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Interactive television formats are being developed to provide watchers getting involved in cinema and information events. Television and Internet will increasingly amalgamate because the Internet supports the feedback channel from the spectator to the TV format. New financing concepts such as pay-per-view or sponsorship are becoming increasingly popular.
According to a market survey the Internet usage of younger consumers already exceeds the television in some countries as far as the time spent is concerned. Sometimes the Internet even replaces TV. It’s still open whether new hardware such as set top boxes with pre-installed software or PCs will prevail as a substitute for television. The clear advantage of set top boxes: The user can start the software for an online application in most cases with only one mouse click on an application image (Instant interactivity).
The development of such applications is driven by TV providers expecting a closer relationship with their spectators. On the other hand the advertisers and marketing agencies are wishing for more detailed customer information for target marketing. For this reason virtual worlds create the impression of a real world as demonstrated here with computer generated scenes. These applications are interactive in contrast to video films.
We have already participated in developing European Union (EU) funded projects as well as in customer projects. Due to the broad skills and the clear focus on 3D technology for interactivity and internet capabilities we are well prepared for future development of interactive TV applications.