• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, March 2, 2016

Search on Sqoop, a directory for patents, SEC filings and federal cases, for "voice search" and you will find 136 filed or granted patents from companies such as Apple, AT&T, Google, Mitsubishi, Samsung, and Microsoft.

These companies are working to integrate artificial intelligence with voice search features that will allow a variety of services, from recognizing and learning from historic searches to reserving or purchasing a product without tapping one key.

Amazon on Tuesday announced the launch of a Batman vs. Superman voice-controlled game through Echo, a cylinder-shaped Bluetooth speaker with a virtual assistant named Alexa.

The audio adventure game, made in partnership with Warner Bros and DC Comics, allows users to investigate the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents. "Amazon’s personal assistant Alexa doubles as a user’s ears and eyes during this investigation, guiding them through multiple rooms, giving them choices and helping them to find valuable clues," reports Variety.

Voice controls the game, in which the player must make up to 37 decisions. Game time can run between five and 40 minutes. Can you imagine a tie-in with HoloLens, Microsoft's HoloLens, which the company describes as an "untethered, holographic computer" that creates high-definition holograms? Or the ability to verbally search for products and see the image in a hologram making the purchase?

Consumers may not have the ability to see the image in a hologram, but Amazon allows consumers make purchases through Echo with help from its virtual assistant Alexis. It's safe to assume Google and Microsoft want to do the same.

Data from Global Web Index shows that nearly one in five adults online have used voice-search features on their mobile device in the past month. Younger generations tend to gravitate toward voice search more often, with 25% of 16- to 24-year-olds vs. just 9% of 55- to-64-year-olds. Males also trend higher than females.

In fact, Microsoft updated a patent in January titled Voice-Directed Context Sensitive Visual Search described as a method to verbally search and render visual content from a video stream, a two-dimensional image, or a three-dimensional image.

Tomorrow, perhaps marketers will have the ability to change and alter campaigns through voice-activated advertising platforms. Can you imagine trying to optimize an advertising platform for brands and agencies?