Total Cinema: Or, “What is VR?" Senses of cinema

In the late 1980s, throughout the ‘90s, and well into the 2000s, MIT Principle Research Scientist, Gloriana Davenport investigated the idea that movies had begun to operate as a kind of new “elastic” media. She wrote, “Interactive cinema reflects the longing of cinema to become something new, something more complex, something more intimate, as if in conversation with an audience.” The cultural artefacts informing this shift were in Davenport’s opinion as disparate as interactive TV, video games, large format simulation rides, and experimental VR. Between 1987 and 2004, her Interactive Cinema Lab at MIT designed multi-threaded movies, multiplayer VR experiences, previsualization tools for visual effects, documentary platforms, and “smart” VR characters driven by story databases. When asked in a 1995 interview with American Cinematographer, what kind of filmmaker would adopt the radical new tools she was building, Davenport replied that the current generation of 30-year old filmmakers steeped in the culture of video games were already deploying them.

Total Cinema: Or, “What is VR?" Senses of cinema

In the late 1980s, throughout the ‘90s, and well into the 2000s, MIT Principle Research Scientist, Gloriana Davenport investigated the idea that movies had begun to operate as a kind of new “elastic” media. She wrote, “Interactive cinema reflects the longing of cinema to become something new, something more complex, something more intimate, as if in conversation with an audience.” The cultural artefacts informing this shift were in Davenport’s opinion as disparate as interactive TV, video games, large format simulation rides, and experimental VR. Between 1987 and 2004, her Interactive Cinema Lab at MIT designed multi-threaded movies, multiplayer VR experiences, previsualization tools for visual effects, documentary platforms, and “smart” VR characters driven by story databases. When asked in a 1995 interview with American Cinematographer, what kind of filmmaker would adopt the radical new tools she was building, Davenport replied that the current generation of 30-year old filmmakers steeped in the culture of video games were already deploying them.

Interactive TV as Part of Crossmedia Systems in Order to Enhance Informal Learning

Crossmedia systems are becoming the trend due to technological advances, better interfaces design, and changes in user habits. Due to the use of different devices as part of the same crossmedia system, which allow supporting a multiplicity of contexts of use, useful when considering learning scenarios, new research opportunities and challenges have arisen in the design of these systems. This chapter addresses the effective design of crossmedia systems and interfaces with a particular emphasis on iTV, PC, and mobile devices, through the eiTV application, designed and developed to illustrate and explore this paradigm, based on cognitive and affective aspects that influence user experience. The eiTV application is capable to create, access, and share personalized informal learning environments (created as additional information to the video being watched), via iTV, PC, and mobile devices (the preferred or most adequate device in each context of use).

Foreign Languages Learning

This chapter examines which capabilities of interactive TV can be used to enhance the foreign languages learning experience in children and adolescents. In modern English language courses, interactive whiteboard software and interactive e-books provide several multimedia capabilities, whose relative transition in their iTV version can be of great benefit for students. The possible changes that the educational process may undergo due to the use of interactive TV in the light of the blended learning model, as well as the expected benefits of this transition are discussed in this chapter. It also examines how beneficial the use of iTV functions as a support process in the traditional classroom model would be and if it is feasible to use it autonomously entirely for the learning process, considering the specificities of the age group under consideration.

Interactive TV

As the eSports community is growing worldwide, a new modality of interactive television programme dedicated to it is also gaining momentum. eSports' primary purpose was purely recreational, but nowadays, it can be considered as an alternative form of competitive gaming with well-developed infrastructure and a vast number of members and followers. Even at its early stage, followers detached the physical presence at the tournaments from their other activities (socializing, etc.) as they were offered an alternate mean of communication via dedicated video streams. Soon after, an interactive TV eSports programme was introduced making a logical leap towards globalizing. The number of viewers/followers of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Dota2, or Starcraft 2 tournaments is increasing daily, so the specialized TV programmes are providing its content accordingly. This chapter reviews the current trends in eSports community through the prism of interactive TV broadcast and analyzes it future potential.