Windy sight surfers: sensing and awareness of 360° immersive videos on the move

Immersion in video has a strong impact on the viewers' emotions, their sense of presence and engagement. In this paper, we present the design and user evaluation of Windy Sight Surfers, an interactive mobile application, to be used on its own or as a TV second screen, providing an approach to an immersive environment, for the capture, visualization and navigation of georeferenced 360° and high definition videos. In this approach, wind is used as a means to enhance immersion, by giving a more realistic feel of wind, speed and orientation to the user. Usability results revealed increased immersion and appreciation for both experience sensing and context awareness features, which are the two main categories of the designed features.