The ICE-CREAM Project : final report

The ICE-CREAM project has been investigating how to make compelling experiences for end-users based on enabling technologies for interactive media, such as DVB-MHP, Internet and MPEG-4. The goals of the project were to extend the notion of interaction, to exploit domestic activities and familiar settings, and to make the user environment part of the visual experience. To this end, the project has developed applications in which live events (for example a football game) are enhanced on consumer demand with content that is created in real-time, broadcast streams are enhanced with content available from the Internet, and objects in the home are part of the presentation. The application prototypes showed different levels of interactivity for the end-users. Business modeling frameworks were developed to specify interchangeable roles of stakeholders and to determine factors for assessing the business relevance of the applications. Public demonstrations of these applications have been made at IFA 2003 and IBC 2003. These demonstrations were highly appreciated by the visitors, e.g., Time Warner, BBC. The thematic and technical differentiation of the three ICE-CREAM applications proved to be very successful in demonstrating the technical and conceptual possibilities. They integrated different technologies and demonstrated the potential for opening new avenues for services and platforms. Furthermore they showed convincing evidence for migration of MPEG-4 and DVB-MHP, for Internet interconnectivity and integration of 3D graphics technologies. The project adapted to trends in the outside market and in the research world by explicitly working on applications that illuminated how the addition of Internet can create new opportunities for applications and services. User appreciation of applications is at the heart of the ICE-CREAM project and providing consumers with interactivity in the applications is one of the driving forces. We operationalized qualitative terms like interactivity, experience and appreciation in such a way that they could be used to assess the applications. Different methodologies were used to obtain user feedback and input. Users perceived our concepts as very promising and interesting. The results also showed that there is still a long way to go with regard to development of methodologies for evaluation, the design of assessment instruments, the exploitation of the possibilities for interaction with content by users in their environments, at home or on the move, and the exploration of ambiance effects in synchronization with events in the content. Since content is a crucial and extremely valuable asset for any application, the project investigated the possibilities for multiple usage of content by giving users different views on it and by extending the interaction to the user’s physical environment and by distributing it over different devices. The fact that media objects in a movie may also be served from the Internet, can provide all kinds of opportunities for convergence or competition between Internet and broadcasting services. Interaction with 3D virtual environment and objects in a broadcasting context is another venue for new applications and businesses. The idea of using physical objects (such as lights and toys) to connect the virtual world with the reality is an interesting concept for game-like applications, but above all for creating a surround experience and affecting people’s perceptions. The development of a personalizable MHP service with mobile extensibility may lead to a fruitful exploitation of future 3G mobile services. Three applications were developed in the project