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

沉浸式通信旨在以模糊真实和虚拟环境之间界限的方式，实现与远程人员和环境的自然体验和互动。今天，我们需要更有效的方式与远方的人沟通，这是前所未有的。然而，现有的沉浸式技术和应用仅依赖于两种感官：视觉和听觉。为了实现真正的沉浸式交流，我们需要涉及其他感官。想象一下，你正在看一部电影，在那里你可以感受到爆炸的热量，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，未来十年将见证感官互联网革命，思维、触觉、嗅觉、味觉、视觉和声音将融合在一起。最终，任何新的沉浸式技术的成功或失败将取决于它提供的人类体验，而不是它使用的技术。存在感、沉浸感、晕屏和认知状态等人为因素都会影响用户的沉浸式媒体体验（IMEx）。反过来，这些因素的客观（工具）测量可以让沉浸式内容和感官刺激实时更新，从而最大化每个用户的体验。然而，测量这些人为因素是极具挑战性的，这就是拟议的研究计划的由来。具体地说，已经确定了若干短期目标，按三个主题分组。首先，我们建议开发几个因素的工具测量，包括在场、沉浸、晕屏和情绪，然后衡量它们对整体感知视听IMEx的影响。我们提出了一种结合人工鲁棒心理生理和行为指标、生物信号增强/压缩技术和用户感知机器学习算法的方法。将开发用于单个和多个用户协同工作的应用程序，从而建立在跨主题同步和任务性能的新兴超扫描创新之上。其次，我们建议将开发的工具扩展到包含多感官沉浸式媒体，其中触觉和气味将结合起来。最后，开发的算法将全部结合在一起，两种多感官应用将被开发出来，以提高加拿大人的生活质量：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高素质人才（HQP）的卓越培训，这些人才将成为一个包容、多样化和公平的培训环境的一部分。鉴于该项目的跨学科性质，HQP将接触到多感官信号处理、严肃游戏、人为因素和机器学习的混合，从而使他们具备在当今竞争激烈的就业市场上高需求的技能和专业知识。该研究项目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.