Image Processing Reference
In-Depth Information
(i.e., as an invisible medium). The influence of relevant media form and content
factors in the sense of presence is analyzed in Sect.
2.3
.
Media content is a very broad category concerning issues as the story, messages,
objects, activities, or characters presented as part of the dynamic experience.
Among the content characteristics identified as determinants of presence are: social
realism, representation of virtual body, autonomous behavior and appearance of
characters and objects, the ability to modify the physical environment, and to
anticipate the effect of an action and possible interactions between the type, nature,
and complexity of tasks or activities [
17
-
20
].
As regards to the characteristics of the media user, the sense of presence has been
found significantly influenced by emotional, cognitive, and motivational-
behavioral factors, such as: immersive tendency (measured in terms of absorption
and emotional involvement, which at the same time correlate with openness to
experience and with neuroticism and extraversion in the last case), attention,
relevance, skill, perceived control, challenge, cognitive capabilities (e.g., spatial
intelligence), and personality traits [
21
-
26
]. In particular, works as [
24
] provide
evidence on the impact of user features as competence, challenge, and ability to
explore the VE as well as of media form variables as interaction speed, mapping,
and range on the spatial presence. The study also supports previous findings on the
relation between the emotional response (in terms of arousal) and the levels of
attention, spatial presence, and situational involvement. Such results point to a
significant influence of the individual
s cognitive-affective assessment of the
immersive media form and content on the emotional response and the perceived
level of physical presence.
'
2.1.3 Quality of Experience
The factors and mechanisms that influence the subjective quality assessment of a
multimedia asset (i.e., the content quality as perceived by an individual) are
analyzed by researchers in the field of user experience in multimedia applications.
The study of these phenomena has been encompassed into the concept of “Quality
of Experience (QoE),” which is defined as
“the degree of delight or annoyance of
the user of an application or service (
) which results from the fulfillment of
[his/her] expectations with respect to the utility and/or enjoyment of the application
or service in the light of the his/her personality and current state”
[
27
]. In this
context, the user experience has been found influenced by a combination of
interrelated factors of contextual, technical, and human nature.
Contextual factors have been defined as those
“that embrace any situational
property to describe the user
...
s environment”
[
28
]
.
These not only concern the
physical context, but also other dynamic or static features of economic, social, or
technical nature [
27
]. Research on the influence of contextual factors is out of the
scope of this chapter.
'
