Cisco hosted tech reporters at its annual CES press reception last week and took us through a whirlwind of company news, vision-speak, and proof-of-concept demos. The best of the demos was an app giving users the ability not only to control TV from a mobile device, but also to share related secondary content between different screens. For example, execs showed how to bring up detailed program information or social networking content on a tablet, and then transfer that information in widget-like tiles to the television display.
On the tablet, meanwhile, the app kept a strip of video from the live program streaming at the top of the small screen, while still leaving the rest of the window open for browsing Internet content. The idea is that the video strip gives you the feeling that you’re still attached to a TV show even when you’re looking down at your mobile device. It sounds a little ridiculous, but it works. And, if you want, you can drag the strip down to see the full-screen video.
Cisco also showed how to use the app for t-commerce. (Yes, television-commerce…) If you’re looking at a product on your mobile device, you can push that image to the television screen and continue controlling the product view from the tablet in your hand. Cool… at least from a novelty perspective.
Nothing about this app is commercialized, but Cisco said it created the software in only a few weeks. Not bad for a CES demo.