Recently, the topic of artificial intelligence has started to be actively discussed. The terms “neural networks” and “machine learning” have become familiar to a narrow circle of experts and the general public. New technologies began to be actively implementing in various devices – from smartphones to uncrewed cars. 

Progress has yet to bypass TV sets. Now, they even support live casino in India and online slot games. But why do they need artificial intelligence? What advantages can it bring to the average viewer? We will tell you about it in today’s article.

A brief history of the concept

The term “artificial intelligence” (AI) emerged in the mid-1950s, when the first primitive computers were built, which were inferior in computing power to modern washing machines. Alan Turing, a famous researcher of information technologies, argued that a device can be considered intelligent when it cannot be distinguished from a human in a conversation. And John McCarthy suggested that the main sign of artificial intelligence should be the ability to create.

Modern scientists believe that AI should be able to learn independently when performing repetitive tasks. It is the principle behind artificial neural networks, which became particularly widespread in the late 2010s. The machine’s learning ability produces correct results even when solving non-standard tasks.

Similar technologies are used to develop operating systems, create autopilots, predict economic indicators, and recognize people’s faces. What does this have to do with televisions? But artificial intelligence has applications in this field as well.

Picture quality

Manufacturers have been working for decades to improve their products. Electron-beam tubes have given way to liquid crystal panels and OLED matrices of microscopic LEDs. But even these technologies today have reached the ceiling of their development, at which it is no longer possible to improve image quality.

Realizing this, well-known companies focused on software development. One of the first results of their work was the automatic image scaling. The essence of the process is quite simple – the processor analyzes a low-resolution picture, breaks it down into its individual components and highlights textures. Then, it predicts how the same frame could look with a high level of detail and adds the necessary information. The image becomes sharper, more realistic and more pleasing to look at. It is essential for TVs over 60 inches.

  • Try “playing” with the settings, and you’ll see that action movies and cartoons look better at high brightness, but contrast and black saturation are essential for horror and noir. Why not entrust the choice of optimal parameters to electronics? Powerful processors of modern TV sets continuously analyze the frame’s content and adapt to the characteristics of the image. HDR technology is a further development of this function. It allows you to increase the brightness of individual parts of the frame dozens of times, making special effects even more impressive. With it, sunny landscapes of exotic beaches look exciting, and explosions and gunshots are frighteningly realistic.
  • Have you ever noticed the difference between Hollywood movies and TV series? The latter looks more practical due to smooth movements. It is because of the high frame rate – up to 60 frames per second versus 24. Artificial intelligence can work on this, too. If it is given two edges of a dynamic scene, it will “paint” intermediate pictures and smooth out angular movements. In many models, AI increases the refresh rate of the image up to 120-200 Hz.
  • When watching terrestrial TV and connecting to the Internet, interruptions in signal transmission may occur. Minimal interference can significantly distort the image by changing colours, reducing detail or cutting out certain parts altogether. To “work on errors”, manufacturers also use artificial intelligence. Comparing the image with a constantly updated database, it completes missing fragments, smooths out uneven lines, normalizes colour and removes white noise. This technology has proven itself in 4K TVs and the latest 8K models, ensuring flawless picture quality.

Smart TV and more

A TV that can connect to the Internet is no longer a rarity but a real mainstream. It provides access to many online cinemas, allowing you to watch your favourite movies and current news without preloading. If the operating system allows it, you can install various applications: social network clients and messengers for communication, a browser for reading exciting information, news services, etc.

Modern Smart TV is unthinkable without artificial intelligence technologies. You provide the AI with learning materials by watching movies and TV series, opening web pages, and entering data into the search bar. In a short time, it will offer you the most exciting content: current video blogs, educational videos, music videos of the right genre and much more. Thanks to this, everything you need can be found already on the start page.

Android TV and some other operating systems have a voice search function that relies on artificial intelligence technology. The AI recognizes individual words, filters out noise and compares what you say with the list of available commands. Thanks to this, you can find the movie you want, open a file from a USB drive or set an auto-off timer in seconds.

In this digital age, the problem of information security is particularly acute. In this regard, artificial intelligence becomes a kind of “security service” of a smart TV. It separates applications from viruses and recognizes hacker attacks, instantly isolating the device from malware. AI saves hundreds of thousands of users every year, not only from bad moods, but also from stealing money from bank accounts.

There is another direction of artificial intelligence work, which appeared relatively recently. Televisions have learned to convert ordinary stereo sound into multichannel sound, automatically separating conversations from background noise and special effects from musical accompaniment. It’s especially true when a high-end speaker system is connected to the device.

Conclusion

Artificial intelligence makes our TVs even smarter devices. It improves picture quality, eliminates interference, speeds up the search for exciting content and protects us from most dangers on the Internet. Therefore, it can be unequivocally stated that the future of TV is this technology.