Interactive television

Digital TV set-top box

Interactive television (also known as ITV or iTV) is a form of media convergence, adding data services to traditional television technology. Throughout its history, these have included on-demand delivery of content, as well as new uses such as online shopping, banking, and so forth. Interactive TV is a concrete example of how new information technology can be integrated vertically (into established technologies and commercial structures) rather than laterally (creating new production opportunities outside of existing commercial structures, e.g. the world wide web).[1]

Definitions

Interactive television represents a continuum from low (TV on/off, volume, changing channels) to moderate interactivity (simple movies on demand without player controls) and high interactivity in which, for example, an audience member affects the program being watched. The most obvious example of this would be any kind of real-time voting on the screen, in which audience votes create decisions that are reflected in how the show continues. A return path to the program provider is not necessary to have an interactive program experience. Once a movie is downloaded for example, controls may all be local. The link was needed to download the program, but texts and software which can be executed locally at the set-top box or IRD (Integrated Receiver Decoder) may occur automatically, once the viewer enters the channel.

History

The first patent of interactive connected TV was registered in 1994, carried on 1995 in the USA.[2][3] It clearly expose this new interactive technology with content feeding and feedback through global networking. User identification allows interacting and purchasing.

Return path

The viewer must be able to alter the viewing experience (e.g. choose which angle to watch a football match), or return information to the broadcaster.

This "return path," return channel or "back channel" can be by telephone, mobile SMS (text messages), radio, digital subscriber lines (ADSL) or cable.

Cable TV viewers receive their programs via a cable, and in the integrated cable return path enabled platforms, they use the same cable as a return path.

Satellite viewers (mostly) return information to the broadcaster via their regular telephone lines. They are charged for this service on their regular telephone bill. An Internet connection via ADSL, or other, data communications technology, is also being increasingly used.

Interactive TV can also be delivered via a terrestrial aerial (Digital Terrestrial TV such as 'Freeview' in the UK). In this case, there is often no 'return path' as such - so data cannot be sent back to the broadcaster (so you could not, for instance, vote on a TV show, or order a product sample). However, interactivity is still possible as there is still the opportunity to interact with an application which is broadcast and downloaded to the set-top box (so you could still choose camera angles, play games etc.).

Increasingly the return path is becoming a broadband IP connection, and some hybrid receivers are now capable of displaying video from either the IP connection or from traditional tuners. Some devices are now dedicated to displaying video only from the IP channel, which has given rise to IPTV - Internet Protocol Television. The rise of the "broadband return path" has given new relevance to Interactive TV, as it opens up the need to interact with Video on Demand servers, advertisers, and web site operators.

Forms of interaction

The term "interactive television" is used to refer to a variety of rather different kinds of interactivity (both as to usage and as to technology), and this can lead to considerable misunderstanding. At least three very different levels are important (see also the instructional video literature which has described levels of interactivity in computer-based instruction which will look very much like tomorrow's interactive television):

Interactivity with a TV set

The simplest, Interactivity with a TV set is already very common, starting with the use of the remote control to enable channel surfing behaviors, and evolving to include video-on-demand, VCR-like pause, rewind, and fast forward, and DVRs, commercial skipping and the like. It does not change any content or its inherent linearity, only how users control the viewing of that content. DVRs allow users to time shift content in a way that is impractical with VHS. Though this form of interactive TV is not insignificant, critics claim that saying that using a remote control to turn TV sets on and off makes television interactive is like saying turning the pages of a book makes the book interactive.

In the not too distant future, the questioning of what is real interaction with the TV will be difficult. Panasonic already has face recognition technology implemented its prototype Panasonic Life Wall. The Life Wall is literally a wall in your house that doubles as a screen. Panasonic uses their face recognition technology to follow the viewer around the room, adjusting its screen size according to the viewers distance from the wall. Its goal is to give the viewer the best seat in the house, regardless of location. The concept was released at Panasonic Consumer Electronics Show in 2008. Its anticipated release date is unknown, but it can be assumed technology like this will not remain hidden for long.[4]

Interactivity with TV program content

In its deepest sense, Interactivity with normal TV program content is the one that is "interactive TV", but it is also the most challenging to produce. This is the idea that the program, itself, might change based on viewer input. Advanced forms, which still have uncertain prospect for becoming mainstream, include dramas where viewers get to choose or influence plot details and endings.

