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

Fully Immersed, Fully Present: Examining the User Experience Through the Multimodal Presence Scale and Virtual Reality Gaming Variables

Over the past few years, video games have served as a catalyst for virtual reality (VR) technology to become more accessible to the average consumer, resulting in an increased interest in VR’s potential applications across several disciplines. To best capitalize on these applications, however, researchers require a thorough understanding of the user’s experience in virtual environments. And while many studies on VR experiences tend to focus on presence, video games offer another angle of approach: immersion. This study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the relationships between the VR experience of presence and the gaming experience of immersion. First, a focus group of individuals with VR gaming experience explored variables impacting presence. Then a survey questionnaire consisting of items from the multimodal presence scale (MPS), Jennett et al.’s (2008) immersion questionnaire, and the focus group was distributed online. Finally, the collected data was analyzed using factor analysis and linear regression to explore the relationships between presence and immersion. Results of the analysis identified involvement to be an important factor impacting a user’s perceived presence in a VR gaming experience

Urban Encounters Reloaded: Towards a Descriptive Account of Augmented Space

In this chapter, augmented space is described as the layering of media technologies onto the physical space of the city. The approach assesses salient aspects of the experience of space in everyday life, the city and urban space more generally. The chapter discusses these in relation to the deployment of augmenting technologies and modes of display associated with augmented reality, new and digital media: visual or otherwise. Selected work, carried out in relation to culture, leisure and tourism is assessed. These case studies indicate the potential of augmented reality in areas of a) urban design, b) tourism and heritage, and c) the promotion of cycling for health and the creation of alternative transport infrastructure. The main characteristics of AR and augmented space are presented. This is followed by a discussion and development of hybrid research tools and applied in two case studies with a view to providing a potential roadmap for future work in this area

“DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?”: INFLUENCE OF EMBODIMENT AND IMMERSION ON CHARACTER IDENTIFICATION IN VIRTUAL REALITY ENVIRONMENTS

The purpose of this study is to explore character identification in virtual reality (VR) in connection to embodiment and immersion. Using previous data gathered from a qualitative study investigating character roles and character identification, I conduct a mixed-method study (survey and qualitative data analysis) to operationalize the concepts of character identification, embodiment, and immersion, study their relationships, and investigate the mediating role of character identification. This study, is a step toward building and validating measurement scales for character identification, embodiment, and VR immersion, suggests future avenues for exploring how character identification shapes user experiences in VR

Measuring the effectiveness of virtual training : a systematic review

The amount of research on virtual reality learning tools increases with time. Despite the diverse environments and theoretical foundations, enough data have been accumulated in recent years to provide a systematic review of the methods used. We pose ten questions concerning the methodological aspects of these studies. We performed a search in three databases according to the PRISMA guidelines and evaluated several characteristics, with particular emphasis on researchers' methodological decisions. We found an increase over time in the number of studies on the effectiveness of VR-based learning. We also identified shortcomings related to how the duration and number of training sessions are reported. We believe that these two factors could affect the effectiveness of VR-based training. Furthermore, when using the Kirkpatrick model, a significant imbalance can be observed in favor of outcomes from the ‘Reaction’ and ‘Learning’ levels compared to the ‘Behavior’ and ‘Results’ levels. The last of these was not used in any of the 330 reviewed studies. These results highlight the importance of research on the effectiveness of VR training. Taking into account the identified methodological shortcomings will allow for more significant research on this topic in the future

Conceptual Framework for Designing Virtual Field Trip Games

This thesis aimed to provide designing models to explore an alternative solution for a field trip when it becomes impossible for several reasons such as the limitation of cost and time. Virtual field trip games are relatively new means to create virtual field trips in game environments through adding game aspects to learning aspects to enhance the learning experience. The simple combining of game and learning aspects will not guarantee the desired effect of virtual field trips. Theoretical and logical connections should be established to form interweave between both aspects. This thesis proposes a designing framework by establishing three links between game design aspects and learning aspects. The three links are constructed by modelling: the experiential learning theory (ELT), the gameplay, and the game world. ELT modelling quantifies the theory into the internal economy mechanic and balances the levels of game task difficulty with the player’s ability through game machinations, game modelling links the learning process to gameplay, and world modelling connects field environment to game environment. The internal economy mechanic and its components (resources, internal mechanic, feedback loop), formulating equations to define generic player’s interactions and identify indicators to capture evidence of achievements via a mathematical (evaluation) model. The game modelling includes skill models to design two important high-order skills (decision-making and teamwork) and connects them to the evaluation model. The game world is modelled through defining its variables and relationships’ rules to connect both environments (game and field) expanding the evaluation model. The framework is supported by essential learning theories (ELT, task-based learning, some aspects of social learning) and pedagogical aspects (assessment, feedback, field-based structure, high-order skills) and connected to the key game elements (interaction, multimodal presentation, control of choice…etc) of field-based learning along with suitable game mechanics. The two research studies that were conducted as part of this thesis found that the designing framework is useful, usable, and provides connections between learning and game aspects and the designed VFTG based on the framework improved learning performance along with providing motivation and presence. This suggests the effectiveness of the framework

Co-located Augmented Play-spaces:Past, Present, and Perspectives

In recent years, many different studies regarding Co-located Augmented Play-spaces (CAPs) have been published in a wide variety of conferences and journals. We present an overview. The work presented in these papers includes end user's perspectives as well as researcher's perspective. We place these within four aspects in this review: 1) Argumentation, the underlying reasons or the higher end goals to investigate interactive play from a user's perspective, 2) Systems, the kind of systems that are created, this includes their intended use which fits the end user's perspective, 3) Evaluation, the way in which the researchers evaluate the system, 4) Contribution, the goal of the studies from the researcher's perspective; what does the study contribute to the research community. CAPs are often multimodal in nature; this survey pays attention to the multimodal characteristics in relation to all four aspects. This overview contributes a clearer view on the current literature, points out where new opportunities lie, and hands us the tools for what we think is important: bringing the end-user and research perspective together in intervention based evaluations. In short, this paper discusses CAPs: their past, the present, and the perspectives