As Dave reported earlier, ABC and Nielsen have teamed up to develop an iPad app that supports the new series My Generation. Users run the app while watching the show -- either live or recorded -- and it will stay synced with the section of the episode you're watching by "listening" to the audio from your television, using the built-in microphone.
From there the app will present you with polls and quizzes related to what you're watching, along with other interactive elements. You can get a sense of how this new form of interactivity will play out by watching the video above. [Yes, it's Flash; sorry, but ABC's hosting it and that's the only way to get at it. –Ed.]
While you're watching TV, the iPad is actually watching you, in a manner of speaking; the app serves as a tool for Nielsen to understand viewing habits, as they will use digital watermarking to track user behavior. With such a small percentage of viewers likely to be using the app during the show, it's hard to tell just what kind of data they'll get. But it is an interesting experiment.