Simpler forms, which are enjoying some success, include programs that directly incorporate polls, questions, comments, and other forms of (virtual) audience response back into the show. One example would be Australian media producer Yahoo!7's Fango mobile app, which allows viewers to access program-related polls, discussion groups and (in some cases) input into live programming. During the 2012 Australian Open viewers used the app to suggest questions for commentator Jim Courier to ask players in post-match interviews.[5]

There is much debate as to how effective and popular this kind of truly interactive TV can be. It seems likely that some forms of it will be popular, but that viewing of pre-defined content, with a scripted narrative arc, will remain a major part of the TV experience indefinitely. The United States lags far behind the rest of the developed world in its deployment of interactive television. This is a direct response to the fact that commercial television in the U.S. is not controlled by the government, whereas the vast majority of other countries' television systems are controlled by the government. These "centrally planned" television systems are made interactive by fiat, whereas in the U.S., only some members of the Public Broadcasting System has this capability.

Commercial broadcasters and other content providers serving the US market are constrained from adopting advanced interactive technologies because they must serve the desires of their customers, earn a level of return on investment for their investors, and are dependent on the penetration of interactive technology into viewers' homes. In association with many factors such as

Interactivity with TV-related content

The least understood, Interactivity with TV related content may have most promise to alter how we watch TV over the next decade. Examples include getting more information about what is on the TV, weather, sports, movies, news, or the like.

Similar (and most likely to pay the bills), getting more information about what is being advertised, and the ability to buy it—(after futuristic innovators make it) is called "tcommerce" (short for "television commerce"). Partial steps in this direction are already becoming a mass phenomenon, as Web sites and mobile phone services coordinate with TV programs (note: this type of interactive TV is currently being called "participation TV" and GSN and TBS are proponents of it). This kind of multitasking is already happening on large scale—but there is currently little or no automated support for relating that secondary interaction to what is on the TV compared to other forms of interactive TV. Others argue that this is more a "web-enhanced" television viewing than interactive TV. In the coming months and years, there will be no need to have both a computer and a TV set for interactive television as the interactive content will be built into the system via the next generation of set-top boxes. However, set-top-boxes have yet to get a strong foothold in American households as price (pay per service pricing model) and lack of interactive content have failed to justify their cost.

One individual who is working to radically disrupt this field is Michael McCarty, who is the Founder and CEO of a new wave of interactive TV products that will be hitting the market in early 2013. As he suggested in his presentation to the "Community for Interactive Media", "Static media is on its way out, and if Networks would like to stay in the game, they must adapt to consumers needs."

Many think of interactive TV primarily in terms of "one-screen" forms that involve interaction on the TV screen, using the remote control, but there is another significant form of interactive TV that makes use of Two-Screen Solutions, such as NanoGaming . In this case, the second screen is typically a PC (personal computer) connected to a Web site application. Web applications may be synchronized with the TV broadcast, or be regular websites that provide supplementary content to the live broadcast, either in the form of information, or as interactive game or program. Some two-screen applications allow for interaction from a mobile device (phone or PDA), that run "in synch" with the show.

Such services are sometimes called "Enhanced TV," but this term is in decline, being seen as anachronistic and misused occasionally. (Note: "Enhanced TV" originated in the mid-late 1990s as a term that some hoped would replace the umbrella term of "interactive TV" due to the negative associations "interactive TV" carried because of the way companies and the news media over-hyped its potential in the early 90's.)

Notable Two-Screen Solutions have been offered for specific popular programs by many US broadcast TV networks. Today, two-screen interactive TV is called either 2-screen (for short) or "Synchronized TV" and is widely deployed around the US by national broadcasters with the help of technology offerings from certain companies. The first such application was Chat Television™ (ChatTV.com), originally developed in 1996. The system synchronized online services with television broadcasts, grouping users by time-zone and program so that all real time viewers could participate in a chat or interactive gathering during the show’s airing.[6]

One-screen interactive TV generally requires special support in the set-top box, but Two-Screen Solutions, synchronized interactive TV applications generally do not, relying instead on Internet or mobile phone servers to coordinate with the TV and are most often free to the user. Developments from 2006 onwards indicate that the mobile phone can be used for seamless authentication through Bluetooth, explicit authentication through Near Field Communication. Through such an authentication it will be possible to provide personalized services to the mobile phone.

Interactive TV services

Notable interactive TV services are:

Closed-circuit Interactive television

Television sets can also be used as computer displays or for video games.

