From ‘Flow' to ‘Database'

This chapter compares several basic statistical indicators of broadcast (traditional) television viewing and Internet protocol television (IPTV) use in Estonia and show how the structural difference between the two types of television results in different consumption models. The main conclusion is that the structure of the content to a large extent determines the uses of media. Flow-type media (broadcast television) appears to support routine and unconscious media use, while the use of database-like media (Internet television) could be characterised as being more purposeful and conscious. The study opens new perspectives on audience research and might be inspiring for further research and analyses focussing in detail on the use of IPTV.

Long-Term Interaction

This chapter introduces the application of concepts for long-term interaction to support long-term relationship in the interactive television (iTV) domain. While classical interaction concepts cover short-term interaction cycles only, theoretical models for long-term interaction and relationships deal with time periods exceeding the human short-term working memory. The user must be supported by memory cues to resume interrupted long-term interactions immediately. The iTV domain offers many long-term interaction scenarios in the context of establishing long-term relationships of recipients and broadcasters. The authors adopt concepts for long-term interaction towards iTV and develop a basic classification of long-term interaction. Three scenarios within the iTV domain illustrate the potential impact for the design of iTV applications.

An Approach for Delivering Personalized Advertisements in Interactive TV Customized to Both Users and Advertisers

n this chapter, we present a model for delivering personalized ads to users while they are watching TV shows. Our approach is to model user preferences, based on characterizing not only the keywords of primary interest but also the relative weighting of those keywords. We combine the results of two separate agents: TV Monitoring Agent (TMA) tracks the kind of shows being watched by the user, for how long, and on what days; Internet Monitoring Agent (IMA) captures the keywords of interest to the user, based on browsing activity. The conclusions reached by these two agents are merged into one representation, compared to a characterization of possible ads to be delivered, and adjusted to fit into required time slots. We consider as well the case of providing ads for an entire household of users, making use of the collection of individual profiles. We discuss how our approach results not only benefit users but also the benefit to advertisers.

Getting the Big Picture on Small Screens

This chapter provides an overview of the key factors that influence the quality of experience (QoE) of mobile TV services. It compiles the current knowledge from empirical studies and recommendations on four key requirements for the uptake of mobile TV services: (1) handset usability and its acceptance by the user, (2) the technical performance and reliability of the service, (3) the usability of the mobile TV service (depending on the delivery of content), and (4) the satisfaction with the content. It illustrates a number of factors that contribute to these requirements ranging from the context of use to the size of the display and the displayed content. The chapter highlights the interdependencies between these factors during the delivery of content in mobile TV services to a heterogeneous set of low resolution devices.

Text Editing in Digital Terrestrial Television

This chapter introduces the usability problems regarding text entry using a remote control in digital terrestrial television (DTT) context. It describes the comparison of three different text editing interfaces: (1) the multi-press with timeout, (2) the multi-press with timeout and visual feedback, and (3) the virtual keyboard interface. This chapter describes a test based on a within-group design: The authors analyse the efficiency, the effectiveness, and the user’s satisfaction of the three interfaces mentioned previously. The study shows a significant relationship between the users’ level of experience in text editing using a mobile phone and their favourite interface. Moreover, the analysis demonstrates that there is no relationship between users’ level of experience and the editing problems they encountered. The authors hope that this study will help interactive application developers in designing usable interfaces for text entry using a remote control.

The Use of ‘Stalking Horse' Evaluation Prototypes for Probing DTV Accessibility Requirements

This chapter describes a technique that utilises established usability evaluation techniques to discover a range of accessibility requirements for digital TV (DTV) viewers with low vision. A study was reported in which two “stalking horse” prototype conditions were tried by subjects performing interactive tasks. These prototypes were not developed technologies but Wizard-of-Oz style conditions. In one condition subjects were asked to use gestures to interact with DTV services, with the screen responding to their hand movements. The other condition used a static keyboard display placed on the table in front of them. Their role was both to probe the efficacy of these approaches and to prompt rich information relating to the subjects abilities, lifestyles, and strategies for interaction. The reported study analyses four viewers with differing types of sight impairment. .The reported study was successful in yielding both general concerns about current approaches to DTV display and interactivity design as well as giving significant insights into the possible potential of and difficulties with alternative input methods. The sessions yielded numerous critical incidents, examples of which are reported and analysed. The format also yielded key insights into the way in which individual viewers compensate for diminished vision by using alternative skills such as touch-typing and alternative sensory signals, inductive reasoning and heuristics. The significance of these insights for DTV design and accessibility support is then discussed.

A Hybrid Strategy to Personalize the Digital Television by Semantic Inference

The digital TV (DTV) will bring a significant increase in the number of channels and programs available to end users, with many more difficulties for them to find interesting programs among a myriad of irrelevant contents. So, automatic content recommenders should receive special attention in the following years to improve the assistance to users. However, current techniques of content recommenders have important well-known deficiencies, which complicates their wide acceptance. In this paper, a new hybrid approach for automatic TV content recommendation is proposed based on the so-called Semantic Web technologies, that significantly reduces those deficiencies. The strategy uses ontology data structures as a formal representation both for contents and users’ profiles. The approach has been implemented in the AdVAnced Telematics search of Audiovisual contents by semantic Reasoning (AVATAR) tool, a new TV recommender system that makes extensive use of well-known standards, such as TV-Anytime and Web ontology language (OWL). Also, an illustrative example of the kind of reasoning carried out by AVATAR is included, as well as an experimental evaluation of the performance achieved.

Belgian Advertisers' Perceptions of Interactive Digital TV as a Marketing Communication Tool

This chapter investigates the knowledge, perceptions, and intentions of advertising professionals in Belgium toward the introduction and use of interactive digital television (IDTV) as a marketing communication tool. In total, 320 marketing professionals cooperated in a Web survey that was posted just before the commercial launch of IDTV in Belgium. The results show that their knowledge concerning the possibilities of advertising on IDTV is very limited, but their intentions to use IDTV in the future are relatively promising. Among the major perceived advantages of the medium are the possibility to provide more product information, two-way communication with the consumer, and the ability to target the audience more specifically. The major perceived disadvantages of the medium are the general lack experience of using it, the low adoption of IDTV by the end user, and the high cost for the advertiser.

Proven Interaction Design Solutions for Accessing and Viewing Interactive TV Content Items

This chapter describes interaction design solutions for interactive television (iTV) applications. A user task-based approach to interaction design guidance for iTV applications is suggested to easily integrate with a user-centred application development process. Based on the analysis of existing applications, several generic, iTV-specific user tasks are presented. For these user tasks, proven interaction design solutions were empirically identified by usability testing eight broadcasted applications. Specific design solutions to support the user tasks accessing content item and viewing content item are described. Usability test results and design guidance on the design of menus, video multi-screens, indexes, content presentation areas, paging, and scrolling are presented. Target audiences of this chapter are the iTV user interface designers and usability researchers.

Analysis and Development of an MHP Application for Live Event Broadcasting and Video Conferencing

This chapter will introduce a technology framework that can be used to add video conferencing services and live video events on the multimedia home platform (MHP). The solution is based on a bridge between Internet protocol (IP)-networks and digital video broadcasting (DVB) channels in order to stream video that originates from an IP network into the broadcast. The introduction of (iDTV) is completely changing the user experience of television in the living room. In our opinion, the iTV infrastructure lends itself perfectly to support live event broadcasting and video conferencing, both enriched with interactive applications. These services have a vast application domain which includes plain video conferencing but also video surveillance, t-learning, t-health, and user-centric content services. The objective of the framework is to provide basic functionality to the service provider to create these and other innovate services.