Context driven web applications for networked DTV

With the explosive growth and ubiquity of the Internet, consumers are experiencing the benefits of accessing a large amount of digital information. The trend is evolving to include net-enabled DTVs in addition to PCs and mobile phones. Latest DTVs can support advanced networking and rendering functions useful to access and display a variety of Web content and information in addition to traditional TV. The DTV however presents particular usability problems and obstacles that in many cases result in bad user experience as demonstrated by multiple failed attempts to introduce Web browsers in consumer AV devices. In this paper we summarize the key problems and challenges and propose as solution a context aware method to select Web mini applications that provide customized content and information. Our method improves usability when compared with other methods based on Web browsers or walled garden portals and provides compelling personalized content by taking into account consumer preferences and behavior.