TakeoverTV: facilitating the social negotiation of television content in public spaces

Social television, in essence, is a way to share and experience media with others. Rather than attempt to bridge physical distance by creating new social experiences, we have built a system called TakeoverTV that augments canonical social interactions by addressing three key questions: How can we better support social gatherings around media in public and private places?; How can we enable conversation across our devices rather than forcing us to communicate through them?; and How can we help people come to agreements about what media they want to watch together? Primarily aimed at public spaces like bars, TakeoverTV is a system that lets local users influence and interact with the movies and television programs shown on public displays. Our system collects the media preferences of all people physically present at a given location, lets users start a vote among all members of the space, and allows everyone to participate using tangible physical objects like tables in addition to smart devices. Over time, public establishments can evolve complex identities based on the preferences and votes of their patrons while generating valuable analytic data for patrons, establishment owners, content-providers, and advertisers alike.