Evaluation of a tactile device for augmentation of audiovisual experiences with a pseudo heartbeat

Abstract

The impression that the viewer has of characters is an important factor affecting the viewer's opinion of audiovisual media, such as movies, television and video games. In particular, when we feel affection toward characters, we sometimes go so far as to identify ourselves as one of them, leading to extreme immersion in the content of the media. Therefore, there is the possibility that content technology can control affective feelings towards characters and create an immersive environment. We propose a device that can be used to facilitate the affection of the user by controlling their positive feelings toward characters in the media content. Previous studies have shown that emotional or physiological states can be altered by the visual and auditory presentation of false heartbeats [1, 2, 3]. However, if these techniques are applied to audiovisual media such as movies, television, or video games, the audio and visual heartbeat cues may interfere with and pollute the audiovisual content.