An audience perspective on the second screen phenomenon

Second screen applications are among the latest of the TV industry’s innovations to retain the TV viewer’s attention in a challenging multi-screen environment. These applications can be regarded as an extension of TV content consumed on a TV set towards lightweight portable devices such as tablets. While numerous commercial instances are available internationally and the existing literature on the topic from a technical perspective is extensive, the audience side of this phenomenon has been paid far less attention to. Moreover, in the case of Flanders, the successful commercial implementation of second screen applications remains limited. In this research, we aim to elicit what TV viewers’ expectations and preferences are regarding second screen functionalities. By applying means-end theory and a laddering approach we were able to discern how these preferences subsequently relate to the TV show itself, the consequences for the viewing experience, as well as how second screen applications and usages are expected to fit in the viewer’s everyday life

On Mobile Bluetooth Tags

This paper presents a new approach for hyper-local data sharing and delivery on the base of discoverable Bluetooth nodes. Our approach allows customers to associate user-defined data with network nodes and use a special mobile application (context-aware browser) for presenting this information to mobile users in proximity. Alternatively, mobile services can request and share local data in M2M applications rely on network proximity. Bluetooth nodes in cars are among the best candidates for the role of the bearing nodes.Comment: submitted to FRUCT-17 conference (http://fruct.org

Towards the design of effective freehand gestural interaction for interactive TV

As interactive devices become pervasive, people are beginning to look for more advanced interaction with televisions in the living room. Interactive television has the potential to offer a very engaging experience. But most common user tasks are still challenging with such systems, such as menu selection or text input, and little work has been done on understanding and supporting the effective design of freehand interaction with a TV in the domestic environment. In this paper, we report two studies investigating freehand gestural interaction with a consumer level sensor that is suitable for TV use scenarios. In the first study, we investigate a range of design factors for tiled layout menu selection, including wearable feedback, push gesture depth, target size and position in motor space. The results show that tactile and audio feedback have no significant effect on user performance and preference, and these results inform potential designs for high selection performance. In the second study, we investigate using freehand gestures for the common TV user task of text input. We design and evaluate two virtual keyboard layouts and three freehand selection methods. Results show that ease of use and error tolerance can both be achieved using a text entry method utilizing a dual circle layout and an expanding target selection technique. Finally, we propose design guidelines for effective, usable and comfortable freehand gestural interaction for interactive TV based on the findings.</p

IPTV 2.0 from Triple Play to social TV

International audienceThe great success of social technologies is transforming the Internet into a collaborative community. With a vision of IPTV 2.0, this paper presents our research work towards the exploitation of social phenomena in the domain of TV. Based on the advantage of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) service architecture, the current IPTV service is extended from two aspects: TV-enriched communication and sociability-enhanced TV. Two applications namely TV Buddy and Social Electronic Program Guide (EPG) are proposed to demonstrate them respectively. Finally, we developed a prototype system on Ericsson IMS Software Development Studio (SDS)

Cross-device media: a review of second screening and multi-device television

Television viewers interacting with second screens has become a common sight in the modern living room. Such activities are a mixture of related, semi-related, and non-related browsing of content. This growing trend is revolutionising the way that broadcasters think about their content. Through the envisioned connected home, driven by end-to-end IP connected networks, television content creators and app developers are now considering the design space for multi-device, interactive experiences. In this review paper, we consider the pre-digital beginnings of such scenarios, and progress to discuss how the introduction of mobile devices has affected the TV viewing experience. We discuss dual-screen usage over a variety of contexts in the connected home, with a focus on ‘designed’ dual-screen experiences such as companion applications. We conclude with reflections on the future of this area so that app developers, broadcasters, and academics may push further the space and improve future dual- and multi-screen experiences

