Enabling user-centric assessment and modelling of immersiveness in multimodal multimedia applications

Multimodal, immersive systems are the latest development within the field of multimedia. These systems emulate the senses by means of omnidirectional visuals, 360° sound, motion tracking and touch simulation to create a feeling of presence in the virtual environment. They have the potential to substitute physical interactions in application domains such as training (Industry 4.0) or e-health (tele-surgery). However, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that they are not ready, as they still have room for improvement in terms of network streaming quality, usability and the users’ feeling of presence. In addition, these systems can induce feelings of dizziness, nausea etc. (i.e. cybersickness). These factors therefore have an important impact on the user’s total immersion. In this work, we therefore propose that immersiveness can be devised from measuring four aspects, namely: presence (i.e. the feeling of being "in" the environment), cybersickness, network related Quality-of-Experience (QoE) and the usability of the application. Therefore, a two-dimensional user-centric approach on the assessment and modelling of immersiveness is proposed. These dimensions include (i) subjective and objective assessment of presence, cybersickness, usability and QoE and (ii) real-time modelling of immersiveness. Furthermore, a proof-of-concept is envisioned including two use cases. As such, we believe that this position paper will significantly advance the state of the art on immersive systems and multimedia in general.

Jaar van publicatie:2022

Toegankelijkheid:Open