Integrating simple recommendation systems on Digital TV Widget applications

As Digital Television is becoming popular, an ever-growing number of television operators is providing interactive applications for its viewers. Due to the nature, usual employ and limited interaction possibilities with the device, an intensive use similarly to computer is hardly recommended. Instead, recurring to more casual and lightweight interfaces such as widgets, and obtaining information about the viewed contents has been considered a more appropriate employ of the potential of such a technology. This paper describes a recommendation system to be integrated with Digital TV Widget applications, which, by considering the user's program choices, is capable of presenting related commercial products and upcoming events, matching therefore the user's interests. The interface design is meant to be as simple and intuitive as possible, yet compatible with existing widget systems. This is achieved by recurring to similar button mapping and presenting color and geometric clues for its handling. This approach intends to offer simple, enjoyable, yet efficient personalized advertising features.