Notifications Efficiency, Impact, and Interference in Second-Screen Scenarios

The growing use of second-screen devices stresses the importance of finding a balance between engagement, distraction, and disturbance of its users, while simultaneously watching television. In this framework, this article reports on a study designed to analyze the efficiency, impact, and interference of different notification strategies aiming to identify the best approach to be used when an alert is needed in second-screen scenarios. A prototype able to deliver synchronized information related with TV content, with intervals of 10, 30 and 60 s, followed by individual or combined notifications (e.g., audio, visual, and haptic—on the tablet and visual—on the TV) was developed. A laboratory adapted to replicate a living room was set up and a test that involved watching three segments of a 20-min clip while using the prototype was carried with 30 participants, under a cognitive walk-through protocol. Quantitative and qualitative results show that receiving notifications while watching TV is effective in alerting users about new information, despite its inherent cognitive disturbance for the TV viewing experience. It was also possible to highlight that in an HCI perspective, the most suitable strategy for integrating notifications (considering type and cadence) should be based on a combination of a visual notification (displayed only on the TV screen) along with a haptic notification (vibration on the tablet); spaced by an interval of at least 30 s

MarathOn Multiscreen: group television watching and interaction in a viewing ecology

This paper reports and discusses the findings of an exploratory study into collaborative user practice with a multiscreen television application. MarathOn Multiscreen allows users to view, share and curate amateur and professional video footage of a community marathon event. Our investigations focused on collaborative sharing practices across different viewing activities and devices, the roles taken by different devices in a viewing ecology, and observations on how users consume professional and amateur content. Our Work uncovers significant differences in user behaviour and collaboration when engaged in more participatory viewing activities, such as sorting and ranking footage, which has implications for awareness of other users’ interactions while viewing together and alone. In addition, user appreciation and use of amateur video content is dependent not only on quality and activity but their personal involvement in the contents

Inviting the Audience – Interactive, Participatory, and Social Television in Finland

