User interface development for interactive television: extending a commercial DTV platform to the virtual channel API

We explore the generation of interactive computer graphics at digital set-top boxes in place of the fixed graphics that were embedded to the television video before the broadcast. This direction raises new requirements for user interface development, since the graphics are merged with video at each set-top box dynamically, without the traditional quality control from the television producers. Besides the technical issues, interactive computer graphics for television should be evaluated by television viewers. We employ an animated character in an interactive music television application that was evaluated by consumers, and was developed using the Virtual Channel Control Library, a custom high-level API, that was built using Microsoft Windows and TV technologies. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.