Automatic identification in accessible iTV services: proposal of an IPTV interface

Abstract

Interactive Television (iTV) services that currently exist may be subject to a set of improvements in order to become more efficient and meet the needs of visually impaired users (VIU). The current television distribution infrastructures, since supplemented with a return channel and appropriated Set-Top Boxes (STB), open an interesting opportunity for the creation of an iTV service that integrates advanced features and can be automatically adjusted to the preferences of users with visual impairment. In this context, this paper proposes an adapted iTV service for visually impaired users complemented by an automatic user identification system. With this complementarity, the service can be dynamically adjusted to the preferences of the user that is in fact watching TV, automatically invoking the options previously selected in the respective settings.