Interactive TV
(http://www.nist.gov/itl/div897/ctg/dase/daseprojectwebpage.htm)
Overview: Interactive Television is an important
new electronic commerce initiative that is developing standards that
enable the seamless convergence of two currently separate media: broadcast
TV, an inherently non-interactive medium, and the Internet, an inherently
interactive medium. With this integration, the IT, broadcast, entertainment,
and consumer electronics industries involved plan an enhanced, immersing
experience for the TV viewer. This new viewing experience will result
in a dramatic impact on electronic commerce, as consumers become able
to purchase items with their TV remote controls as they view from
the comfort of their family rooms.
The Digital Application Software Environment Committee (DASE),
within the Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC), along
with the Declarative Data Essence Group (DDE) of the Society for
Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) are developing these
standards. DASE specifies a standard programming environment in
receivers for the new integrated medium, enabling application software
to be broadcast and run in receivers regardless of manufacturer.
NIST is developing a reference implementation for DASE and, in conjunction
with Unisoft, conformance tests. NIST is also participating in the
development of the SMPTE DDE standard. DDE defines how Internet
content and TV content are combined within a single broadcast stream.
NIST is contributing to the development of the DDE specification,
and developing tests for DDE. In addition, NIST developed an Interactive
TV Lab to support the DASE and DDE effort.
Industry Need Addressed: A requirement for the success of
Interactive TV is the ability to test candidate Interactive TV content
and receivers with respect to the DASE and SMPTE standards. NIST
was asked by the DASE committee to share its expertise in reference
implementation and test development. NIST chairs the DASE Conformance
Testing Team that resolves conformance issues. NIST was also asked
to participate in the development of SMPTE DDE standard and develop
DDE tests.
NIST/ITL Approach: NIST has as its objectives
the identification and resolution of specification, implementation,
and testing issues such as:
- Improving the quality of specifications by identifying ambiguities,
inconsistencies, and omissions.
- Developing reference implementations.
- Developing conformance statements for specifications.
- Examining specifications for testability.
- Developing testing documents.
NIST is developing a reference implementation for the DASE Application
Program Interface (API) and supporting the work of UniSoft Inc.
to develop the DASE test suite. NIST is participating in the development
of SMPTE DDE standard, and developing tests for DDE triggers and
video stream bindings which compliment existing Unisoft tests for
the HTML, CSS, DOM, and ECMAScript elements of DDE. In addition,
NIST is developing an Interactive TV Laboratory.
Impact: The immediate beneficiaries of this effort are content
developers who develop Interactive TV applications, electronics
companies who manufacture Interactive TV receivers, and broadcasters
who provide broadcast signals with Interactive TV content. More
generally, solid DASE and DDE environments will benefit all companies
that wish to interact with television viewers. NIST's expertise
in software testing provides a neutral setting for discussing DASE
and DDE testing issues.
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