Media Play is an event organized by DigiMedia – Digital Media and Interaction Research Centre, which aims to give visibility to the work developed by students within the scope of the courses of Sciences and Technology Communication (STC), of the Department of Communication and Art (DeCA), of the University of Aveiro.

Media Play aims to foster the connection between academia and the local technology companies, to bring the vision of the business sector into the academic world.

The event includes a competition for the best projects with different prizes, and everyone can participate.

Media Play ’24

Media Play ’24 is the second edition of this initiative, which presents, this year, 13 projects developed by our students.

All projects, previously selected by a jury, are within the Multimedia area, and show the development of new apps, games, digital platforms, or UX prototypes. For more information about the Media Play ’24 projects check below.

Date:

Media Play 2024 takes place on May 29, 2024, from 10:30 am to 4:30 pm. The program can be consulted below.

Participation:

Participation is free, but registration is required. To register click here.

The competition:

The voting process is public. Participants can vote on the best projects and four prizes will be awarded.

Public Award (votes from the general public: students, faculty members, researchers, etc).
Academia Award (votes from faculty members and researchers of STC)
Professional Award (votes from the business representatives)
Disruptive award (votes from faculty members, researchers, and business representatives)

Voting Regulations:

Participants who had previously registered for the event receive 10 coins, to vote for the projects they consider to have the greatest potential.

• Company representatives – red coins to vote for the Professional Award
• Teachers and Researchers – blue coins to vote for the Academy Award
• Students and the rest of the public – green coins to vote for the Public Award
• Company representatives and teachers/researchers also receive a yellow coin to vote for the Disruptive Award.

Program – Media Play’24

10h30 – 10h45: Opening of the Event – Vice-Rector of the UA Prof. Doutor João Veloso and the Director of the DeCA Ana Veloso

10h45 – 11h00 – Multimedia Presentation by NEMTC students (Illustrator – Rui Pedro / Remix Sound – Guilherme Silva)

11h00 – 12h00: Presentation of the projects

12h00 – Opening of the Exhibition of the projects and Voting

Lunch break

14h00-15h30 – Exhibition of the projects and Voting

Coffee break

16h00: Voting results and awarding of prizes

Projects Media Play’24

1º cycle

1st cycle degree in Multimedia and Communication Technologies

1. Project: PetMatch

Author: Ana Araújo

Description:  The project, built in React, interacts with real APIs to access authentic information. Its objective is to serve people interested in adopting animals, namely dogs and cats. Through a questionnaire, the user will be able to find the most suitable and compatible animals available for adoption.

—

1st cycle degree in Multimedia and Communication Technologies

2. Project: Musix

Author: Tomás Sousa

Description: React Application that uses the Spotify API to search and play music, the Youtube API to offer the video of the searched song, the Genius API to search for the lyrics of the searched songs and Google Firebase for user registration and storage of your favorites.

—

1st cycle degree in Multimedia and Communication Technologies

3. Project: SmashStats

Author: Leonardo Bastos

Description: Project whose main objective is to handle requests and responses from various APIs of my choice, process this information and then build a website using React.js and Node.js that shows data from these APIs. On this website, I have used the Tennis API and the Tennis API YouTube and showed some information about tennis players and some videos about them. I have also used Firebase and Firestore to handle the login and registration processes and to store some data that would be shown on the web page and that can also be manipulated by users through some queries. Given that only free APIs were used, the requests are not 100% accurate, but they work, which was the point for this type of project.

—

1st cycle degree in Multimedia and Communication Technologies

4. Project: Billy Books
Author: Pedro Valente

Description: Billy Books is a web app dedicated to books and their readers, enabling users to record their readings and differentiating itself through its ability to manage book loans.

—

1st cycle degree in Multimedia and Communication Technologies

5. Project: InHere

Author: José Leandro Duarte

Description: InHere is a geolocation web application created with the purpose of integrating the digital and spatial experience in a unique manner. In a scenario where people are connected through their devices, this web application not only allows location-based social interaction but transcends physical barriers by providing users with the ability to explore and visualize the others’ space, even when they are far away.

This application goal is to foster greater proximity between people, not only virtually, but also in the physical space they inhabit. By transforming geolocation into a social interaction platform, the application seeks to create a network that not only connects people, but also brings individual experiences within a common geographic context, maintaining the geographic barrier (users only have access to content uploaded close to their location).

—

2º ciclo

Master in Communication and Web Technologies

6. Project: et.cetera

Authors: Carolina Batista, Gabriel Ribeiro, Inês Sucena, Lara Mendes, Leonardo Coelho, Nathália Magalhães

Description: et.cetera is a home management platform that allows the creation of collaborative shopping lists, using or not Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, it allows all members of the household to keep their bills up to date, thanks to the expense’s functionality, integrated with expenses associated with purchases.

—

Master in Communication and Web Technologies

7. Project: Twovest

Authors: Vasco Saraiva, Jónatas Roque, Gonçalo Calçada, João Paixão, Daniela Silva, Margarida Bicho

Description: Twovest is an e-commerce platform for clothes’ selling that focuses on the second-hand market and guarantees its customers the authenticity and quality of all items. In addition to offering a wide variety of products and brands, you can also create customizable collections where you save the inspirations you see in our community’s look gallery. In addition, it is possible to unlock new offers and coupons by interacting in the gallery or making new purchases. At Twovest, our goal is to help brands actively contribute to sustainability. And you benefit from that.

