Ball State University will be the first university in the U.S. to utilize a new software kit for interactive television.
OCAP/EBIF Development Network (OEDN), an industry group made up of developers for interactive television, worked with Comcast Media Center and Ensenquence to make an Academic ITV Software Developer Kit program available to schools.
Ball State was chosen to use the software due mostly to OEDN's previous work on projects with Mike Bloxham and the Center for Media Design, senior director at Time Warner Cable and founder of OEDN, William Kreth said.
Students enrolled in the iMedia program, a year long program where students develop and design interactive news and advertising on a variety of platforms, will be the first group of students to utilize the software kit.
It will enable students to use industry content formats to create and test interactive television applications, director of research at the Center for Media Design Mike Bloxham said.
Interactivity is the next step in the progression of television, Bloxham said.
It allows people to interact with a program as they view it. For example, viewers can choose different camera angles during a football game or vote on American Idol using their remote.
Ball State will reap a variety of benefits from the software kit, Bloxham said.
"We are going to be the only university, for now, with graduates who have hands on experience of using these tools and at the moment there aren't many people in the industry who have that experience," Bloxham said.
The kit will provide students with the opportunity to research and test interactive television applications.
"There's a great research agenda for us to dig into which we will dig into with the collaboration of other departments on campus in order to generate an understanding with the industry about what's most likely to work and what's less likely to work and why," Bloxham said.
Ball State and OEDN have signed a letter of intent and details of the agreement will be worked out in the coming months, Kreth said.
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