menu while the film runs. Anticipating it at the point of search removes several steps and a small irritation, and small irritations in television interfaces compound because the interaction happens constantly.

Rovi’s portfolio position is worth understanding. Adeia does not build the products; it licenses patents to companies that do, and interface behaviours in media search are exactly the territory it covers. A divisional filed in Australia in 2026 on a 2016 priority reflects the long horizons of that business, where value is realised through licensing over the full patent term.

Related Concepts

• Natural language processing – the technology that interprets the spoken query.
• Virtual assistant – the interface category this behaviour belongs to.
• Subtitles – the specific supplemental function used as the worked example.
• Electronic program guide – the product lineage behind the applicant’s portfolio.
• Recommender system – the adjacent approach that suggests content rather than modifying delivery.
• Adeia – the licensing group that now holds this patent family.

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AU 2026202079 was published in the Australian Official Journal of Patents on 9 April 2026 and is open for public inspection. Patent applications represent inventions that are sought to be protected and do not necessarily reflect commercially available products.