Immersive technologies like eXtended Reality (XR) are the next step in videoconferencing. In this context, understanding the effect of delay on communication is crucial. This article presents the first study on the impact of delay on collaborative tasks using a realistic Social XR system. Specifically, we design an experiment and evaluate the impact of end-to-end delays of 300, 600, 900, 1,200, and 1,500 ms on the execution of a standardized task involving the collaboration of two remote users that meet in a virtual space and construct block-based shapes. To measure the impact of the delay in this communication scenario, objective and subjective data were collected. As objective data, we measured the time required to execute the tasks and computed conversational characteristics by analyzing the recorded audio signals. As subjective data, a questionnaire was prepared and completed by every user to evaluate different factors such as overall quality, perception of delay, annoyance using the system, level of presence, cybersickness, and other subjective factors associated with social interaction. The results show a clear influence of the delay on the perceived quality and a significant negative effect as the delay increases. Specifically, the results indicate that the acceptable threshold for end-to-end delay should not exceed 900 ms. This article additionally provides guidelines for developing standardized XR tasks for assessing interaction in Social XR environments.@en

Technological advances in head-mounted displays and novel real-time 3D acquisition and reconstruction solutions have fostered the development of 6 Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) teleimmersive systems for social VR applications. Point clouds have emerged as a popular format for such applications, owing to their simplicity and versatility; yet, dense point cloud contents are too large to deliver directly over bandwidth-limited networks. In this context, user-adaptive delivery mechanisms are a promising solution to exploit the increased range of motion offered by 6DoF VR applications to yield gains in perceived quality of 3D point cloud user representations, while reducing their bandwidth requirements. In this paper, we perform a user study in VR to quantify the gains adaptive tile selection strategies can bring with respect to non-adaptive solutions. In particular, we define an auxiliary utility function, we employ established methods from the literature and newly-proposed schemes for distributing the bit budget across the tiles, and we evaluate them together with non-adaptive streaming baselines through subjective QoE assessment. Results confirm that considerable gains can be obtained with user-adaptive streaming, achieving bit rate gains of up to 65% with respect to a non-adaptive approach to deliver comparable quality. Our analysis provides useful insights for the design and development of social VR applications.

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Social Virtual Reality (VR) applications represent a big step forward in the field of remote communication. Social VR provides the possibility for participants to explore and interact with virtual environments and objects, feelings of a full sense of immersion, and being together. Understanding how user behaviour is influenced by the shared virtual space and its elements becomes the key to design and optimize novel immersive experiences. This paper presents a behavioural analysis of user navigating in 6 degrees of freedom social VR movie. Specifically, we analyse 48 user trajectories from a photorealistic telepresence experiment, in which subjects watch a crime movie together in VR. We investigate how users are affected by salient agents (i.e., virtual characters) and by narrative elements of the VR movie (i.e., dialogues versus interactive part). We complete our assessment by conducting a statistical analysis of the collected data. Results indicate that user behaviour is affected by different narrative and interactive elements. We conclude by presenting our observations and drawing conclusions on future paths for social VR experiences. This work has been supported by Royal Society under grant IES R1180128 and by Cisco under Cisco Research Center Donation scheme.

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The advent of affordable 3D capture and display hardware is making volumetric videoconferencing feasible. This technology increases the immersion of the participants, breaking the flat restriction of 2D screens, by allowing them to collaborate and interact in shared virtual reality spaces. In this paper we introduce the design and development of an architecture intended for volumetric videoconferencing that provides a highly realistic 3D representation of the participants, based on pointclouds. A pointcloud representation is suitable for real-time applications like video conferencing, due to its low-complexity and because it does not need a time consuming reconstruction process. As transport protocol we selected low latency DASH, due to its popularity and client-based adaptation mechanisms for tiling. This paper presents the architectural design, details the implementation, and provides some referential results. The demo will showcase the system in action, enabling volumetric videoconferencing using pointclouds.

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Voice is a rich modality for conveying emotions, however emotional prosody production can be situationally or medically impaired. Since thermal displays have been shown to evoke emotions, we explore how thermal stimulation can augment perception of neutrally-spoken voice messages with affect. We designed ThermalWear, a wearable on-chest thermal display, then tested in a controlled study (N=12) the effects of fabric, thermal intensity, and direction of change. Thereafter, we synthesized 12 neutrally-spoken voice messages, validated (N=7) them, then tested (N=12) if thermal stimuli can augment their perception with affect. We found warm and cool stimuli (a) can be perceived on the chest, and quickly without fabric (4.7-5s) (b) do not incur discomfort (c) generally increase arousal of voice messages and (d) increase / decrease message valence, respectively. We discuss how thermal displays can augment voice perception, which can enhance voice assistants and support individuals with emotional prosody impairments.

