Interactive Television:impact on wireless industry

The wireless industry had a great effect on Interactive Television,because there was a great opportunity for interactive television applications to be delivered on mobile devices.First,Tv networks had offered its viewers a content whom they can interact with through wireless devices,and wireless iTV gave networks the chance to interact with multiple viewers on a single TV,and keep viewers interacting with the content whenever they want.The wireless iTV is alwayz an "on" connection that allow television networks to reach the viewers.The wireless industry through wireless devices provide a return path for interactivity,and many viewers to interact with a program or show.
"Wireless devices can act as a personal devices for a specific viwere and can manage his entertainement experience by interacting with television programming."(wireless business and technology).

By Fady Naddour

http://wbt.sys-con.com/read/41142.htm

Interactive Television spies on Viewers

By using Interactive Television,when clicking on the remote control,the information goes into a database called "click stream".The click stream can be used to create an image or picture of you"the viewer"(who are you,what you like/dislike,and what motivates you).This buildup or profile of a certain individual(viewer) can be used to target customers by marketing techniques such as sales and publication or through your mails and phones.The television will publish something and than publish something else,and than monitor how you act and react with what you see.In other words,the interactive television will work on your way of thinking until you exhibit the desired behaviour,it will be used to invade the viewer privacy.

Therefore,if you never order an item through your TV or never played with an interactive commercial,your iTV will be interactive in both ways,but what really matter is the "click stream".

Peer to Peer Networks Connect Drivers

Researchers from the University of California Los Angeles are working on a wireless communication network that will allow cars to talk to each other, while at the same time downloading information such as road safety warnings, entertainment content and navigational tools.

The wireless network would allow moving vehicles within 100 meters and 300 meters of each other to connect and create a network with a wide range. The network would then allow drivers to download information from internet access points simply by driving by, and then share that information with other cars on the road.

There will be benefits in driving safety and in content distribution. Car-to-car communications can be used to avoid accidents by warning the drivers of danger that is about to come. Vehicles will be equipped with sensing devices, such as radars and video cameras.

The most important feature of this network is that it is not subject to memory, processing, storage and energy limitations like the current sensor networks. Instead, it depends on the resources of the vehicle itself and the vehicles around it.

Cars would be able to use their radios to exchange three types of information: safe navigation (such as icy road conditions, traffic jams and accidents ahead), content distribution (local information, advertisements and videos of approaching attractions) and urban surveillance (collecting information which could be used later by police for investigations).

The research team is already working with car manufacturers such as Toyota and BMW to bring the project to life. However, costs and industry standards are important obstacles that this network is facing.

Laure Bashour

Interactivity with TV program content

Interactivity with TV program content is " interactive tv",and is a challenged thing to generate and produce.It is the idea that the program or show the viewer is watching can change according to the viewer.Developed kinds of interactive televisions still have uncertain impact for becoming a main thing, including dramas where the viewer get to change or plot details and endings for the program. For instance,in Accidental Lovers viewers can send mobile messages to the broadcaster and the plot change based on the words of the messages.Another interactive content is the Hugo game on the television where the viewer control the game character using phone buttons.

"Another forms of interactivity include programs that incorporate polls,questions,comments and virtual audience response back into the show"(Wikipedia.com).Some kinds of interactive television will be popular more than others,but that viewing of a defined content with a scripted narrative arc,will remain a major part of the TV experience.

Commercial broadcasters are somehow constrained from getting interactive technologies,because they must serve the desire of their customers and have the ability to implement return path in some areas that have lack of technological infrastructure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_television

By Fady Naddour

Interactive Television

The Future of Interactive Tv

While mixing e-mails,e-commerce,web browsing and much more into interactive tv,providers and users think that Europe will be the ground for iTV.Many reasons make Europe the next place for this iTV's growth.First,there is less PC penetration in Europe than the United States.Second,Europeans use net services like shopping,buying....Third,operators are pushing digital television much in Europe than the U.S...Many Europeans already use the teletext service which shows text info on the TV screen...Britain is the head of iTV services,and estimation show that over 3 million of the British are using iTv..
"Interactive Television is expected to creat a 25$ billion in revenue in the US by 2008,and the US has less than 10% of the 101 billion housholds with iTV in the world.Studies also show that commerce via internet could beat commerce via PC"(geeks.com)

by Fady Naddour

www.geeks.com

News on Peer to Peer Technology

A range of public broadcasting firms, commercial TV stations and cable and telecommunications companies are all enthusiastic about distributing television programs via the Internet. While the existing technique makes use of centrally located computer systems, research is now being done into TV distribution through peer-to-peer systems. This type of distribution is carried out through large groups of PCs operated by normal users.
This technique enables TV programs to be transmitted almost free of charge and opens the way to new TV stations working through the Internet. In addition, this technique promises a straight connection between the program makers and the viewers. If the public broadcasting companies make use of peer-to-peer technology, the high costs of data distribution would be a thing of the past.
When using this method of transmission it is critical that the rights to the visual material be cautiously handled and protected. The use of Creative Commons licenses presents one possible solution to several legal issues.

