digeo, a Paul Allen company

Interactive TV in the dark ages

My job was to come up with prototype iTV experiences for a broadcast technology created for a standard and display (picture tube) that had barely changed from its earliest days. It was like putting a steam engine on a horse drawn buggy; a forced pairing of technologies both of which were headed for oblivion. Interactivety relied on hijacking portions of picture tube 'scan line' technology to kick off Javascript functions loaded into a then standard 'cable box'. In addition to overseeing the code and screen design for the interactive experience, I encoded the actual broadcast programs with the 'kick-off' signals. I was able to create two iTV prototypes; one for the Soap Opera 'Days of Our Lives' and the other, which required some remote video shot at a Portland Trailblazers game, for an interactive NBA experience. When I put the remote control for these in Paul Allen's hand the industry migration toward digital TV had already doomed the whole process... and digeo.