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Multimodal stimulation is capable of creating strong effects on users, because the effects of the various stimuli can enforce each-other This form of stimulation can be used to enhance entertainment experiences, as well as well-being and relaxation experiences. The causes of these strong effects and the exact relation to intensity, spatial distribution and timing of the stimuli are the subject of many investigations. One example application is using haptic and tactile actuator elements to provide the player of a game with a more thrilling experience. Linked to the visual and auditory information of the game, the haptic stimuli are provided. Also for enhancing applications in mobile (phone) systems haptics combined with audicons are often applied. However, the effects of multimodal and cross-modal stimulation (involving haptics) on the user experience and on user interactions is not yet thoroughly studied in the context of entertainment, well-being and relaxation applications.
In this special symposium we want to address the specific effects of combined (multi-sensory) stimuli. Topics we want to address range from the effect of mutual timing in audio, video and haptic stimuli, to actuator technologies, to how to such "more than the sum of the elements" effects of multimodal stimuli are created in a user's perception.
Our guiding hypothesis is that an optimal user experience will be obtained by careful personalization and optimization (in an intelligent way) for the experience to be achieved taking into account human perception. The latter should be based on both general knowledge about human perception, and on (measured or inferred) knowledge about the individual user.
To this end we will plan a number of key lectures on the technologies employed, the psychological and physiological sensitivities of people and the algorithms used to optimize the effect of multimodal stimuli.
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