Quantifying Multisensory Immersive Experiences using Wearables: Is (Stimulating) More (Senses) Always Merrier?

Virtual reality applications are on the rise and touching numerous domains, including healthcare, training, and gaming, to name a few. Existing experiences, however, are not fully immersive, as only two senses (audio-visual) are stimulated. To overcome this limitation, olfactory and haptic devices are emerging, thus making multisensory immersive experiences a reality. To date, however, little is known about the impact that each stimulated sense has on the overall experience, as well as on the user’s sense of e.g., realism, immersion, and engagement. In this pilot, we aim to answer this question. Using a multisensory pod, sixteen participants were immersed in a 2.5-minute virtual world, where smells, vibroacoustic, and somatosensory stimuli (i.e., wind and heat) were presented, in addition to 360-degree video and surround sound. Using two wearable devices, we kept track of the user’s heart rate, breathing rate, skin temperature, blood volume pulse, and electrodermal activity while they were immersed. In this paper, we report the impact that stimulating different senses had on the users’ overall experience, sense of presence, immersion, realism, flow, cybersickness, and emotional states, both subjectively, as well as objectively using features extracted from the wearable devices.