Understanding Interactive Television Newsletter - October 2002


October 2002

News, conferences and site updates

UNDERSTANDING INTERACTIVE TELEVISION
Academic and research resources about interactive television
http://itv.eltrun.aueb.gr/

Edited by the researchers of ELTRUN
EBusiness Center of the Athens University of Economics and Business
http://www.eltrun.aueb.gr/


What's new

Keep on top of what's happening in the area of interactive television by
visiting the frequently updated blog.
http://itv.eltrun.aueb.gr/blogger/

Find online the proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Personalization in Future
TV
http://itv.eltrun.aueb.gr/topics/ah02tv02/


Highlights from the Blog
http://itv.eltrun.aueb.gr/blogger/
The PlayStation2 (PS2) as a thin network client? Given its current price tag
($200), its ubiquity (more than 20 million sold), its audiovisual
capabilities and the availability of the network adapter it sounds like the
most viable proposition towards interactive television at the moment. BroadQ
(http://www.broadq.com/) is collaborating with Snapstream
(http://www.snapstream.com/) to bring television control (and much more)
from the PC at the home-office to the PS2 in the living-room or bed-room.
Diomidis Spinellis has implemented a similar system
(http://itv.eltrun.aueb.gr/papers/spinellis02/) with an open source toolset.
Maybe its time for Sony and the PS2-linux (http://playstation2-linux.com/)
community to take note. Keep playing!


News

DVD Makers Starting to Play Games
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,55394,00.html
New standards being developed by technology companies and Hollywood studios
promise to turn DVD players into interactive devices that can play
sophisticated games, connect to the Internet and exchange e-mail.

Showdown Over Digital Show Guides
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,55000,00.html
Forget the eternal battle for the remote control. The real power struggle
over television starts with electronic programming guides.

Tuner Transforms Sony PlayStation Into Digital Media Console
http://www.e-insite.net/eb-mag/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA245162&s
pacedesc=news
BroadQ has released a preview edition of its QCast Tuner software, which has
been designed to transform a Sony PlayStation 2 console into a digital media
center with remote access to computer-based pre-recorded music, video,
television programs.

Nielsen, TiVo Try Ratings Game
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,55091,00.html
The famous TV ratings company links up with the real-time recorder to come
up with a new way to measure a new audience.


Events

European Conference on Interactive Television: from Viewers to Actors?
(Brighton, U.K. April 2-4 2003 )
http://www.cmis.brighton.ac.uk/staff/rng/EuroITV/
Deadline: November 15, 2002


Reviewed Resources

Giorgos Lekakos and George Giaglis (2002). Delivering Personalized
Advertisements in Digital Television: A Methodology and Empirical
Evaluation. Proceedings of the AH’2002 Workshop on Personalization in Future
TV
http://itv.eltrun.aueb.gr/papers/lekakos02/
In the past, television viewers had become accustomed to the burden of
irrelevant advertising, but lately, devices such as TiVo and ReplayTV, have
allowed them to record television programming and fast-forward through the
advertising breaks. On one hand, the wide spread use of TiVo-like devices
may mean the end of advertising supported television programming. On the
other hand, local-storage and processing of advertising spots may be used to
target advertising-breaks for each set-top box, according to household and
individual characteristics. This justification has been considered in the
design of the iMEDIA system for personalized advertising-breaks —in-place of
the traditional broadcasted advertising-break. The users of iMEDIA may
choose to watch a personalized advertising-break, in addition to
opportunities for browsing through interactive advertisement content.


Articles

Adaptation Model for Interactive Television Applications
http://itv.eltrun.aueb.gr/articles/2002/10chorianopoulos/
As with any new technology that has to be incorporated into peoples working
and living environment, adaptation to interactive television applications
will depend on how they cater for existing needs and on how they fit into
existing patterns of use. The most successful domestic technologies
interleave seamlessly with the social organization of home life, allow users
to establish their own sets of usage practices and support a wide range of
uses in a range of household situations. Nevertheless, in the long-term, the
relationship between the users, the activities and the configuration of the
technologies, is dynamic and may lead to a transformation of needs and
patterns of usage. Next, we present a model of three levels of adaptation
for interactive television applications.



Visit UNDERSTANDING INTERACTIVE TELEVISION
http://itv.eltrun.aueb.gr/


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