Broadcasting on-line social interaction as inhabited television

Authors:
Steve Benford;Chris Greenhalgh;Mike Craven;Graham Walker;Tim Regan;Jason Morphett;John Wyver;John Bowers
Affiliations:
The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK;The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK;The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK;BT Laboratories, Martlesham Heath, UK;BT Laboratories, Martlesham Heath, UK;BT Laboratories, Martlesham Heath, UK;Illuminations Television, London, UK;Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden
Venue:
ECSCW'99 Proceedings of the sixth conference on European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Year:
1999

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Abstract

Inhabited TV combines collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) with broadcast TV so that on-line audiences can participate in TV shows within shared virtual worlds. Three early experiments with inhabited TV raised fundamental questions concerning the extent to which it is possible to establish fast-pace social interaction within a CVE and produce a coherent and engaging broadcast of this action. This paper presents a fourth more recent experiment, Out of This World, that directly addressed these questions. We describe how the formulation of inhabited TV design principles, combined with the use of dedicated production software, for constraining and directing participants' actions and for controlling virtual cameras, enabled us to create a fast-moving and coherent show. We conclude that our experiments to date demonstrate the technical feasibility of inhabited TV, but that greater attention needs to be paid to developing appropriate formats and content for this new medium before it becomes truly engaging. We also suggest that our real time production and camera software may be useful in other areas of CSCW.