Immersive Multisensory Media: from Quality of Experience to Quality of Life

身临其境的通信旨在以模糊真实环境和虚拟环境之间的界限的方式，实现与远程人员和环境的自然体验和互动。今天，我们从未像现在这样需要更有效的方式与偏远地区的人们交流。然而，现有的沉浸式技术和应用只依赖两种感官：视觉和听觉。要实现真正的身临其境的交流，我们需要涉及其他感官。想象一下，你在看一部电影，在那里你感受到了爆炸带来的热量，或者在电视广告中，你可以闻到食物的味道。随着5G、触觉互联网和神经技术的进步，下一个十年将迎来感知互联网革命，届时思维、触觉、嗅觉、味觉、视觉和声音将结合在一起。归根结底，任何新的沉浸式技术的成败将取决于它提供的人类体验，而不是它使用的技术。人的因素，如临场感、沉浸感、晕屏和认知状态，都会影响用户感知的沉浸式媒体体验(IMEX)。反过来，对这些因素的客观(仪器)测量可以允许沉浸式内容和感觉刺激进行实时更新，从而最大化每个用户的体验。然而，衡量这些人为因素是极具挑战性的，这就是拟议的研究计划发挥作用的地方。特别是，确定了几个短期目标，归类于三个主要主题。首先，我们建议开发几个因素的工具性测量，包括在场、沉浸、晕厥和情绪，然后评估它们对整体视听IMEX的影响。我们提出了一种人工产物-稳健的心理生理学和行为度量、生物信号增强/压缩技术和用户感知的机器学习算法的组合。将开发适用于单用户和多用户协作工作的应用程序，从而建立在跨学科同步和任务性能方面新出现的超扫描创新的基础上。其次，我们建议将开发的工具扩展到多感官沉浸式媒体，其中将结合触觉和气味。最后，开发的算法将全部结合在一起，并将开发两个提高加拿大人生活质量的多感官应用程序：用于焦虑治疗的神经反馈和阿尔茨海默病进展监测。拟议的研究计划将强调对高素质人才(HQP)的卓越培训，这些人员将成为包容、多样化和公平培训环境的一部分。鉴于该项目的跨学科性质，HQP将接触到多感官信号处理、严肃的游戏、人为因素和机器学习的组合，从而使他们掌握在当今竞争激烈的就业市场上非常需要的技能和专业知识。该研究计划将为加拿大带来显著的经济、技术和社会效益。

Immersive communication aims to enable natural experiences and interactions with remote people and environments in ways that blur the line between real and virtual environments. Today, our need for more effective ways to communicate with remote people has never been greater. Existing immersive technologies and applications, however, rely only on two senses: vision and hearing. To enable true immersive communications, we need to involve other senses. Imagine yourself watching a movie where you feel the heat from an explosion or a TV ad where you can smell the food. With advances in 5G, the Tactile Internet, and neurotechnology, the next decade will see the Internet of Senses revolution, where mind, touch, smells, taste, sight, and sound will come together. Ultimately, the success or failure of any new immersive technology will rely on the human experience it provides, and not on the technology it uses. Human factors, such as sense of presence, immersion, cybersickness, and cognitive states all contribute to the user's perceived immersive media experience (IMEx). In turn, objective (instrumental) measurement of these factors could allow for immersive content and sensory stimulation to be updated in real-time, thus maximizing the per-user experience. Measurement of such human factors, however, is extremely challenging and this is where the proposed Research Program comes in. In particular, several short-term objectives have been defined, grouped under three main themes. First, we propose to develop instrumental measures of several factors, including presence, immersion, cybersickness, and emotion, and then gauge their effects on overall perceived audio-visual IMEx. We propose a combination of artifact-robust psychophysiological and behavioural metrics, biosignal enhancement/compression techniques, and user-aware machine learning algorithms. Applications for single and multiple users working collaboratively will be developed, thus building on emerging hyperscanning innovations in cross-subject synchrony and task performance. Second, we propose to expand the developed tools to encompass multisensory immersive media, where haptics and smells will be combined. Lastly, the developed algorithms will all come together and two multisensory applications to improve the quality of life of Canadians will be developed: neurofeedback for anxiety treatment and Alzheimer's disease progression monitoring. The proposed research program will emphasize excellence in training of highly qualified personnel (HQP), who will be part of an inclusive, diverse, and equitable training environment. Given the cross-disciplinary nature of the program, HQP will be exposed to a mix of multisensory signal processing, serious gaming, human factors, and machine learning, thus equipping them with skills and expertise that are in high demand in today's competitive job market. The research program will provide significant economical, technological and societal benefits to Canada.