Don't Leave: Combining Sensing Technology and Second Screens to Enhance the User Experience with TV Content

Abstract

In this paper we explore how the use of sensing technologies can enhance people's experience during perceiving TV content. The work is motivated by an increasing number of sensors (such as Kinect) that find their way into living rooms. Such sensors allow the behavior of viewers to be analyzed, hence providing the opportunity to instantly react to this behavior. The particular idea we explore in our work is how a second screen app triggered by the viewer's behavior can be designed to make them re-engage with the TV content. At the outset of our work we conducted a survey (N=411) to assess viewers' activities while watching TV. Based on the findings we implemented a Kinect-based system to detect these activities and connected it with a playful second screen app. We then conducted a field evaluation (N=20) where we compared (a) four hints to direct users' attention to the second screen app and (b) four types of second screen content requiring different levels of engagement. We conclude with implications for both practitioners and researchers concerned with interactive TV