A platform for gaming in Digital Interactive TV

TitleA platform for gaming in Digital Interactive TV
Publication TypeConference Paper
Year of Publication2002
AuthorsBouras, C, Kapoulas, V, Misedakis, I
Conference Name10th International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks(SoftCOM 2002), Croatia, Italy
Date Published9 - 11 October
Abstract

Digital Television has increased its popularity the last
years. Its’ main advantage over traditional analogue TV is that
it offers the viewers the ability to use their TV system in order to
view or search for information in a way that is impossible with
analogue TV. The next important step is the offer of
interactivity with Service Providers, exchanging information,
with the use of a return channel. Modern Set-Top-Boxes are not
just decoders of the transmitted digital signals, but can be
programmed to execute complex applications that can interact
with the user through the use of the remote control and with
Service Providers using a built-in modem and the PSTN
network. Applications can be downloaded from satellite, loaded
and executed dynamically, multiplexed with video and audio
streams, along with the data needed, while a viewer changes the
channel he/she watches. Using these types of applications the
viewer becomes a user, using the provided services, despite of
passively watching TV channels.
In this paper, we describe an Interactive Digital TV platform
being developed for delivering statistical and interactive services
to the public. In particular, we use it for offering statistical data
and an interactive game in which the users of the platform can
compete by answering questions and making predictions.

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