The television and the ways it has invited the audience to take part have been changing during the last decade. Today’s interaction, or rather participation, comes from multiplatform formats, such as TV spectacles that combine TV and web platforms in order to create a wider TV experience. Multiplatform phenomena have spread television consumption and traditional coffee table discussions to several different devices and environments. Television has become a part of the bigger puzzle of interconnected devices that operates on several platforms instead of just one. This thesis examines the Finnish television (2004–2014) through the notion of audience participation and introduces the technical, thematic, and social linkages as three different phases, interactive, participatory, social, and their most characteristic features in terms of audience participation. The aim of the study is also to focus on the idea of a possible change by addressing the possible and subtler variations that have taken place through the concept of digital television. Firstly, Finnish television history has gone through numerous trials, exploring the interactive potential of television formats. Finnish SMS-based iTV had its golden era around 2005, when nearly 50% of the television formats were to some extent interactive. Nowadays, interactive television formats have vanished due to their negative reputation and this important part of recent history is mainly been neglected in the academic scope. The dissertation focuses also on the present situation and the ways television content invites the audience to take part. “TV meets the Internet” is a global expression that characterises digital TV, and the use of the Web combined with television content is also examined. Also the linkages between television and social media are identified. Since television can nowadays be described multifaceted, the research approaches are also versatile. The research is based on qualitative content analysis, media observation, and Internet inquiry. The research material also varies. It consists of primary data: taped iTV formats, website material, and social media traces both from Twitter and Facebook and secondary data: discussion forums, observations from the media and Internet inquiry data. To sum up the results, the iTV phase represented, through its content, a new possibility for audiences to take part in a TV show (through gameful and textual features) in real-time. In participatory phase, the most characteristic features from TV-related content view, is the fact that online platform(s) were used to immerse the audience with additional material and, due to this, to extend the TV watching enjoyment beyond the actual broadcast. During the Social (media) phase, both of these features, real-timeness, and extended enjoyment through additional material, are combined and Facebook & Twitter, for example, are used to immerse people in live events (in real-time) via broadcast-related tweets and extra-material offered on a Facebook page. This thesis fills in the gap in Finnish television research by examining the rapid changes taken place on the field within the last ten years. The main results is that the development of Finnish digital television has been much more diverse and subtle than has been anticipated by following only the news, media, and contemporary discourses on the subject of television. The results will benefit both practitioners and academics by identifying the recent history of Finnish television.Yleisö mukaan – interaktiivinen, osallistava ja sosiaalinen televisio Suomessa 2004–2014 Television sanotaan läpikäyneen useita muutoksia 2000-luvulle tultaessa, erityisesti digitaalisuuden näkökulmasta.Tutkimus esittelee, miten televisio on aktivoinut ja kutsunut ihmisiä ottamaan osaa TV-tarjontaan – niin teknologian, temaattisen sisällön kuin sosiaalisuudenkin kautta. Suomalaisen TV:n lähihistoriaan kuuluu olennaisena osana interaktiivisen TV-viihteen aikakausi. iTV-viihteellä oli kulta-aikansa v. 2005, jolloin peruskanavien tarjonnasta lähes 50% oli jollakin tasolla interaktiivista. Se piti sisällään SMS-pohjaiset TV-chatit, TV-mobiilipelit sekä interaktiiviset soittovisat. Nykyään lähes kaikki ITV-viihteen muodot ovat hävinneet ruudusta. Kattavaa akateemista tutkimusta ei TV:n viimeisten 10 vuoden ajalta kuitenkaan ole - väitöstyö vastaa tähän tarpeeseen. Tutkimus keskittyy kuitenkin myös TV:n nykytilaan. Nykypäivän interaktio/vuorovaikutus tai pikemminkin osallistuminen näyttäytyy erilaisten multiplatform-formaattien (elävät eri alustoilla samanaikaisesti) myötä. TV-spektaakkelit kutsuvat yleisön ottamaan osaa TV-sisältöön, esim. äänestämällä Idolsissa ja Euroviisuissa tai osallistumalla sisältöihin Internetissä/sosiaalisessa mediassa maksutta. Tutkimusaineisto on monipuolista ja se koostuu muun muassa iTV-formaattien nauhoituksista, Internetsivumateriaalista sekä sosiaalisen median, Facebook ja Twitter, taltioinneista. Lisämateriaalina käytetään keskustelupalstamateriaalia, Internetkysely-dataa ja mediassa esillä olleita artikkeleita. Tutkimusote on laadullinen ja työssä on pääosin toteutettu sisällön analyysia sekä havainnoivaa tutkimusta. Työn päätuloksena esitetään, että suomalaisen digitaalisen television aikakausi on huomattavasti monisyisempi ja monipuolisempi kun on aiemmin ajateltu. Tutkimuksessa käsitelty 10 vuoden ajanjakso voidaan jakaa kolmeen: 1) interaktiivisuuden, 2) osallistavuuden ja 3) sosiaalisen median vaiheisiin. On selvää, että aikakaudet limittyvät keskenään, mutta kukin vaihe pitää kuitenkin sisällään piirteitä, jotka ovat erityisiä juuri sille aikakaudelle. Interaktiivisuuden aikakautta määrittävät tekstiviestipohjainen iTV-viihde eli chatit, mobiilipeleineen ja hyperventiloivine juontajineen. Osallistavuuden aikakaudella Internet alkoi toimia yhä enemmän TV-lähetysten vastinparina tarjoamalla extra-materiaalia ja lisäinformaatiota. Sosiaalisen median myötä mm. Internetin ohjelmakohtaisten keskustelupalstojen luoma sosiaalisuus on siirtynyt live-lähetysten ympärille Twitter-tweettien myötä. Ajankohtaisen materiaalin jako taas on siirtynyt Facebookin piiriin jättäen ohjelmakohtaiset nettisivut lähinnä online-arkistoiksi. Väitöskirja suhtautuu kuitenkin televisioon projisoituihin diskursseihin sekä muutoksen käsitteeseen kriittisesti. Nykypäivän television on usein katsottu, osittain utopistisestikin, kehittyvän yhä vuorovaikutteisempaan ja sosiaalistavampaan suuntaan. Interaktiivisen TV:n kokeiluja on kuitenkin nähty jo television alkuajoista asti ja sosiaalisen median mukaan tulo ei automaattisesti tee TV:n kuluttamisesta sosiaalisempaa. Suomalaisen TV:n lähihistoria ja digitaalisen television aikakausi sisältää huomattavasti monisyisempiä kehitysvaiheita, mitä diskurssien pohjalta esittäytyy. Tämä väitöstyö tarjoaa tärkeän, aiemmin puuttuneen, palasen suomalaisen TV-tutkimuksen nykykentälle ja saatuja tuloksia voidaan hyödyntää niin akateemisessa kuin käytännön konteksteissakin.Siirretty Doriast