Interacting with Digital Media at Home via a Second Screen

Interacting with digital media is at the epicentre of every household. In recent years Interactive Television (iTV) has become a household technology on a global scale. However, iTV is still a new technology in the early stages of its evolution. Our previous research looked at how everyday users of iTV feel about the interactive part of iTV. In a series of studies we investigated how people use iTV services; their likes, dislikes, preferences and opinions. We then developed a second screen-based prototype device in response to these findings and tested it with iTV users in their own homes. This is a work in progress paper that outlines the work carried previously in the area of controlling interactive Television via a second screen. The positive user responses led us to extend the scope of our previous research to look into other related areas such as barriers to digital interactive media and personalisation of digital interactive media at home. The paper is organised into three sections. The first section presents the main aims and objectives of our previous and current research work. The second section provides an outline of our previous research methodology, prototype systems and results. The third section provides the reader with information on the progress of our research endeavours up-to-date and discusses some of the main findings of the first user study conducted thus far.