Microsoft's Election 2012 hub on Xbox Live heralds the interactive TV future

The interactive element of the hub is a live polling system. It will gather impressions from Xbox Live users as they watch live broadcasts of the three scheduled presidential debates between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

According to Pinero, Microsoft believes this will be "probably the biggest real-time reaction poll on the presidential debates" in history, depending on the number of users watching.

That's right: no more post-debate call centers or email surveys. Instead, live opinions across the diverse Xbox Live user base will instantly be available to the public. And it will all take place on the Xbox 360.