—

Master in Digital Game Development

8. Project: River Runners

Authors: Bruno Miguel De Oliveira Brandão, Daniel Oliveira Moreira, Duarte Alexandre Luís Cunha, Inês Sofia Madeira Santos

Supervisors: Diogo Gomes e Tânia Ribeiro

Description: River Runners is a 1-player auto-scroller adventure game developed for PC. The player plays against the fast currents of the river, controlling a cheerful and charismatic bunch of animals and trying to avoid the various obstacles they encounter. The game has a narrative mode, where the various characters and their abilities are presented, and an infinite mode, which challenges the player to survive as long as possible on a route whose difficulty increases over time.

—

Master in Digital Game Development

9. Project: Virtual Reality Serious Game for stroke rehabilitation at home

Author: Sérgio Oliveira

Supervisors: Beatriz Sousa Santos e Bernardo Marques

Description: Stroke is one of the main causes of death and disability worldwide, with consequences that can lead to physical and cognitive disabilities. In this way, rehabilitation plays a central role in the lives of survivors, with the aim of restoring as many lost motor and cognitive functions as possible, and increasing the quality of life of survivors. However, the way in which these treatments are carried out relies on conventional methods (focused on repetition of movements), which easily lead to demotivation and social isolation on the part of the patient, often resulting in depression and anxiety. Considering this problem, this work proposes the use of Virtual Reality and Serious Games as a complementary methodology for cognitive and upper limb rehabilitation of stroke survivors. By combining these tools, it is possible to create virtual environments that stimulate real-life activities, as well as immersion and interaction with virtual objects, following narratives based on everyday tasks, with which survivors can relate with.

—

Master in Digital Game Development

10. Project: Hologame VR – jogo para comunicação de ciência

Author: Bernardo Rodrigues

Supervisors: Mário Vairinhos e Pedro Pombo

Description: Holography simulator with the aim of attracting interest in holography to a young audience.

—

3º ciclo

Doctorate in Information and Communication in Digital Platforms

11. Project: Assistente proativo para a TV como promotor das interações entre idosos e outras gerações

Author: Juliana Duarte de Camargo (julianacamargo@ua.pt)

Supervisors: Telmo Silva e Jorge Ferraz de Abreu

Description: Television is the senior audience’s favourite device for consuming audiovisual content due to their familiarity with its interface and because it results in a kind of companion in everyday moments, especially when they are alone. The observation of these phenomena could recently be reinforced during the social isolation resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. In the most critical period, the consumption of television content increased among older people, as well as the adoption of other technological resources aimed at entertainment or social interaction. At the same time, advances in Artificial Intelligence and Big Data have allowed virtual assistants to take significant steps towards proactivity, that is, they have the ability to increasingly anticipate users’ needs, instead of just reacting to them. In that context, this doctoral project aims to identify whether the integration of a proactive assistant, of a multimodal nature, in interactive TV (iTV) will be able to reduce the social isolation of elderly people, by promoting a more dynamic interaction, frequent and consistent with family, caregivers and friends.

—

Doctorate in Information and Communication in Digital Platforms

12. Project: Promoção da Interação Social entre a População Sénior: uma Abordagem Proativa Gamificada em Televisão (Projeto ProSeniorTV)

Author: Gabriel Martins Faria

Supervisors: Telmo Silva e Jorge Ferraz de Abreu

Description: The ProSeniorTV project aims to promote active and healthy aging among the elderly. Through an iTV interface, the user receives notifications about social events or activities taking place near their area of residence. This interface also allows the user to access gamified features that encourage them to attend those social events/activities to improve their ranking in the game interface. The user can also test and improve their cognitive skills through the minigames offered.

—

Doctorate in Information and Communication in Digital Platforms

13. Project: A Promoção da Empatia em Assistente Inteligentes para TV através de Comportamentos Proativos

Author: Tiffany Marques

Supervisors: Jorge Ferraz de Abreu e Rita Santos

Description: The integration of intelligent assistants into the television ecosystem has simplified the performance of tasks, such as searching for content by an actor’s name. However, despite their growing adoption, it seems that these assistants are restricted to merely reactive behaviors and present less than human and empathetic dimension towards users. However, in other application domains, we have been witnessing the integration of proactive behaviors, which can counteract these barriers and, consequently, improve the respective User Experience (UX). It is precisely in this context of proactivity that this research project is designed, whose main purpose is to study which proactive behaviors can be integrated into an intelligent assistant for Interactive Television (iTV) to promote empathy and improve the associated UX and, consequently, its adoption in a more fluid and massive way. The aim of this project is to contribute to the advancement of intelligent assistants in the iTV domain.

Media Play’24 – Organization

Carlos Santos

Catarina Lélis

Maria João Antunes

Mariana Coronha

Mónica Aresta

Mónica Silva

Nelson Zagalo

NEMTC – AAUAv

Oksana Tymoshchuck

Patrícia Oliveira

Rita Oliveira

Visual identity

Joana Dantas

Patrocínios e Empresas participantes