Immersive, Participatory Television: A New Paradigm of Social Media

传统的广播电视在适应互联网和过多的数字媒体设备带来的内容创作、传输和消费方面的竞争技术进步方面一直进展缓慢。尽管广播电视的制作价值和编辑能力仍然优于数字媒体，但它吸引精通数字技术的年轻观众的能力正在减弱。我们建议通过为广播电视创建一个参与式平台来解决这一重大问题，该平台将观众招募为内容贡献者，并通过增强现实和基于Web的内容增强来增加节目的进一步维度。在无处不在的摄像机时代，通过官方外包上下文相关的内容将迎来参与式电视时代，观众不再是节目的被动贡献者，而是节目的积极贡献者。记者很少走访的偏远社区将听到他们的声音。贡献者通过这项研究中开发的“可信度”工具进行适当筛选，将得到同行认可、广播公司可能的经济激励和职业发展机会的奖励。推文和其他社交媒体通知将吸引观众对该节目的关注，并加深虚拟记者/制片人的人才库。电视节目的民主化不仅将增加观众的参与度，还可能产生公民意识和社会包容性/责任感增强的必然结果。通过增加暂停节目和无缝访问与主屏幕或第二屏幕上的片段相关的补充上下文信息的能力，观众参与度可以进一步提高。例如，在CBC上观看《多伊尔共和国》一集的观众可能希望暂停节目，访问谷歌街景中圣约翰市中心的图像，或者在节目结束后观看国家电影委员会推荐的关于纽芬兰历史的纪录片。他们可能希望在观看关于冠心病的教育节目时旋转和翻转增强现实人体心脏的3D图像。随着时间的推移，本研究开发的个性化特征将基于过去的观看/信息访问模式向观众呈现选择，并将被捕获到用户简档中。在视频处理和互动的背景下，具体的研究任务将涉及结构化交互内容的创建/检索/组织、众包和社交、验证、信任和质量保证、推荐、个性化、3D增强现实和用户评估。使能技术将被整合到机顶盒或未来的电视中。将与当地/国家广播公司接洽，以进行可行性和原型测试。通过这项研究实现的新型沉浸式电视体验将有助于通过广播公司的专业知识将大量数字媒体资源材料设置为背景，同时为传统的电视观看体验增加维度和更高的社会参与感。来自人口统计领域的观众将被广播电视所吸引，从而确保其持续的相关性。新的投稿人和观众社群将围绕特定的兴趣而发展，进一步丰富广播电视的内容，扩大其受众基础。

Traditional broadcast television has been slow to adapt to competing technological advances in content creation, transmission, and consumption made possible by the Internet and a plethora of digital media devices. While the production values and editorial capabilities of broadcast TV remain superior to those of digital media alternatives, its ability to engage digital-savvy younger viewers is waning. We propose to address this significant problem by creating a participatory platform for broadcast TV that enlists viewers as content contributors, and adds further dimension to programming through Augmented Reality and Web-based content enhancements.Crowdsourcing contextually relevant content in an era of ubiquitous video cameras will usher in an era of participatory TV, where the viewer is no longer passive but an active contributor to programming. Remote communities rarely visited by reporters would have their voices heard. Contributors, appropriately screened by a “trustworthiness” tool to be developed in this research, would be rewarded by peer recognition, possible financial incentives from the broadcaster, and career development opportunities. Tweets and other social media notifications would draw viewers’ attention to the program and deepen the pool of virtual reporters/producers. This democratization of TV programming would not only increase viewer engagement; it could have the corollary effect of an increased sense of citizenship and social inclusion/responsibility.Viewer engagement can be further increased by adding the ability to pause programming and seamlessly access supplemental contextual information relevant to a segment, on the main or a second screen. A viewer watching an episode of “Republic of Doyle” on CBC, for example, may wish to pause the program and access a Google Street View image of downtown St. John’s, or watch a recommended National Film Board documentary about Newfoundland history following the show. They may wish to rotate and flip an Augmented Reality 3D image of a human heart while watching an educational program about coronary disease. Over time, personalization features developed in this research will present choices to the viewer based on past viewing/information-accessing patterns, and will be captured in a user profile.Within the context of video-processing and interactivity, specific research tasks will address creation/retrieval/organization of structured interactive content, crowdsourcing and social interaction, verification, trust and quality assurance, recommendation, personalization, 3D augmented reality, and user evaluation. Enabling technologies will be targeted for incorporation into set-top boxes or future televisions. Local/national broadcasters will be approached for feasibility and prototype testing.The novel immersive TV experience to be realized by this research will help contextualize an overwhelming amount of digital media source material through broadcaster expertise, while at the same time adding dimension and a heightened sense of social engagement to the traditional TV viewing experience. Viewers from along the demographic spectrum will be attracted to broadcast television, ensuring its continued relevance. New social communities of contributors and viewers will develop around specific interests, further enriching the content of broadcast TV and increasing its audience base.