Service providers developing the product road map for their IPTV services recognize that the user interface will play a critical role in how the offers are accepted. Joining the wealth of user interface options is a remote control platform announced this month by European manufacturer Ruwido that uses family members’ fingerprints to control system operation.

The most popular application for the new product will be the “dynamic user interface related to different behaviors," predicts Ferdinand Maier, managing director of Ruwido. Through the fingerprint interface, he says, “the system knows who is in front of the television set and it knows that last Saturday between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. this person was looking at sports or home shopping and it offers dynamic pre-selection of new services of interest to this person.”

The system also can be used to prevent children from watching inappropriate content and can provide user authentication for home shopping applications. Another potential application is for the fingerprint remote control to replace the remote controls for other devices in the home such as home stereo systems or lighting.

Although Ruwido has not yet announced any customers for the offering, Maier says the company has seen strong interest from service providers. Ruwido envisions the fingerprint-controlled platform being built into set-top boxes through three-way partnerships with set-top box manufacturers and service providers. “The platform can only be driven from the service providers,” he says, because the service providers will want to customize the interface to support their unique service offerings. Maier adds that he is not aware of any other manufacturer using a fingerprint interface for a remote control.

Ruwido’s technology is based on research conducted in collaboration with specialists in human behavior at two European universities—the University of Salzburg and Joanneum Technical University. Maier declined to discuss the price of the platform. But he believes the system will pay for itself by supporting strong service adoption. “If you can make content accessible, people will use it,” he says.

A fingerprint remote control could be an effective way of addressing challenges involved with IPTV services, notes Teresa Mastroangelo, principal analyst for broadbandtrends.com. “When you start to do commerce-based activity is where this kind of thing becomes really important in terms of authentication,” she says, “and a fingerprint is more robust than a PIN code, which could more easily be duplicated.”

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