HCI 2003: iTV meets Mobile Communications and Survives... Just

HCI2003 offered the opportunity to attend a panel on "Ubiquitous media at the intersection: iTV meets Mobile Communications iTV". Since there was such a range of panel members, each speaker started by giving information on their background and their perception of the area.

Marc Goodchild from the BBC spoke first, explaining how he came from a programme-making background. Having worked on "Walking with Beasts", he explained this first interactive programme - made 18 months earlier - and how its success resulted in a team being set up looking at factual programmes, examining how they work and how audiences respond. His main interest is in the enhancement of TV programmes by making them interactive, explaining how mobiles are currently being used to interact with screens in Manchester, allowing personalised responses to occur.

He feels that iTV can be more engaging (which he phrased as 'sticky') to create a sense of shared events (community) as opposed to the current expectation of 'on demand' viewing.

At present iTV is being used in a limited way. Voting is perhaps the most obvious use, with messaging having been assumed to be the next great take-up. However despite the use of set-top boxes, mobiles and TV associated handsets, its use is rather conservative. As a group we are habitual creatures and that makes the area difficult to crack.

Akseil Antilla from Nokia, Finland, was the next to speak, talking about the use of mobiles with programmes. In Finland they had tried interactive quizzes and have broadcast information on their guests which could not otherwise have been broadcast on TV. This aspect appeared to be successful since the receivers felt that they were party to information unavailable to others. He reckoned that they had reached a market penetration of 10,000. Having not yet managed it, he wished to do messaging and group communication.

Sepideh Chakaveh is a systems engineer working at the Institute of Media Communications' interactive TV department. This department is involved in three areas: virtual studios, applications for iTVs and the design of set-top boxes. She spoke briefly of Marilyn, a multi-modal avatar-led Newscaster which had achieved some notoriety as, she believed, people wish to personalise aspects of their viewing.

Her perception is that these technologies are becoming married, dating from when News On Demand in 1996 was such a breakthrough.

Manuela Brandao stressed the necessity of considering the learning curves and not to ignore the data available to us already; for example, the move from letters to the use of telephones as a means of gathering feedback and mass information. She cited the use of 'Pick a Pair' during the broadcasting of Big Brother, together with the use of the 4 buttons to allow "Test the Nation" to be completed interactively. This last example did highlight one of the disadvantages, namely that only one individual was able to interact with the TV, thereby causing isolation rather than forming cooperation.

She talked of the distinction between mobility and personalisation, where SMS TV has the advantage of mobility and emphasised some limitations of mobile use: it can be expensive when 3 stages are required: requesting, registration and initiating, ie. 3 steps @25p each. We must not forget that this interaction mode does not appeal to all groups.

The following discussion was wide ranging, reflecting the tensions inherent in this area currently. When questioned on what was holding us back, the technology or the artistry, most speakers agreed that it was neither one nor the other. Two-way dialogue has always been a part of programme making, from the use of letters to telephone to email... with mobiles now being used as a mechanism. However, messaging in itself is a problem as of the 2000 messages received in an hour, only 300 can be answered within the timeframe.

Other uses of mobiles were highlighted when Akseil mentioned Shazam (where by dialling 2580 on your mobile and by pointing the phone at the source of the music, the name of the track and the artist is identified. The use of the mobile as a proactive reminder was mentioned: advertisements for TV programmes could activate a reminder when that particular programme was due.

This implies a change from passive to active. A debate then ensued on the need to reconceptualise programmes' revenue models. The programme 'Great Britons' was cited as an example where mobiles were not perceived to add any value as it was aimed at a different demographic group. The programme created a sense of event with enormous viewing figures generated through excellent coverage in the newspapers.

It is becoming the norm now for a URL to be given at the end of a programme to allow the user access to more and supporting information. The main difficulty now is how to make content available at the right time in the right media to the right group, taking account of their demographics.

On the question of iTV's role in interactive drama, Goodchild thought that there was huge potential with the use of branching narrative. One problem was that the writer always took the single view that s/he wanted to viewer to see. There was discussion on the possibility of giving the story to four writers in order to produce a variety of views that could then be combined to allow branching.

There was some debate on the moderation of photos – it is quicker to moderate photos than text. The need for auto-filtering tools was emphasised as an essential for camera-enabled phones. There was a feeling that the 'infotainment' aspect of the mobile is currently under-utilised.

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