SHORT DESCRIPTION
The Crossed TV Games project was developed in a partnership with PT Inovação and MEO (the Portugal Telecom IPTV service).
Taking advantage of both the potentialities of IPTV platforms and game related dynamics some new ways to promote interaction between viewers may be achieved. This research focused on searching and validating innovative forms of entertainment through television. In this context an application, combining some social games characteristics with the capabilities of interactive television platforms, was developed.This application was developed in Microsoft Mediaroom, the midleware supporting the MEO service.
The application was evaluated by means of a Field Trial. Users were provided at their homes with a sub-set of the Wize features integrated in an iTV application of a popular TV show.
The results provided a better understanding of the expectations of users towards social TV related games and reveal that they are willing to play this social games in the TV either alone, with friends or in teams.
