Intelligent media agents in interactive television systems

Future interactive television applications are the upcoming front-end to interactive radio, television, video rental, home shopping, multimedia communication, and information retrieval. The challenge of an interactive television system is not that the medium is digital, nor the ability of browsing media resources, nor reception of multiple kinds of media. Users do not need more information than today. The colleague is to provide information which corresponds to users' interests and needs. This paper describes the vision of a multimedia iTV system whose appearance is personally adapted for each user. The concept personal iTV systems is presented by explaining the task of personalization and the technical fundamentals of intelligent assistance.