This article presents a research project carried out at the BT Mobility Research Center with the aim of developing appropriate applications for pervasive iTV, paying special attention to the personal and social contextual usage of this media within the entertainment, work, and government environments. It prospects a future trend in the use of pervasive interactive multimedia systems in future communications scenarios for mobile and pervasive iTV, that is, the use of handhelds as interfaces to extend and enhance the TV experience outside the home boundaries. The new scenarios discussed in this article are based on the assumption that mobile phones interconnected with other surrounding interfaces (e.g., iTV, PCs, PDAs, in-car-navigators, smart-house appliances, etc.), will be decisive in the creation of pervasive interactive multimedia systems. With its recent development into becoming an interactive system, TV seems to increasingly replace traditional “passive” TV platforms through active viewers-participation (Lamont & Afshan, 1999). Moreover, interactive television gives viewer the opportunity to extend their UX of television for activities that currently occur more typically on the Web (Steemers, 1998). These activities are consequent to the enhanced communication possibilities that have been enabled by new media: users can browse information, personalize their viewing choices, play interactive games, carry out e-commerce activities (shopping, banking, voting, etc.), and play increasingly active roles in broadcast programs (to the extent of interacting with other viewers).
Editorial for intelligent interactive multimedia systems and services