Going Beyond Second Screens: Applications for the Multi-display Intelligent Living Room

TL;DR

This paper explores how multi-display environments in intelligent living rooms can enhance media experiences by providing secondary information and supporting natural interaction, without disrupting viewer immersion.

Contribution

It introduces two ambient media players for multi-display intelligent environments and evaluates factors influencing user experience during media consumption.

Findings

Secondary displays can enhance media experiences without disrupting immersion

Natural interaction support improves user engagement

Expert evaluations identify key factors affecting overall experience

Abstract

This work aims to investigate how the amenities offered by Intelligent Environments can be used to shape new types of useful, exciting and fulfilling experiences while watching sports or movies. Towards this direction, two ambient media players were developed aspiring to offer live access to secondary information via the available displays of an Intelligent Living Room, and to appropriately exploit the technological equipment so as to support natural interaction. Expert-based evaluation experiments revealed some factors that can influence the overall experience significantly, without hindering the viewers' immersion to the main media.