Digital television applications

Studying development of interactive services for digital television is a leading edge area of work as there is minimal research or precedent to guide their design. Published research is limited and therefore this thesis aims at establishing a set of computing methods using Java and XML technology for future set-top box interactive services. The main issues include middleware architecture, a Java user interface for digital television, content representation and return channel communications. The middleware architecture used was made up of an Application Manager, Application Programming Interface (API), a Java Virtual Machine, etc., which were arranged in a layered model to ensure the interoperability. The application manager was designed to control the lifecycle of Xlets; manage set-top box resources and remote control keys and to adapt the graphical device environment. The architecture of both application manager and Xlet forms the basic framework for running multiple interactive services simultaneously in future set-top box designs. User interface development is more complex for this type of platform (when compared to that for a desktop computer) as many constraints are set on the look and feel (e.g., TV-like and limited buttons). Various aspects of Java user interfaces were studied and my research in this area focused on creating a remote control event model and lightweight drawing components using the Java Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) and Java Media Framework (JMF) together with Extensible Markup Language (XML). Applications were designed aimed at studying the data structure and efficiency of the XML language to define interactive content. Content parsing was designed as a lightweight software module based around two parsers (i.e., SAX parsing and DOM parsing). The still content (i.e., text, images, and graphics) and dynamic content (i.e., hyperlinked text, animations, and forms) can then be modeled and processed efficiently. This thesis also studies interactivity methods using Java APIs via a return channel. Various communication models are also discussed that meet the interactivity requirements for different interactive services. They include URL, Socket, Datagram, and SOAP models which applications can choose to use in order to establish a connection with the service or broadcaster in order to transfer data. This thesis is presented in two parts: The first section gives a general summary of the research and acts as a complement to the second section, which contains a series of related publications.reviewe

Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Semantic Ambient Media Experiences (SAME 2016): Smart Cities for Better Living with HCI and UX - SEACHI Extended Papers

Digital and interactive technologies are becoming increasingly embedded in everyday lives of people around the world. Application of technologies such as real-time, context-aware, and interactive technologies; augmented and immersive realities; social media; and location-based services has been particularly evident in urban environments where technological and sociocultural infrastructures enable easier deployment and adoption as compared to non-urban areas. There has been growing consumer demand for new forms of experiences and services enabled through these emerging technologies. We call this ambient media, as the media is embedded in the natural human living environment. The 8th Semantic Ambient Media Workshop Experience (SAME) Proceedings where based on a collaboration between the SEACHI Workshop Smart Cities for Better Living with HCI and UX, which has been organized by UX Indonesia and was held in conjunction with Computers and Human-Computer Interaction (CHI) 2016 in San Jose, CA USA. The extended versions of the workshop papers are freely available through http://www.ambientmediaassociation.org/Journal under open access by the International Ambient Media Association (iAMEA). iAMEA is hosting the international open access journal entitled “International Journal on Information Systems and Management in Creative eMediaâ€, and the international open access series “International Series on Information Systems and Management in Creative eMedia†(see http://www.ambientmediaassociation.org). The International Ambient Media Association (AMEA) organizes the Semantic Ambient Media (SAME) workshop series, which took place in 2008 in conjunction with ACM Multimedia 2008 in Vancouver, Canada; in 2009 in conjunction with AmI 2009 in Salzburg, Austria; in 2010 in conjunction with AmI 2010 in Malaga, Spain; in 2011 in conjunction with Communities and Technologies 2011 in Brisbane, Australia; in 2012 in conjunction with Pervasive 2012 in Newcastle, UK; and in 2013 in conjunction with C&T 2013 in Munich, Germany; and in 2014 in conjunction with NordCHI 2014 in Helsinki, Finland. The workshop organizers present you a fascinating crossover of latest cutting edge views on the topic of ambient media, and hope you will be enjoying the reading. We also would like to thank all the contributors, as only with their enthusiasm the workshop can become a success. At least we would like to thank the lovely organizing team of CHI 2016, the SEACHI 2016 organisers, and our programme committee members

Evaluation of widget-based approaches for developing rich internet applications

A widget is a packaged interactive client-side application developed using Web standards and techniques. Widgets present an opportunity to formalise the approaches that are used to develop and deploy Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) for multiple platforms. The objective of the research presented in this report is to evaluate whether widgets successfully meet the requirements of a RIA, which are identified by behaviour, ease of development, security, portability and presentation concerns. A review of the widget landscape has been conducted and used to develop a conceptual widget framework. A film rating and recommendation service has been developed based on this framework and is used to evaluate whether widgets meet the requirements of a RIA. It has been determined that widget-based development approaches assist in reducing the complexities of RIA development. This is achieved by providing developers with simplified interfaces that abstract the complexities of accessing local and remote behaviour. The main weaknesses identified are the vast incompatibilities between existing implementations and the relaxed security measures being used. Further standardisation efforts are required to reduce the incompatibilities in the landscape and improve the security and portability of widgets

Usabilidade na Web e usabilidade na televisão interactiva

Tese de mestrado. Tecnologia Multimédia. 2005. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto, Departamento de Ciências da Comunicação, Artes e Tecnologias da Informação. Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologia