When the first Smart TV patent was obtained in 1994, it was awarded to French company “Fast France Advanced Systems.” Yet it wasn’t before the year 2007 that the first Smart TV, the HP Mediasmart TV (SL3760), truly came into fruition.
Your great-80 grandmother’s pound cathode ray tube television from the 1930s, to the ultra-light, unbelievably thin and crazily competent smart TV of today, is an incredible tale.
your great-old grandma’s cathode ray tube TV
While today’s televisions are equipped with a tuner, monitor, and speakers, back in the day they were all used to see and hear programs coming in via satellites or cable.
The CRT (or cathode ray tube) is a basic mechanical device that was created in the late 1920s and uses an outside antenna to collect transmissions from local television stations.
The introduction of color to broadcast television in the 1960s led to a tremendous rise in television’s popularity. Then, in the 1970s, Betamax, VHS, and DVDs were employed as display devices for recorded material.
First-generation video games and home computers grew popular in the 1980s, and the television was employed as an alternate display device.
It was in the early 2010s that LCD televisions were finally inexpensive enough to take over the industry, leading to a near complete takeover of the market.
The new cathodes were slimmer, lighter, and more powerful than their predecessors.
After then, the Internet was born.
During the Internet’s rapid surge in popularity in the early 2000s, TV makers realized they had to be on the cutting edge of technical innovation.
A wide range of devices—from phones to television sets—were being made smarter because of the infinite possibilities that were made possible by the internet.
What distinguishes a “smart” television from a “smart” one?
The internet (WiFi) and web functions of a computer and a normal TV are combined in a Smart TV. Among its many features include the ability to access material from a variety of different applications, to browse the internet, to watch movies and listen to music, and much more.
As a result of smart TVs’ integrated internet as well as sophisticated processing capabilities and connection, users have the freedom and dynamicity of using online power from their televisions.
Thus, these TVs enable users to execute apps that were downloaded from preferred platforms or sites and take full use of being linked to just about everything on the Internet.
You may use this to access a variety of entertainment alternatives, including video streaming services like Hulu and Netflix, as well as engaging with friends and family on social media and playing games.
TVs with built-in computers and set-top boxes are known as “smart TVs” (old method of converting video for digital or analog television).
In the Smart TV’s operating system, third-party developers utilize the Native Development Kit (NDK) and/or public SDK (SDK) to create programs that are subsequently made accessible to users through an app store.
Users may install and remove applications from their Smart TVs as they would on their smartphones, tablets, laptops, or computers once the device is linked to the internet.
A great number of Smart TV models now offer speech recognition capabilities, enabling the user to simply search programs, switch channels, navigate through an integrated smart home device to turn on/off lights, open/close doors, and much more.
Although Smart TVs provide a wealth of features, the technology is always changing, with both proprietary and open source frameworks available.
These frameworks may be used to execute apps, play media services, customize messages, and access social networking capabilities.
The Smart TV’s Evolution
Before the most recent advancements, Japan launched a “intelligent television receiver” in the early 1980s.
Televisions in Japan now have the ability to accept data sent through broadcast signals thanks to the addition of a character generator as well as an LSI chip with memory.
Data processing systems enabled Japan’s intelligent TV systems to download software routines from data networks.
But even though there had been previous inventions, the first ever patent for the Smart TV was awarded to a French corporation in 1994. However, the first Smart TV was manufactured by HP in 2007, its Mediasmart TV (SL3760).
This type was a high-definition LCD TV that could stream music and video files from a PC to the TV through wired or wireless connections.
This was followed by the PAVV Bordeaux 750 TV from Samsung in 2008.
HD and 1GB of preloaded books, games, and surfing were included in Samsung’s innovative Smart TV.
The user was able to access Naver, Korea’s biggest news and stock information site, and YouTube videos by connecting the TV through USB adaptor or Ethernet.
Despite this, Samsung’s first Smart TV was only released in Korea.
It wasn’t long before the Smart TV became a household name.
Samsung’s Smart TV D8000 was introduced in 2011 and included a smart hub, social networking, smart search, and video on demand.
Later, in 2012, Samsung debuted the Smart TV ES800, which had voice and motion controls, as well as AllShare Play technology (users may save stuff from their smart devices in the cloud through web storage).
The design and performance of the Smart TV have greatly improved since the first models were released.
There was no limit to what might be done with the infinite resources of the Internet and Smart TVs.
It was only a matter of time until other major TV makers rushed to follow Samsung’s example and build state-of-the art Smart TVs.
It’s now Sony, LG, and Panasonic vying for Samsung’s TV market share.
Advanced Control and Evolution Kit were added to the Smart Hub in 2013 to further enhance Samsung’s Smart TV.
In addition to the Evolution Kit, the Advanced Control feature is a more advanced version of the speech recognition capability, which enables the Smart TV to now interpret spoken instructions..
In order to stay up with the times and take use of the endless information available on the internet, Samsung continues to create and develop more versatile and ingenius Smart TV models.
Smart TVs are becoming commonplace
Sony unveiled its first Bravia Android TV in May of that year. For services like YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu, this paradigm enabled customers to access material via the internet.
Apps and games from Google’s Play Store were also available for download on this tablet.
First of its type, Sony’s Android TV went on sale in the market.
Integration with Google Assistant for voice command recognition and control of home automation has been added recently.
There are other Smart TV models from LG and Panasonic with motion controls, voice interaction and smart home connectivity..
The first HDR-capable 4K OLED TV was released by LG in 2015, followed by the flagship LG Signature OLED TV.
Additionally, LG emphasized on its capacity to disable individual pixels, which resulted in clearer, crisper visuals, in the design of its Smart TV.
Panasonic, on the other hand, was able to design a more user-friendly and flexible TV User Interface thanks to its cooperation with Mozilla Firefox.
To provide a personalized and connected online experience, Panasonic Smart TVs employ the Firefox OS. Regardless matter whatever brand of device a user has, they may sync their favorite applications, websites, photographs, and videos across all of them.
Smart TVs are compatible with Google and Alexa.
Recent years have seen a rise in the number of TV makers forming partnerships with tech giants like Google and Amazon.
To guarantee that Google Home and Amazon Alexa (the voice-controlled assistants) have access to your home, Smart TV makers have integrated their devices with these two companies.
These voice assistants, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, are now the main focus of Smart TV development.
With these smart hubs, customers can control their televisions and other smart devices with their voice.
In light of its ever-expanding capabilities, it’s impossible to predict what Smart TVs may be able to give us next.