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Companion apps for information-rich television programmes: representation and interaction

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Abstract

The use of a companion app to augment viewing of information-rich television programmes is investigated. The app displays a synchronised graphical abstraction of a programme’s content in the form of a concept map. Two experiments were conducted involving participants watching an astronomy documentary with the app. The first compared watching the programme with and without the app, and the second compared non-interactive and interactive versions of the app. Understanding of the programme, cross-device gaze behaviour, and user experience of the app were assessed. Our results show that the companion app improved participants’ understanding and recall of the programme. Participants were found to manage their visual attention systematically when using the companion app, and correlations were found in the way they shifted their gaze from TV screen to tablet and back in response to changes in the programme content. Increasing interaction with the app disrupted understanding of the television programme and visual attention. Participants were positive about the value of companion apps for understanding and recall of programmes, but distraction and ‘knowing where to look’ were significant concerns.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK

    John Dowell, Hana Kim & Edward Anstead

  2. Inria, Lille, France

    Sylvain Malacria

Authors
  1. John Dowell
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  2. Sylvain Malacria
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  3. Hana Kim
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  4. Edward Anstead
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Dowell.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Fig. 4.

Fig. 4
figure 4

Participants’ gaze shifts cued by auditory content changes

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Appendix 2

See Fig. 5.

Fig. 5
figure 5

Participants’ gaze shifts cued by visual content change

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Dowell, J., Malacria, S., Kim, H. et al. Companion apps for information-rich television programmes: representation and interaction. Pers Ubiquit Comput 19, 1215–1228 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-015-0867-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-015-0867-7

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