New software enables potential iPhone/Blu-ray interaction

NetBlender has introduced BD Touch technology, a software toolkit that could enable iPhones and iPod touches to interact with content on a Blu-ray Disc. The technology will require a BD Touch-compatible Blu-ray Disc—as yet unreleased—and an iPhone OS application that interacts with the company’s BD Touch SDK. It leverages the network connection built into Blu-ray players and the Wi-Fi connectivity of the iPhone and iPod touch to create two-way communication between the devices, allowing for transfer of video, audio, text, and player commands. Possible applications of the technology include pushing digital copies of a movie to an iPhone from the Blu-ray Disc menu, cataloguing a viewer’s Blu-ray Disc collection and providing movie suggestions, and more. “By releasing the BD Touch SDK to the iPhone developer community we’re excited to see creative possibilities for Blu-ray interactivity flourish,” said Denny Breitenfeld, NetBlender CTO. “The BD Touch framework is built into our Blu-ray disc authoring solution, DoStudio, so Blu-ray authors at every level of the industry will be able to take advantage of these exciting new applications on their discs with point and click ease.”