Laure Bashour

Interactive Television

The average person in Western countries spends much of their time infront of the TV,majorely they spend half of their life infront of this set.Its like having someone in the room with the watcher.Television had a great impact on us,which made us have fewer conversation with people and less involved wityh them.But there was a new type of television being produced(Interactive Television-Tommorrow's Television)."Mathew Timms,head of programming at two way tv in London describes it as a digital revolution,he claims that its somehow they feel they're sitting there,it's just them and the television,eventhough the reality is its got a wire leading straight back to somebody's computer".
So what's an Interactive Television?"its a television with return path".Infos not only flowing from broadcaster to viewer,but also vice-versa.It represent low interactivity(on/off,volume) to modern interactivity(simple movies on demand without player controls),and high interactivity for instance,(an audience member affect the program being watched).

Forms of interaction:
Interactivity with TV Set:its the use of remote control and than this had evolved to video on demand,commercial skipping,and and VCR-like pause.
Interactivity with Tv Program:Its the idea that the program itself might changed based on viewer input.
Interactivity with Tv related contents:getting more infos about what is on TV.

People are talking about Interactive TV for some reasons:T-commerce(people will be able to buy pizza without dialling a phone).Interactive Goodies(you'll be able to pause live tv shows).

Posted By Fady Naddour

Peer to Peer Networks... My Theme

A peer-to-peer (or "P2P") computer network uses various connectivity between members of a network and the collective bandwidth of network members rather than the traditional centralized resources where a comparatively low number of servers provide the core value to a service or application. Peer-to-peer networks are generally used for connecting nodes through exclusive connections. Such networks are valuable for many functions. Sharing files that contain audio, video, data or anything in a digital form is very common, and real-time data, such as telephony traffic, is also shared through P2P technology.

A pure peer-to-peer network does not have the concept of clients or servers, but only equal peer nodes that function as both clients and servers to the other nodes on the network. This form of network array differs from the conventional client-server form where contact usually takes place to and from a central server. A classic example for a non peer-to-peer file transfer is an FTP server where the client and server programs are discrete, and the clients commence the downloads and uploads and the servers accomplish these requests.

The idea of peer to peer is progressively advancing to an extended custom as the relational dynamic active in distributed networks, i.e. not just computer to computer, but also human to human.

Laure Bashour

Geographic Information System - GIS

What is GIS

GIS is a computer system capable of capturing, storing, analyzing and displaying geographically referenced information; that is data identified according to location. Practitioners also define GIS as including the procedures, operating personnel, and spatial data that go into the system.

History

What is now GIS began around 1960 with the discovery that maps could be represented with simple computer programming code stored in a computer for later modification to the map. Early versions of GIS involved simple lines representing land features. Later, the concept of overlaying different map features on top of each other was used to investigate patterns and causes of spatial phenomenon.

Applications

GIS is a very important tool in modern management and development practices. It can be applied in the fields of:
Geography
Demographics
Land use
Utilities
Agriculture
Environment
Public health
Tourism
Safety and security

This is going to be the topic of my blog for the coming three months.

Laure Bashour

E - Publishing

Since the invention of the Internet, books and written publications became increasingly less popular. People prefer reading on the Internet because it is easily accessible, free of charge – except, of course, for some journals and articles that cannot be accessed without purchasing.


Electronic publishing includes the digital publication of books and articles, as well as the creation of digital libraries. It has become common in the scientific field and in all other realms. There are also many electronic publications on CD and DVD such as Encyclopedias.



Electronic publishing is increasingly popular in works of fiction as well as with scientific articles. Electronic publishers are able to provide quick fulfillment for late-night readers, books that are not found in standard book shops and books by new authors that are not beneficial for traditional publishers.

PROS:

There are several benefits to e-publishing. First, it saves a lot of time by terminating the need of going to the library or bookshop. Second, anyone can publish their ideas on the Internet, so this helps the poor and less privileged to share there writings with the public.
E publishing costs are almost negligible because one saves printing, shipping and inventory costs, plus the writer does not have to share the profits with a publishing company.
Besides, with the current Green Revolution, e publishing is a great thing for environmentalists since it saves so much paper :)

CONS:

Disadvantages are mostly faced by publishing companies because less and less books are being published in the traditional way. Soon the publishing industry will be old news ;)

Ways of e publishing:
E bookstores that sell only electronic books;
Databases that publish electronic articles and journals;
Publishing house sites that sell both paper and electronic books.

Online book stores:
http://www.amazon.com/
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
http://www.powells.com/


Laure Bashour

SteamPunk

In general, steampunk is category of fantasy and speculative fiction (which includes science fiction, horror fiction, fantasy fiction, superhero fiction and supernatural fiction, as well as alternate history and magic realism). It includes science fiction that has taken place in a definite time in history after the start of the Industrial Revolution but before electricity becoming popular. It focuses on steam-propelled gadgets. The most common steampunk takes place during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The next most common is "Western steampunk", which is an American Western science fiction seen in The Wild Wild West, Legend, and The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_fiction

Laure Bashour

CyberPunk

Cyberpunk is a category of science fiction that focuses on the most advanced technology available at the time and low life, i.e. people like prostitutes, drug addicts, drug dealers, alcoholics and pimps. It is characterized by advanced science, like information technology and cybernetics, as well as some breakdown in the social order. It replaces human functions with robotic movements, hence the word Cyber in its name. Punk comes from the music used in the background.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk

Laure Bashour