Video Breakthroughs

The FascinatE project is developing a system to allow end-users to interactively view and navigate around an ultra-high resolution video panorama showing a live event, with the accompanying audio automatically changing to match the selected view. The output will be adapted to their particular kind of device, covering anything from a mobile handset to an immersive panoramic display with spatial audio. At the production side, this requires the development of new audio and video capture systems, and scripting systems to control the shot framing options presented to the viewer. Intelligent networks with processing components are being developed to repurpose the content to suit different device types and framing selections, and prototypes of user terminals supporting innovative interaction methods are being built to allow viewers to control and display the content.

Creators that want to build interactive video applications have largely been constrained by the lack of easy-to-use tools for doing so. Today those publishers can either use rudimentary tools like YouTube annotations to extend an element of choice to video applications, or they can turn to expensive, custom web design firms to build that interactivity into their videos.

Now one startup is looking to provide an alternative: Boulder, Colo.–based Flixmaster offers a platform for publishers like transmedia creators and interactive advertisers that provides most of the functionality that they desire, without requiring them to shell out tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to build custom experiences.

InAiR turns your TV into a Minority Report-like experience, with layers of Web content, inline with the programs you're watching.

InAiR brings you the world's first Augmented TV experience

With InAir plugged in, your TV becomes an Augmented Television. You can turn any ordinary television into a new and wonderful medium, filled with rich and dynamic information from the Web. InAiR uses your TV screen and layers in additional content from the Web and social media.

Since 1999, the BBC's Red Button feature has delivered alternative camera angles, sports scores and the like over broadcast spectrum, but it's now set to become internet enabled. Channel surfers shouldn't expect a full-blown web experience, however, as the Beebs stresses it's not about to include everything and the kitchen sink in terms of functionality. Rather, their Connected Red Button aims for simplicity.

Punching the clicker could bring up the iPlayer to catch previous episodes of shows or save recipes from a cooking program for later viewing on a computer or smartphone. Companion screen experiences such as the Antiques Roadshow app, which is slated for a September release, are also part of their web-connected roadmap.