Using intelligent 3D animated character as the interface for interactive digital TV system

Abstract

In this research, we propose to incorporate intelligent 3D character into interface design to enhance the user experience on the interactive digital TV system. Based on the smart interactive digital TV system, call SITV, developed in our previous work, we consider several interactive scenarios in the design of the intelligent 3D animated character. We propose to design our intelligent 3D character with the concepts of mobility and expressiveness on body motion such that appropriate emotions can be presented according to TV watching scenarios and character configurations. We have designed experiments to evaluate different types of user interface design for various scenarios. We have found that although the interface with animated character can attract the attention of the user and enhance interactivity, the text-based dialog box interface is still the easiest to understand. We also have found that when the freshness of the new interface with animated character decays after some time of use, it is crucial for an animated character to have expressive motions. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.