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While traditional live-broadcasting is typically comprised of a handful of well-defined workflows, these become insufficient when targeting multiple screens and interactive companion devices on the viewer side. In this case study, we describe the development of an end-to-end system enabling immersive and interactive experiences using an object-based broadcasting approach. We detail the deployment of this system during the live broadcast of the FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium in London in May 2018. We also describe the trials and interviews we ran in the run-up to this event, the infrastructure we used, the final software developed for controlling and rendering on-screen graphics and the system for generating and configuring the live broadcast-objects. In this process, we learned about the workflows inside an OB truck during live productions through an ethnographic study and the challenges involved in running an object-based broadcast over the Internet, which we discuss alongside other gained insights.

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Multiscreen TV viewing refers to a spectrum of media productions that can be watched on TV screens and companion screens (e.g., smartphones and tablets). TV production companies are now promoting an interactive and engaging way of viewing TV by offering tailored applications for TV programs. However, viewers are demotivated to install dozens of applications and switch between them. This is one of the obstacles that hinder companion screen applications from reaching mass audiences. To solve this, TV production companies need a standard process for producing multiscreen content, allowing viewers to follow all kinds of programs in one single application. This paper proposes a new object-based production platform for authoring programs for multiscreen. The platform consists of two parts: the preproduction tool and the live editing tool. To evaluate whether the proposed workflow is appropriate, validation interviews were conducted with professionals in the TV broadcasting industry. The professionals were positive about the proposed new workflow, indicating that the platform allows for preparations at the preproduction stage and reduces the workload during the live broadcasting. They see as well its potential to adapt to the current production workflow.

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This paper reflects on the development of a multi-sensory clubbing experience which was deployed during a two-day event within the context of the Amsterdam Dance Event in October 2016 in Amsterdam. We present how the entire experience was developed end-to-end and deployed at the event through the collaboration of several project partners from industries such as art and design, music, food, technology and research. Central to the system are smart textiles, namely wristbands equipped with Bluetooth LE sensors which were used to sense people attending the dance event. We describe the components of the system, the development process, the collaboration between the involved entities and the event itself. To conclude the paper, we highlight insights gained from conducting a real world research deployment across many collaborators and stakeholders with different backgrounds.@en

This book provides an approachable overview of the most recent advances in the fascinating field of media synchronization (mediasync), gathering contributions from the most representative and influential experts. Understanding the challenges of this field in the current multi-sensory, multi-device, and multi-protocol world is not an easy task. The book revisits the foundations of mediasync, including theoretical frameworks and models, highlights ongoing research efforts, like hybrid broadband broadcast (HBB) delivery and users' perception modeling (i.e., Quality of Experience or QoE), and paves the way for the future (e.g., towards the deployment of multi-sensory and ultra-realistic experiences). Although many advances around mediasync have been devised and deployed, this area of research is getting renewed attention to overcome remaining challenges in the next-generation (heterogeneous and ubiquitous) media ecosystem. Given the significant advances in this research area, its current relevance and the multiple disciplines it involves, the availability of a reference book on mediasync becomes necessary. This book fills the gap in this context. In particular, it addresses key aspects and reviews the most relevant contributions within the mediasync research space, from different perspectives. Mediasync: Handbook on Multimedia Synchronization is the perfect companion for scholars and practitioners that want to acquire strong knowledge about this research area, and also approach the challenges behind ensuring the best mediated experiences, by providing the adequate synchronization between the media elements that constitute these experiences.

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Media synchronization is a core research area in multimedia systems. This chapter introduces the area by providing key definitions, classifications, and examples. It also discusses the relevance of different types of media synchronization to ensure satisfactory Quality of Experience (QoE) levels and highlights their necessity, by comparing the magnitudes of delay differences in real scenarios to the tolerable limits to the human perception. The chapter concludes with a brief description of the main aspects and components of media synchronization solutions, with the goal of providing a better understanding of this timely research area.

