final paper

Major Studio2 - Interactivity / Ji Sun Lee (Sun) 05/08/2005
The final project:
Watching TV all the time

1) Motivation
The broadcasting stations and companies earn the majority of profit from advertisement. However, there are heavy competitions. So, they need find various media channels to make a profit like the Internet and direct TV. Especially, the association with telecommunication gives a chance to make big money because the mobile companies can charge money based on viewing time.

[Fig. 1. comparison of new broadcasting trends]
People haven’t wanted to use a lot of functions in their phone and they just need to talk on the phone. But, mobile business wants to push a lot of functions to obtain more money from customers, like SMS text and Ring Tone service. In addition, watching TV is very easy to get addicted to. So, the providing TV program is a big business opportunity.
Ex) Mobile start to service TV programs
- US: Sprint Vcast
- South Korea : DMB(Digital Multimedia Broadcasting)
- Italy: Trophy soccer match on Live TV!
At the beginning, the telecom company provides free trial services, and then people adapt to using the service and get addicted.

2) Thesis
In the past, many experiments, including interactive television, which supplement the disadvantage of television combined video recording and telecommunication technologies. However, interactive television hasn’t been successful. Instead of that, the mobile and strong convergent media are taking the future role of television because of mobility and convenience. So, if we watch TV everywhere and anytime very easily, how will our life be changed? How will video media be advanced in convergence media? How will the future media apply the previous functions of television and video camcorder? How will people use functions and adapt them to their life?

“The future is what used to be. […] The most influential of these visions of the future are already decades old. We are already living in the times when they were supposed to have come true.”
(Richard Barbrook, Imaginary Futures, presentation, 2005)
For the prediction of influence of video media in a convergence device, I got an idea from Richard Barbrook’s conference ‘Imaginary Futures’. In his opinion, the past determines the future and the future reflects the past. So, we are already living in the future which we predicted in the past. So, I tried to analyze TV influence up to now and predictions about the new video media.
“New media is interactive. In contrast to old media where the order of presentation is fixed, the user can now interact with a media object. In the process of interaction the user can choose which elements to display or which paths to follow, thus generating a unique work. In this way the user becomes the coauthor of the work.”
(Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media, 55p)
Lev Manovich mentioned in his book “The language of new media” that The new media will be interactive and people would communicate multiple ways and would have personal media power.

I found lots of predictions about the TV, interactive TV, and mobile TV. Based on these references, I defined 3 suppositions. Watching TV everywhere and anytime, sharing their TV with others and providing more useful TV programs.
1. You will watch TV everywhere and anytime
2. You will share your TV with your friends
3. Your TV will provide useful information

[Fig. 2. predictions about future TV]

3) Approach
We don’t know about the future, but we can assume the future, when we assume the future, people can find the better way of using the video media and how to use more effectively.
To compare the past with the future of video media, I researched how video media is used everyday life and what was the limitation of that. In addition, I collected information about current technology to overcome the weakness of past video media from books, articles, and related projects.

Design Process
1. define problems or motivation
2. build up a hypothesis
3. design scenarios
l write 1st version of the scenario
l write 2nd version of the scenario
l complete final version of the scenario
l select screen size and contents
l add functions
l record and edit videos
l design interface for the convergence media
4. evaluate TV experience in new media

Resources
- Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media, 2001
- Phillip Swann, TV dot COM, 2000
- Steve Curran, Convergence Design, 2002
- Negro Ponte, Beyond Digital, http://web.media.mit.edu/~nicholas/Wired/WIRED6-12.html, 1998
- FT.com, Mobiles to ‘replace TV as prime ad medium’, http://news.ft.com/cms/s/9710c238-a6d6-11d9-a6df-00000e2511c8,ft_acl=,s01=1.html, 2005

Design methods
Based on my personal experience about the video media, I wrote the scenarios of using video media and compare the past and present with the future. Each scene is included a short essay to reflect future prediction in books, essays, articles and my opinions. Then, I made movies about those scenarios.
1. The scenarios based on references
The scenario about the past and present

[Fig. 3. scenes of channel surfing on the television]
The scenario about the future

[Fig. 4. scenes showing interactive interface and communication]
The movie about the past and present is displayed on a traditional television and the movie about the future will be displayed on screen of convergence media such as a cell phone or PDA.
2. The interface design for convergence media

[Fig. 5. interface design of TV Channel and My Channel]
3. Theme of the story

[Fig. 6. draft sketch of scenario]
4. The final version of scenario

[Fig. 7. final storyboard]

Technology selection
Actually, the TV programs of our home television on the left screen and of a new convergence media on the right screen are the same resolution. However, the problem is that the display resolution is different. Even though the screen size of our home television, not HD TV, is bigger than the convergence media, the home television displays worse resolution compared with LCD screen on the convergence device. Therefore, the area of a home television is big and has bad resolution and people can’t recognize the text on the screen. Conversely, the area of a convergence media is 320X240, the same as actual screen size, and displays with high resolution with clear text.
However, the video file of 1920X1080 (HD TV resolution) is too big to play on a computer. So, I chose a small size like 800X480 for the whole screen including the same ratio of screen partitions.

[Fig. 8. screen layout]

4) Results
Through producing this video file, I found we could solve typical TV problems.
1. TV is not good for health
“The researchers found that those who spent at least three hours per day watching television, had a 40% increased risk of becoming obese and a 30% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.” (Too much TV is bad for your health, Deborah Condon)
First of all, watching too much television significantly increases the risk of developing obesity. If people can watch the television everywhere, not only on the sofa, they could avoid getting fat.

[Fig. 9. obesity vs. exercise]
2. TV makes people be alone
“Commentator Nina Buck offers a typical anti-TV screed, claiming that television ‘steals your life.’” (We All Know That TV Is Bad For Us, Ronald Bailey)
Commentator Nina Buck claimed that television "steals your life." That meaning is TV makes people waste time with doing nothing and avoid a chance to meet others. Conversely, new video media will provide more chances to communicate with friends with sharing their TV programs and videos. Especially, many people like to talk about issues on the TV. Involving the conversation about that, you don’t need to wait and watch the specific programs because your friends will send you the programs.

[Fig. 10. isolation and socialization]
3. TV is the idiot box
“When viewed for more than 20 hours per week, TV can seriously inhibit the development of verbal-logical, left brain functions.” (Research on the Effects of Television Viewing, The Green Mountain Waldorf School)
Watching TV for too long is very bad for the brain and health as we know. Watching television without any thinking causes not only reducing brain ability but also wasting time to do valuable things. Although TV provides valuable information sometimes, the difficulty of accessing information makes people disturb to obtain information. For example, checking the weather in the morning, you need to pay attention and wait for when they talk about weather.

[Fig. 11. idiot box vs. useful information]

5) Conclusions
Even through people don’t need to use a new technology, if they start to feel comfortable to use it, they can’t avoid using it. Watching new video media makes people pay less attention about environment and lose a chance to appreciate it. But, in benefits, the video media can provide more accurate and valuable information and a chance to become more intimate with others. However new media creates watching habits, it depends on person’s needs and previous habits. So, we need to analyze carefully about users and society to design interface and contents.