Defining user perception of distributed multimedia quality

This article presents the results of a study that explored the human side of the multimedia experience. We propose a model that assesses quality variation from three distinct levels: the network, the media and the content levels; and from two views: the technical and the user perspective. By facilitating parameter variation at each of the quality levels and from each of the perspectives, we were able to examine their impact on user quality perception. Results show that a significant reduction in frame rate does not proportionally reduce the user's understanding of the presentation independent of technical parameters, that multimedia content type significantly impacts user information assimilation, user level of enjoyment, and user perception of quality, and that the device display type impacts user information assimilation and user perception of quality. Finally, to ensure the transfer of information, low-level abstraction (network-level) parameters, such as delay and jitter, should be adapted; to maintain the user's level of enjoyment, high-level abstraction quality parameters (content-level), such as the appropriate use of display screens, should be adapted

Issues with the construct of quality

This paper proposes an outline for a framework that aims to give a comprehensive view of perceived video quality, including physical characteristics, perceptual attributes and cognitive factors

The sweet smell of success: Enhancing multimedia applications with olfaction

This is the Post-Print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2012 ACMOlfaction, or smell, is one of the last challenges which multimedia applications have to conquer. As far as computerized smell is concerned, there are several difficulties to overcome, particularly those associated with the ambient nature of smell. In this article, we present results from an empirical study exploring users' perception of olfaction-enhanced multimedia displays. Findings show that olfaction significantly adds to the user multimedia experience. Moreover, use of olfaction leads to an increased sense of reality and relevance. Our results also show that users are tolerant of the interference and distortion effects caused by olfactory effect in multimedia

Beautiful and damned. Combined effect of content quality and social ties on user engagement

User participation in online communities is driven by the intertwinement of the social network structure with the crowd-generated content that flows along its links. These aspects are rarely explored jointly and at scale. By looking at how users generate and access pictures of varying beauty on Flickr, we investigate how the production of quality impacts the dynamics of online social systems. We develop a deep learning computer vision model to score images according to their aesthetic value and we validate its output through crowdsourcing. By applying it to over 15B Flickr photos, we study for the first time how image beauty is distributed over a large-scale social system. Beautiful images are evenly distributed in the network, although only a small core of people get social recognition for them. To study the impact of exposure to quality on user engagement, we set up matching experiments aimed at detecting causality from observational data. Exposure to beauty is double-edged: following people who produce high-quality content increases one's probability of uploading better photos; however, an excessive imbalance between the quality generated by a user and the user's neighbors leads to a decline in engagement. Our analysis has practical implications for improving link recommender systems.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, final version published in IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (Volume: PP, Issue: 99

Olfaction-enhanced multimedia: Perspectives and challenges

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2011 Springer VerlagOlfaction—or smell—is one of the last challenges which multimedia and multimodal applications have to conquer. Enhancing such applications with olfactory stimuli has the potential to create a more complex—and richer—user multimedia experience, by heightening the sense of reality and diversifying user interaction modalities. Nonetheless, olfaction-enhanced multimedia still remains a challenging research area. More recently, however, there have been initial signs of olfactory-enhanced applications in multimedia, with olfaction being used towards a variety of goals, including notification alerts, enhancing the sense of reality in immersive applications, and branding, to name but a few. However, as the goal of a multimedia application is to inform and/or entertain users, achieving quality olfaction-enhanced multimedia applications from the users’ perspective is vital to the success and continuity of these applications. Accordingly, in this paper we have focused on investigating the user perceived experience of olfaction-enhanced multimedia applications, with the aim of discovering the quality evaluation factors that are important from a user’s perspective of these applications, and consequently ensure the continued advancement and success of olfaction-enhanced multimedia applications

User perception of media content association in olfaction-enhanced multimedia

Olfaction is an exciting challenge facing multimedia applications. In this article we have investigated user perception of the association between olfactory media content and video media content in olfactory-enhanced multimedia. Results show that the association between scent and content has a significant impact on the user-perceived experience of olfactory-enhanced multimedia

Adapting Content Delivery to Limited Resources and Inferred User Interest

This paper discusses adaptation policies for information systems that are subject to dynamic and stochastic contexts such as mobile access to multimedia web sites. In our approach, adaptation agents apply sequential decisional policies under uncertainty. We focus on the modeling of such decisional processes depending on whether the context is fully or partially observable. Our case study is a movie browsing service in a mobile environment that we model by using Markov decision processes (MDPs) and partially observable MDP (POMDP). We derive adaptation policies for this service, that take into account the limited resources such as the network bandwidth. We further refine these policies according to the partially observable users' interest level estimated from implicit feedback. Our theoretical models are validated through numerous simulations

Research investigating individual device preference and e-learning quality perception: can a one-solution-fits-all e-learning solution work?

Background: COVID-19 caused a paradigm shift for educators, and raised many questions about the future of technology in the delivery of educational content. Literature highlights numerous benefits of using e-learning solutions, yet many still consider ‘online learning’ as the cheap / ‘low-quality’ alternative to traditional ‘face-to-face’ models. In this research we ask two questions that are critical to the effective development of future e-learning solutions: Do students prefer face-to-face (traditional) learning methods or e-learning technology enabled solutions? Does perception of e-learning, and/or device preference, vary between individuals? Methods: A three part, quantitative questionnaire was developed, based on previously used questionnaire items, which collected: demographic data, student preference concerning learning, and individual variance - via use of the Cultural Value (CV) Scale dimension test. Data was collected from 518 participants using convenience sampling from a range of universities in Pakistan. EFA and CFA showed that questions and factor loading was good. CV Scale results show clear loading and model fit at the individual level, allowing application of results beyond Pakistan. Results: By considering the CV Scale dimensions, our results highlighted three distinct technology preference clusters: i) students, with a high-power distance score, who prefer traditional face-to-face teaching methods; ii) students with low power distance and high uncertainty avoidance scores, who prefer use of e-learning on their mobile devices, and iii) students with low power distance and low uncertainty avoidance scored, who prefer to use laptop devices. Conclusions: This paper highlights that the majority of students are happy to engage with online blended learning solutions, however a one-solution fits all approach to technology use in education fail to satisfy the interaction preferences need of all student groups. Only by embracing flexible and mixed blend delivery models, supporting interaction across a range of pervasive devices, can we maximize student perception towards education service provision. Keywords: Face-to-Face learning, E-learning, Culture Value Dimensions, HE services quality indicators, Quality Perception, Quality Indicator

Descriptive quality of experience for mobile 3D video

ilmenau.de} Perceptual quality evaluation experiments are used to assess the excellence of multimedia quality. However, these studies disregard qualitative experiential descriptions, interpretations, and impressions of quality. The goal of this paper is to identify general descriptive characteristics of experienced quality of 3D video on mobile devices. We conducted five studies in which descriptive data was collected after the psychoperceptual quality evaluation experiment. Qualitative semi-structured interviews and written attribute description tasks were conducted with over 90 naïve participants. The experiments contained an extensive and heterogeneous set of produced quality by varying content, level of depth, compression and transmission parameters, and audio and display factors for 3D. The results showed that quality of experience is constructed from four main components, 1) visual quality, 2) viewing experience, 3) content, and 4) quality of other modalities and their interactions. Author Keywords Quality perception, quality of experience, multimedia, 3