An approach based on multiple text input modes for interactive digital TV applications

Abstract

The development of interactive digital TV applications is hindered by the user-interaction options allowed when traditional remote controls are used. In this work, we describe the model of a software component that allows text entry in interactive TV applications based on an interface with multiple input modes -the component offers a virtual keyboard mode, a cell keypad mode, and a speech mode. We discuss our considerations with respect to the design, development and evaluation of a prototype corresponding to our model, built according to the user-centered design methodology. After conducting a research on existing text input methods in television systems, we interviewed four experts in the interactive TV domain. We also applied 153 questionnaires to TV users, with the aim of gathering a user profile of users who make use of text entry mechanisms. During the development of the prototype, we conducted usability tests using the think aloud protocol, and usability inspections using the heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthrough techniques. The evaluations allowed the detection of both, a number of problems and of several improvement opportunities; at the same time that they highlighted the importance of using complementary text input modes in order to satisfy the needs of different users. Overall, the evaluation results suggest that the proposed approach provides a satisfactory level of usability by overcoming the limitations of text input in the context of user-interaction with interactive TV applications.

Data input and content exploration in scenarios with restrictions

“…• Remote Scenario -An interface model based on multiple input modes to deal with limitations of text input in iDTV using a remote control (Chapter 4, based on [Pedrosa et al, 2010b;Vega-Oliveros et al, 2010]);…”

“…As Chromecast, smart TVs also allow personal devices to stream content to be displayed on the TV screen. Some examples of Smart TV plataforms are Google TV 5 …”

“…This section presents SwingingFoot and DuoGrapher along with the implemented system prototype 5 . A smartphone is attached to a foot using one or more rubber bands.…”

“…However, if the user skips a letter or switches the order of letters, neither the misspelled word nor the desired word would be shown in the candidate list. To help users in these cases, we have created a list of misspelled words by merging two public online available lists 5 and combined this with our word frequency list. We create the rank for these words using the length of the misspelled version, but the frequency of the corrected one.…”

LOD: uma abordagem para desenvolvimento de objetos de aprendizagem multimídia e interativos

“…A presença de outros dispositivos que oferecem mais formas de entrada de dados, tal como sistemas de captura de áudio (microfone) ou vídeo, permite interações mais ricas e possivelmente mais adequadas à intenção do usuário. Em especial, pode-se combinar diversos tipos de interação, permitindo a escolha da mais adequada de acordo com a situação de uso, condições ou preferências do usuário (VEGA-OLIVEROS et al, 2010). Caso o dispositivo também permita a apresentação de conteúdo, ele se torna apropriado para o enriquecimento e o compartilhamento, colaborando para o aspecto social de TVD (CESAR; CHORIANOPOULOS, 2008).…”