Demonstrators

The technology developed for the TA2 project will be used to enable a number of prototype framing experiences that are designed to make communications and engagement between groups of people, separated in time and space, easier. These prototype experiences will help us to better understand the generic requirements of such applications. The framing experiences will be enabled by a suite of componentised capabilities related to audio, video, and image processing; to speaker identification in informal settings; to content packaging, augmentation and adaptation and will include systems for personalised and scalable information sharing. The technology will all be developed using a user-centred design process in order to keep the needs of the user central to the project. Outlines of the scope of the five framing experiences that the project will explore are described below.

Remote Playing of a Family Game	One common form of inter-personal social interaction in a home setting is the playing of a multi-person game. These games include familiar “parlour games” such as Monopoly, Labyrinth or Pictionary, but also “traditional” player-centric interaction games such as charades. The TA2 project will develop a game environment that will support game play between two or more teams of players who are situated in different physical locations.
Interactively Sharing and Enriching My Videos	Recognising the importance of looking at media together as a cornerstone for the sharing of family experiences, the second TA2 application will provide tools and an infrastructure to help people develop and share short home movies with simple but meaningful interactive narratives automatically generated by the TA2 system. These movies (which may also contain text, audio and image augmentations) will be shared within a controlled group setting, with viewers within the group being able to add comments and their own media objects to non-destructively enrich the base content in the videos. The TA2 system will facilitate this functionality through the use of automatic capabilities that will help users to identify, select and annotate clips that are most likely to generate meaningful and attractive narrative based home videos.
Child’s Play	In this application we focus our attention on more unstructured forms of creative, communicative and cooperative play for young people, families and friends. This includes providing young children the opportunity to be creative and to communicate safely, easily and effectively with their friends and family. Young children can paint pictures together in real time on a virtual “work desk/whiteboard” using various creativity tools while using integrated video and audio communication during the creativity process to discuss their aims and ambitions. The application features group discussions on decisions to be made during the process, such as the tools or techniques available during the game. By explicitly limiting resources, a framework can be developed that require children to cooperate and share in order to achieve the best possible creativity results. This framework is based on shared remote experiences that are so natural that the children feel they are playing together, even when they are remote.
Sixth Age	In order to respond to demographic developments, new support and communication paradigms will be studied with a focus on those in the “sixth age”. This generation is using computer games more, though the game types that prove attractive are usually different to those enjoyed by younger hardcore gamers. There is some evidence supporting the idea that games can stimulate the brain and improve older people’s cognitive abilities. In any case, games can be fun for all ages. As with other age groups, a significant opportunity exists in coupling games with on-line communication and sharing, both with friends and with members of an extended family. Here again, ease of communication and interaction form key components of a successful application that is geared to keeping all members of the family engaged.
Improving social communication	The concepts of shared communication and ‘remote-togetherness’ in a trusted environment of family and friends provides a useful framework for studying social communication between families. By working with groups that are well known to each other, we will build an application that can make communication easier, more frequent, appropriate and effective. The application will consider using a range of sensor inputs, including those from video, from passive infrared detectors, and from cell location etc, to develop a predictive picture of a person’s preparedness to begin casual conversations.