6-9 November  2017

As a result of the participation of the University of Aveiro in the UltraTV project (led by Altice Labs), a new Interactive Television concept will be demonstrated at the Web Summit at the Altice stand, which stands out the possibility to offer a unification of contents from various sources. Over a single and disruptive User Interface, developed by the research group on Social iTV of the DigiMedia Research Unit, it is possible to access both television contents and content from other players (Youtube, Facebook videos and even Netflix) over the Tv screen.

This new concept of television ecosystem allows users to see the contents of several players, materializing in a FlowTV approach. Users do not need to frisk from application to application, or be confronted with different user interfaces.

The concept was prototyped by Altice Labs, in articulation with the team from the University of Aveiro, over the Luna framework from Craftwork. In addition to the unification of contents and sources, we highlight the recommendations based on user profiles, the look and feel of the User Inteface and the User Experience that it provides.

The research results of the consortium, of which is also part IT, represents a significant contribution to the future of television.

* The UltraTV project (ref. 17738) is co-financed by COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020 and the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER).

Lisbon – Altice Arena (formerly Known as MEO arena) and FIL

6-8 September 2017

The paper “Co-designing a Game-Based Learning Platform for Active Ageing: The Case of Jump” was awarded with best Paper Award, at the International Conference on Simulation and AI in Games GAME ON’2017, held at Institute of Technology Carlow in Ireland. From 6 to 8 of September, academics and industry practioners in Games were gathered to discuss such topics as Game Design Methodology, Game Design and Gamification, Artificial Intelligence in Games, Serious Gaming, Virtual Reality in Games and Game Characters.

The authors of the aforementioned paper are Liliana Vale Costa and her supervisor Ana Isabel Veloso. Liliana Vale Costa is a Ph.D. student in Information and Communication in Digital Platforms, a joint doctoral programme of the University of Aveiro and University of Porto and her supervisor Ana Isabel Veloso is a researcher and professor at the Department of Communication and Art, University of Aveiro. Both authors have been doing research relative to the use of technology-mediated tools (specially games) and the ageing process in DigiMedia Research Center.

The paper presented at the conference proposed a framework for involving end-users in game design for active ageing and healthy lifestyles, based on an empirical study that was carried out with thirty-three adult learners aged 50 and over in the co-design of a game-based learning platform.

About the conference GAME ON’ 2017 – https://www.eurosis.org/cms/?q=taxonomy/term/391

The Portugal Telecom Foundation, a public service institution with a primary focus on the Health, Education and Access to Communications areas, is now associated with the postdoctoral project of Rita Oliveira, researcher at the Digimedia Unit . The project aims to promote the access to TV contents with audio description by visually impaired users, suggesting an innovative approach to the traditional way of creating audio description for Television, based on volunteering and collaboration between viewers.

Rita Oliveira’s postdoctoral project, supervised by Professors Jorge Ferraz de Abreu and Ana Margarida Almeida of the Department of Communication and Arts, it is intended, on the one hand, to make the audio description offer more widely available through the development of a cross-platform application for the creation of individual or collaborative contributions by volunteers and, on the other hand, to change the way audio description is accessed by viewers with visual impairment through the development of an Interactive Television (iTV) application accessible to this public.
The research project lasts 36 months and it is expected to end in March 2019, being funded by the FCT national funding agency, under the grant number SFRH/BPD/ 112129/2015. In addition to the partnership with the PT Foundation, the project also has the support of the AlticeLabs@UA laboratory (under an academic project) and with some ACAPO delegations.
The new partnership with the PT Foundation will allow moving forward with more strength to data collection with a broad sample of visually impaired viewers.

University of Aveiro – Department of Communication and Arts – DigiMedia Research Unit