Apple Patent Details Widgets For Televisions

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Home theater buffs, you’re definitely going to want to hear about this one, because I certainly got impressed by the idea. We all know how much the internet can help in our enjoyment of and fascination with movies–giving us cast lists on demand so we don’t get that irritating “Hey, is that (fill in the blank) from (that one show)?” effect, and things like that–but what if our televisions could do that automatically? That’s what Apple’s looking at, according to some recent patent docs. We’ve known about Apple TV for some time, but now, Apple’s going to kick it up a notch.

Filed under the title “Enhancing Media Content with Content-Aware Resources” (which sounds great no matter how you slice it), the concept calls for what some have wondered about for some time now, an Apple-branded television, powered by iOS, that can use the common web connection to serve up a variety of TV-based widgets. For instance, one such offering took a showing of the movie Jaws to provide you with a variety of extra content while watching, including the ability to fetch cast lists for the movie, get more information about sharks, or access social networking features to tell everybody you know, hey, I’m watching Jaws right now. It could also be effectively used for shows like American Idol–or in the patent example NBC’s The Voice–to vote for your favorite competitors.

Though this is being done already, on a much more limited scale, Apple’s looking to really enhance your time spent watching television by opening up the floodgates of possibility right alongside it, and by also making it available right in front of you. This represents one of the first such opportunities, and is pretty exciting. Naturally, since this is still at the patent level, when this will translate into a product you can go out and buy yourself is as yet unclear, but the concept is valid enough to be worth considering.

So what do you guys think of this? Do you like the thought of being able to access related content while watching a show or movie, or do you think this is just a little too much data too fast in too close a space? Data hogs and claustrophobes alike are welcome down in the comments section to give their word on this, as well as anyone else who feels like chiming in.