The talk ” Interaction Design for All: How to explore our sensory capabilities to promote accessibility” will take place on the 24^th of October, 3 p.m., in the “anfiteatro João Branco/DeCA”.

The speaker is Professor Tatiana Aires Tavares, from the Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil who will be with us, at the University of Aveiro, during the next week.

This is an initiative of both the “E-Health & Wellbeing” and “Social iTV” Research groups, from the DigiMedia Research Centre – Digital Media and Interaction .

More information about Tatiana Aires Tavares [1]

The 97^th AlticeLabs Tech Day was held on the 19^th July under the theme “A new TV experience: UltraTV”, a consortium project that brings together Altice Labs, the University of Aveiro and the Telecommunications Institute, co-financed by Compete2020, Portugal2020 and the European Structural Funds and the European Investment Funds. This project aims to develop an ecosystem of interactive TV applications that allows, on the one hand, to support a TV service with the most advanced functionalities on the market and, on the other, to test new models of interaction.

At that session, Jorge Miguel Rosa, from the B2C Products and Services Department of Altice PT, presented the evolution of streaming content consumption since 2010, with a decrease in live and linear visualization and a substantial increase in catch up TV. Equally relevant in the analysis of the television consumption evolution are the Netflix and Youtube channels, which are responsible for the explosion of online videos and direct access to the consumer. At the same time, there is a substantial increase in viewing on mobile devices such as tablets, laptops, and smartphones. This new paradigm in television consumption gives users control of what they see, when they see and where they see. In this sense, the pay TV business model must be rethought.

In response to the above problem, a set of presentations / demonstrations with proposals to respond to new ways of consuming Interactive TV content was made.In this sense, Professor Jorge Ferraz de Abreu, senior researcher at DigiMedia – Digital Media and Interaction Research Center and full professor from the Communication and Art department (DeCA) of the University of Aveiro (UA) ,  presented a disruptive User Interface (UI) proposal, with unification of contents and interactions, that is able to take advantage of the different types of devices: TV, mobile and computer. This study led to a UX prototype with a field trial involving at least 20 families and lasting 20 days, and results can be viewed on the Ultra TV website.

The new habits of content consumption on demand also raise technological issues, such as the need to enable public access networks to provide content with the highest quality to the user, regardless of their context or location, using adaptive distribution mechanisms that work in an integrated way. Professor Susana Sargento of the Telecommunications Institute presented and demonstrated the approach taken by her team to respond to this challenge, which involves improving the Quality of Experience (QoE) through mechanisms for predicting user consumption, by the implementation of distributed caches and usage and prefectching, in a content-aware distributed architecture (Content-Aware Adaptation and Distributed Architecture)

At the end of the session, Bernardo Cardoso, from the Digital, Internet and Television department (DIT), demonstrated the integration of the various components in a multilayered architecture, given the various subsystems involved. One of the goals was to support the whole new ecosystem in standards and open and multi operator platforms, capable of being the basis for a new generation of Interactive TV services. In addition, the use of open Set-top Boxes (STB) and the development of an Application Bootstrap Kit (ABK) for this ecosystem allow the creation of new entertainment formats by a wide community of developers / creators. The demonstrations included use cases of Multi Experience, Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), continuity of the television experience between devices, among others, always accompanied by a very interested and participative audience.   Source adapted from  [1]

SHORT DESCRIPTION

The second edition of Internet Day@UA, an event promoted by the DigiMedia Research Centre and the Department of Communication and Art of the University of Aveiro, ended with a sense of fulfillment and success.

This one day event intended to associate the University of Aveiro, the Department of Communication and Art and DigiMedia Research Centre to the global celebration of the “World Internet Day” that happened on several countries around the world on May 17th.

The opening table, that comprise the Vice-dean Artur Silva, the Director of the Communication and Art Department, Rui Raposo, and the Scientific Coordinator of DigiMedia Research Centre Fernando Ramos, were presented with a full house. After the opening table, Matthew Kushin, Associate Professor from Sheperd University, reflected, through several examples, on the role social media has on everyday life. Professor Armando Malheiro, from University of Porto, followed Matthew Kushin and discussed the importance of associating social sciences and technology as a way to understand the needs of a digital society.

In the afternoon, representatives of several companies (Altice, Bayer Portugal, Pixelmatters, Gfi, Pictonio, Ubiwhere, Inova-ria, Gocontact, Farfetch, Micro i/o) where invited to assist and comment tree students projects associated to the degree cycle of New Communication Tecnhonogies (Planos, SAPO Campus Analytics, Phil).

We finished the Day with the Speed Dating moment. Students and companies facing together in a presentation, evaluation and selection process towards future collaborations.

