Iris Galloso
Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain
Biography
Recent studies encourage the development of sensorially-enriched media to enhance the user experience by stimulating senses other than sight and hearing. Sensory effects have been found to favour media enjoyment and to have a positive influence on the sense of Presence and on the perceived quality, relevance and reality of a multimedia experience. Sports is among the genres that could benefit the most from these solutions. However, scientific evidence on the impact of human factors on the user experience with multi-sensorial media is insufficient and sometimes, contradictory. Furthermore, the associated implications, as regards to the potential adoption of these technologies, have been widely ignored. In this talk I will present the results of an experimental study analysing the impact of binaural audio and sensory (light and olfactory) effects on the sports (football) media experience. We consider the impact on the quality and Presence dimensions, both at the overall level (average effect) and as a function of users’ characteristics (heterogeneous effects). Along the quality dimension, we look for possible variations on the quality scores assigned to the overall media experience and to the media components content, image, audio and sensory effects. The potential impact on Presence is analyzed in terms of Spatial Presence and Engagement. The users’ characteristics considered encompass personal affective, cognitive and behavioral attributes. In this talk I will: i) present our experimental study and its outcomes; ii) discuss and contextualize our results; and, iii) highlight open issues, research challenges and specific hypotheses for future research.