Linked TV: Buttons
Buttons is a project to help televisions, remote controls, their users and associated gadgets communicate more usefully. It's a mix of some old ongoing foaf-projects work from the FOAF project, and some findings from the NoTube EU project.
There isn't much to see here yet, but if you're technically minded, some of the following links might be interesting:
Status (as of 2009-11-08): I've some experimental prototyping work partially blogged, including an OSX adaptor that relays local Apple Remote events into XMPP, an iPhone app which does much the same, and some experiments with Strophe/BOSH and HTML5 as UI. Also some experiments with pushing those HTML pieces down into social networks via OpenSocial (which will involve fiddling around with flXHR and Punjab XMPP proxying to get around x-domain rules). And eventually wiring up wrappers for Boxee/XMBC/Plex, MythTV, iTunes, EyeTV etc etc. For now, here's a screenshot of a simple HTML5 video playing UI driven from Apple Remote and/or iPhone. --Danbri.org 20:57, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
Note that there is no real protocol yet, beyond code that looks for ad hoc strings in XMPP messages. This is by design. A protocol will come once we've a suitable environment with data, code, services that need to communicate. We might have some hackathons for this kind of stuff as part of the NoTube project.
- website: buttons.foaf.tv
- NoTube Buttons work: buttons.notube.tv (hmm this might point to Chris' Zapper demos for now)
- earlier FOAF project work on JQbus, for data query using Jabber.
- The NoTube EU project; Buttons builds on NoTube's research and use cases.
- For work-in-progress NoTube survey of iphone remotes, EPGs, video and radio apps, etc. see flickr.
- XMPP specs for TV / media centre remote control on XMPP Social list.
- related bookmarks: buttons, remotes, notube.
- The XBMC HTTP API shows some example facilities that might be exposed over Buttons
- ageing book chapter on P2P and the Power of Metadata
- some blurry ideas for visuals, showing buttoned home media kit (slideshow)
- initial danbri 'linked tv' essay
The plan, roughly, is to define some lightweight Social TV protocols based on XMPP, FOAF and various other standards, with the goal of reducing friction and fragmentation between different TV watching environments and of allowing Buttons-compatible remote controls to connect arbitrary media centres, smart phones, Web video sites and - eventually - set top boxes.
Initial prototyping is with the XBMC family of media-centre systems (Boxee, Plex, etc.), and using iPhone, Android and Web (Javascript / OpenSocial / BOSH) as clients. There is currently no spec, no requirements document, no mailing list and no project plan. But things are moving along...
Contact: Dan Brickley