User interaction

Interactive TV has been described in human-computer interaction research as "lean back" interaction,[7] as users are typically relaxing in the living room environment with a remote control in one hand. This is a very simplistic definition of interactive television that is less and less descriptive of interactive television services that are in various stages of market introduction. This is in contrast to the descriptor of personal computer-oriented "lean forward" experience of a keyboard, mouse and monitor. This description is becoming more distracting than useful as video game users, for example, don't lean forward while they are playing video games on their television sets, a precursor to interactive TV. A more useful mechanism for categorizing the differences between PC and TV based user interaction is by measuring the distance the user is from the Device. Typically a TV viewer is "leaning back" in their sofa, using only a Remote Control as a means of interaction. While a PC user is 2 ft or 3 ft (60 or 100 cm) from his high resolution screen using a mouse and keyboard. The demands of distance, and user input devices, requires the application's look and feel to be designed differently. Thus Interactive TV applications are often designed for the "10-foot user interface" while PC applications and web pages are designed for the "3ft user experience". This style of interface design rather than the "lean back or lean forward" model is what truly distinguishes Interactive TV from the web or PC.[8] However even this mechanism is changing because there is at least one web-based service which allows you to watch internet television on a PC with a wireless remote control.

In the case of Two-Screen Solutions Interactive TV, the distinctions of "lean-back" and "lean-forward" interaction become more and more indistinguishable. There has been a growing proclivity to media multitasking, in which multiple media devices are used simultaneously (especially among younger viewers). This has increased interest in two-screen services, and is creating a new level of multitasking in interactive TV. In addition, video is now ubiquitous on the web, so research can now be done to see if there is anything left to the notion of "lean back" "versus" "lean forward" uses of interactive television.

For one-screen services, interactivity is supplied by the manipulation of the API of the particular software installed on a set-top box, referred to as 'middleware' due to its intermediary position in the operating environment. Software programs are broadcast to the set-top box in a 'carousel'.

On UK DTT (Freeview uses ETSI based MHEG-5), and Sky's DTH platform uses ETSI based WTVML in DVB-MHP systems and for OCAP, this is a DSM-CC Object Carousel.

The set-top box can then load and execute the application. In the UK this is typically done by a viewer pressing a "trigger" button on their remote control (e.g. the red button, as in "press red").

Interactive TV Sites have the requirement to deliver interactivity directly from internet servers, and therefore need the set-top box's middleware to support some sort of TV Browser, content translation system or content rendering system. Middleware examples like Liberate are based on a version of HTML/JavaScript and have rendering capabilities built in, while others such as OpenTV and DVB-MHP can load microbrowsers and applications to deliver content from TV Sites. In October 2008, the ITU's J.201 paper on interoperability of TV Sites recommended authoring using ETSI WTVML to achieve interoperability by allowing dynamic TV Site to be automatically translated into various TV dialects of HTML/JavaScript, while maintaining compatibility with middlewares such as MHP and OpenTV via native WTVML microbrowsers.

Typically the distribution system for Standard Definition digital TV is based on the MPEG-2 specification, while High Definition distribution is likely to be based on the MPEG-4 meaning that the delivery of HD often requires a new device or set-top box, which typically are then also able to decode Internet Video via broadband return paths.

Emergent approaches such as the Fango app[5] have utilised mobile apps on smartphones and tablet devices to present viewers with a hybrid experience across multiple devices, rather than requiring dedicated hardware support.

Interactive television projects

Some interactive television projects are consumer electronics boxes which provide set-top interactivity, while other projects are supplied by the cable television companies (or multiple system operator, or MSO) as a system-wide solution. Even other, newer, approaches integrate the interactive functionality in the TV, thus negating the need for a separate box. Some examples of interactive television include:

Mobile phone interaction with the STB and the TV

Interactive Video and Data Services

IVDS is a wireless implementation of interactive TV, it utilizes part of the VHF TV frequency spectrum (218–219 MHz).[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kim, Pyungho (1999). "A Story Of Failed Technology: Deconstructing Interactive TV Networks". Javnost-The Public. 6 (3): 87.
  2. ↑ "Espacenet". espacenet.com. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
  3. ↑ http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=US&NR=5905521A&KC=A&FT=D&ND=7&date=19990518&DB=EPODOC
  4. ↑ http://www.panasonic.com/cesshow/
  5. 1 2 Kennedy, Jessica (10 February 2012). "Social TV on the rise". B&T Online. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
  6. ↑ Moncreiff, Craig T. (Oct 27, 1998), Computer network chat room based on channel broadcast in real time, retrieved 2016-01-16
  7. ↑ Dewdney, Andrew (2006). The Digital Media Handbook. Routledge. p. 289. ISBN 9780203645789.
  8. ↑ Kunert, Tibor. "User-Centered Interaction Design Patterns for Interactive Digital Television Applications". Springer. Retrieved 2009-07-06.
  9. ↑ "CERTIFICATE OF AMENDMENT OF RESTATED CERT OF INCRP". www.sec.gov. Retrieved 2016-01-16.
  10. ↑ "IVDS Definition from PC Magazine Encyclopedia". pcmag.com. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
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