 

17 May 2018

DigiMedia – Digital Media and Interaction Research Centre, from Department of Comunication and Art (DeCA), hosts the event “Internet Day 2018” to celebrate the Internet day with the theme “leisure and pleasure”.

The day schedule includes, during the morning, two talks: the first by Associate Professor Matthew Kushin from Sheperd University named “The Cost of Clicks and Shares: Questions on the Civic and Political Potential of the The Internet in the Attention Economy” and the second one, presented by Professor Armando Malheiro at University of Porto, named “Diferentes formas de estudar a internet”.

In the afternoon there will be project presentations made by students of Novas Tecnologias da Comunicação and a debate with guest companies. Following that, is an activity of “speed dating” that promotes connections between Sciences and Comunications Tecnologies students and companies.

To finish the day takes place a session of Biodanza, taught by Raquel Bontempo, this activity estimulates the human development through dance and music.

Admission is free, although registration is required for certain activities (speed dating and Biodanza).

More information regarding the event in: http://digimedia.web.ua.pt/internet-day/

University of Aveiro – Department of Communication and Art –  CCCI Auditorium and Room 40.1.8

2-4 November 2017

The Department of Communication and Art at the University of Aveiro will host from 2^th to 4^th of November the XIII Congress of APImprensa/ International Conference of Portuguese language press in the world.

The Research Centre DigiMedia accepted the challenge proposed by the conference organizers – Associação Portuguesa de Imprensa and will present a performance entitle “The Future of the Television Ecosystem” based on four project prototypes driven by ULTRA TV, GUIDER, NOW UP and +TV4E projects.

The conference aims to gather researchers from universities and the industry, to share their experiences about emergency measures for the Media, Distribution / Monetization, Entrepreneurship in Media and Vocational Training and Press Council.

Detailed program, registration process and other relevant information can be access at: https://congressodaimprensaportuguesa.wordpress.com/

University of Aveiro – Department of Communication and Art

The colloquium of the research group in cyberculture presented different studies on the problematic relations between networking information circulation, contents reading and sharing practices, modalities of propagating and automated news.

We analyzed the state of the research in the framework of the datification culture and and examples of data analysis. Last, but not least, we presented case studies on phenomena of radical polarization in social media and the spreading of misinformation online.

The Department of Communication and Arts through the Digimedia Reserach Center hosted the 13th Joint European Summer School on Technology Enhanced Learning, from October 9 to October 13. The summer school was organised by the European Association of Technology Enhanced Learning – EATEL (http://ea-tel.eu/) and the University of Aveiro (http://www.ua.pt).
The summer school was directed mainly to PhD students and instructors from all countries. The programme covered topics from a broad range of domains in the field of TEL and included practical and methodological sessions as well as opportunities for discussion of doctoral works and netowrk sessions for future collaborations between PhD students, experts in the field and peers across Europe.

The 6th Iberoamerican Conference on Applications and Usability of Interactive TV (jAUTI’2017) took place at the University of Aveiro from the 12th to 13th of October 2017.

This edition was organized by members of the Social iTV group of the Research Centre Digimedia with the special participation of the Network on Applications and Usability of Interactive Digital Television (RedAUTI).

The conference gather researchers from different iberoamerican countries (Spain, Portugal, Brasil, Equador and Argentina) and had also the participation from several industry players. It was an excellent opportunity to discuss different thematic areas in the field of Interactive Television: accessibility in Digital TV, Services and Design of User Interfaces for Digital and Interactive TV, as well as their Audiences, Contents and Technologies.

Angel García Crespo (from University Carlos III of Madrid) and Tiago Silva Lopes (from Altice-MEO) addressed two remarkable keynotes. More info and photos at the conference FB page.

9-13 October 2017

The Research Centre Digimedia is pleased to announce the 13th Joint European Summer School on Technology Enhanced Learning. This event is organized by the European Association of Technology Enhanced Learning – EATEL (http://ea-tel.eu/) and hosted by the Department of Communication and Art at the University of Aveiro.

The JTEL summer school provides a stimulating learning environment where participants get opportunities to develop research skills, increase their knowledge base, collaborate with others in their own and complementary research areas, engage in debate, have access to experts in the field, and discuss their own work.

The programme will also include practical and methodological workshops as well as opportunities for PhD students to develop their personal research, discuss their doctoral work and build bridges for future collaborations experts in the field and peers across Europe.

The summer school is open for PhD students and instructors from all countries.

More information about the event is available at: http://www.prolearn-academy.org/Events/summer-school-2017/

University of Aveiro – Department of Communication and Art