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This paper examines the document aspects of object-based broadcasting. Object-based broadcasting augments traditional video and audio broadcast content with additional (temporally-constrained) media objects. The content of these objects - as well as their temporal validity - are determined by the broadcast source, but the actual rendering and placement of these objects can be customized to the needs/constraints of the content viewer(s). The use of object-based broadcasting enables a more tailored end-user experience than the one-size-fits-all of traditional broadcasts: the viewer may be able to selectively turn off overlay graphics (such as statistics) during a sports game, or selectively render them on a secondary device. Object-based broadcasting also holds the potential for supporting presentation adaptivity for accessibility or for device heterogeneity. From a technology perspective, object-based broadcasting resembles a traditional IP media stream, accompanied by a structured multimedia document that contains timed rendering instructions. Unfortunately, the use of object-based broadcasting is severely limited because of the problems it poses for the traditional television production workflow (and in particular, for use in live television production). The traditional workflow places graphics, effects and replays as immutable components in the main audio/video feed originating from, for example, a production truck outside a sports stadium. This single feed is then delivered near-live to the homes of all viewers. In order to effectively support dynamic object-based broadcasting, the production workflow will need to retain a familiar creative interface to the production staff, but also allow the insertion and delivery of a differentiated set of objects for selective use at the receiving end. In this paper we present a model and implementation of a dynamic system for supporting object-based broadcasting in the context of a motor sport application. We define a new multimedia document format that supports dynamic modifications during playback; this allows editing decisions by the producer to be activated by agents at the receiving end of the content. We describe a prototype system to allow playback of these broadcasts and a production system that allows live object-based control within the production workflow. We conclude with an evaluation of a trial using near-live deployment of the environment, using content from our partners, in a sport environment.@en

This article showcases our effort to explore the music club of the future. We present the development and results of an end-to-end system which enhances the club-going experience through the use of wearable technology. Each party guest wearing one of the wristbands actively contributes to the overall experience with their movement and location patterns. The system collects acceleration data from each of the attendees in real-time and feeds it into a pluggable network infrastructure, which processes the data, affecting the environment via data visualization or controlling of the light and sound system of a curated space within the club. Finally we describe the results of a two night, 450 person per night deployment.@en

The CWI-ADE2016 Dataset is a collection of more than 40 million Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) packets and of 14 million accelerometer and temperature samples generated by wristbands that people wore in a nightclub. The data was gathered during Amsterdam Dance Event 2016 in an exclusive club experience curated around human senses, which leveraged technology as a bridge between the club and the guests. Each guest was handed a custom-made wristband with a BLE-enabled device that broadcast movement, temperature and other sensor readings. A network of Raspberry Pi receivers deployed for the occasion captured broadcast packets from wristbands and any other BLE device in the environment. This data provides a full picture of the performance of the real life deployment of a sensing infrastructure and gives insights to designing sensing platforms, understanding networks and crowds behaviour or studying opportunistic sensing. This paper describes an analysis of this dataset and some examples of usage.

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This article presents an end-to-end system for capturing physiological sensor data and visualising it on a real-time graphic dashboard and as part of an art installation. More specifically, it describes an event where the level of engagement of the audience was measured by means of Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) sensors and of the presenter through a sweater fitted with GSR, ECG and acceleration sensors. The gathered data was presented in real-time through a visualisation projected onto a screen and a physical electro-mechanical installation, which would change the height of helium-filled balloons depending on the atmosphere in the auditorium. Thereby trying to create a tangible way of making the invisible visible.

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Measuring the experience of audience of arts events is essential in the experience economy of this day and age, but it is a difficult task. The value of such information goes beyond evaluating the impact of the arts, as it can provide insights and feedback to enhance the work of artists and the experiences of other audience members. Through in-depth understanding of the needs of the providers and consumers of the arts, we progressively developed a biosensor infrastructure that was deployed in theaters. Over the years, we identified the challenges and issues related to developing and deploying a biosensor infrastructure in theaters. These collective experiences and identified issues were categorized into three main areas: processes, data, and system. A total of seven heuristics are developed across the three main areas. Processes place the stakeholders and audiences at the core of the research; data provides guidelines for data validity, collecting a variety of data, and supporting real-time data gathering; and systems covers the concurrency, scalability, deployment and feedback of the infrastructure. We believe that this set of heuristics forms the foundation for an adequate infrastructure to measure audience experience in the wild and it is a valuable source of guideline for future work.

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This article presents the results of modelling audience response to new types of networked theatre plays. As the main contribution of the work we introduce two types of metrics: intensity, relating to how intensively co-present and remote aspects of a performance are rated, and cohesion, relating to how a performance as a whole, the combination of co-present and remote aspects, affects an audience. In particular, we model audience response based on two in the wild evaluations, staged by a low budget theatre company, a streamed and a distributed performance. The streamed performance is similar to NT Live, where a theatre play is delivered to other theatres with an audience. The distributed performance, on the other hand, connects actors in two different theatres (with audiences) creating one single play. The streamed performance was experienced as less intense as well as less cohesive by the remote audience, whilst the distributed performance integrated co-present and remote aspects tightly. Remote aspects of the distributed performance were still experienced as less intense, but the performance as a whole was highly cohesive. Apart from the identification of these two new metrics (intensity and cohesion), based on our experiences we argue that an innovative way of bundling relevant emerging technologies is needed to give a voice to the, as yet silent, remote audience.@en