Visual-olfactory integration to enrich the digital experience

Abstract

DX stands for digital experience meaning a digitally structured experience. Recently, the use of DX has become particularly widespread. In order to improve the richness of DX, we consider visual-olfactory integration in perception by adding olfactory stimuli to DX. We formulate a Bayesian perceptual model to explain the DX richness. The model predicts that olfactory stimulation and the degree of activeness in user’s manipulation of an avatar enhance both the sense of presence and the sense of existence as components of richness. To verify the model prediction, we conducted an experiment to obtain participants’ responses regarding the DX richness to all combinations of the olfactory presentation and the kinds of activeness of the controller manipulation in a virtual reality environment. The experimental results show significant effects of both olfactory presentation and the activeness on both the sense of presence and the sense of existence, supporting the model predictions. The result suggests that the olfactory stimulation enhances the richness of DX.