Since the first cavemen wrote on their walls—and their mothers sent them to bedrock without any mammoth—writing has been the way humans express and differentiate themselves. Sure, we talk … and talk and talk and talk, if you happen to catch cable TV … but we still use our hands to do much of the communicating. Cell phones, in fact, are now used more often for texting than talking, no doubt causing Alexander Graham Bell to roll in his grave.
This human tendency to want to write, text, type, thumb the cell, is at the center of one of the truly hot debates about interactive TV. Some naysayers contend that interactive TV will never reach its full potential because, in the end, people have been trained to type and interactive TV is a visual medium without a stylus.
Interacting is evolutionary. When I was a kid, a TV announcer interacted with his audience by telling them to rush to the phone and “call now.” (I wonder if those operators are still standing by…) A dozen years ago, that announcer advised his audience to rush to their computers and type in whataripoff.com to get more information. Today that announcer, still interacting with his audience, tells his viewers to text in the numbers 8675309.
Every time that happens the viewer steps back from the TV and moves to another medium. Interaction with the TV stops.
The most logical solution is to give viewers a keyboard. Of course, with the exception of a few diehards who don’t see the sun as often as they should, sitting in front of a TV with a wireless keyboard on your lap is a cumbersome way to experience interactive television.
There are better ways and they start with the remote control. Vizio is preparing to introduce a slide-out QWERTY keyboard to enable on-screen texting. That’s a quick fix, perhaps, and certainly better than a full keyboard. At the Cable Show, ActiveVideo demonstrated how to tweet on TV using intuitive software from Keisense that transforms several simple keys on a remote control into an interactive guidance system.
Ideally, and this is something that’s in development, a remote control will contain the intuitive elements that will enable it to learn from and understand its user. Network sensing technology that identifies the user’s quirks and typing habits will fill in the gaps to accelerate the interactive process. It’s working now with the iPhone and other so-called smartphones, so why not move to the remote control? Can you imagine a guy sitting in the bar, knocking them back and telling the bartender, “My remote doesn’t understand me?”
In the end, it’s not only possible but likely that texting will be replaced by the oldest form of communication, talking. Ideally, a voice-activated device would let viewers tell the TV what they want to do and say. It works now in voice recognition systems in cars—and nobody ever said carmakers were an advanced lot—so it should work with television. Think of the fun when channel changing turns into shouting matches that are less violent but no less entertaining than fighting over a remote.
Despite the opinions of the naysayers, interactive TV is happening. The applications are there; the public desire to interact is certainly there; providers can make it happen; and there’s content, with more always on the way. That’s plenty to write home about – no matter what kind of keyboard you’re using.
