Anton S
Senior Member
I've just read a study on predicting perceived immersion in multichannel audio systems that I found intriguing, so I'm throwing it out there for general consumption and comment. The paper in its entirety can be found here:
For those unfamiliar with Acta Acoustica, it is an international, peer-reviewed scientific journal and the official journal of the European Acoustics Association (EAA). The journal covers original research in all areas of acoustics and engineering applications. [1, 2, 3]
The basic premise of this particular study was as follows:
"In the absence of glaring deficiencies and artifacts in modern multichannel audio systems, however, overall listening experience (OLE) is becoming increasingly important over basic audio quality (BAQ) [8].
...
In spatial audio evaluation, the provision for higher-level psychological effects may be viewed in the light of evaluating OLE in contrast to BAQ [8, 9], with such notions of immersion increasingly gaining a foothold in the spatial audio community [10, 11, 23]. Using IMEI [Immersive Music Experience Inventory] to study immersive experience, we follow the definition of immersion by Wycisk et al. [13], which is based on the definition by Witmer and Singer as a “psychological state characterized by perceiving oneself to be enveloped by, included in, and interacting with an environment that provides a continuous stream of stimuli and experiences” [22], while simultaneously emphasizing emotional and mental aspects of the experience highlighted by Georgiou and Kyza [24]. The IMEI questionnaire asks for ratings of ten items that have been selected in accordance with a many-facet Rasch model of immersion. Each item is rated on a four-point scale and an overall pseudo-continuous immersion rating is obtained by averaging the ten item ratings."
And the paper concludes as follows:
"Overall, the proposed approach may be regarded as a step towards a framework for modeling and predicting perceptual and psychological responses to surround sound loudspeaker reproduction independent of particular speaker arrangements, production techniques and content types and formats. Comparing acoustic properties could help to explain and contextualize varying results obtained in different studies on multichannel loudspeaker reproduction – which is otherwise relegated to hypothetical deliberations based on different experimental conditions and program material."
It's a long read, and some of it made my head hurt, but I thought I'd pass it along for those who might be interested.
For those unfamiliar with Acta Acoustica, it is an international, peer-reviewed scientific journal and the official journal of the European Acoustics Association (EAA). The journal covers original research in all areas of acoustics and engineering applications. [1, 2, 3]
The basic premise of this particular study was as follows:
"In the absence of glaring deficiencies and artifacts in modern multichannel audio systems, however, overall listening experience (OLE) is becoming increasingly important over basic audio quality (BAQ) [8].
...
In spatial audio evaluation, the provision for higher-level psychological effects may be viewed in the light of evaluating OLE in contrast to BAQ [8, 9], with such notions of immersion increasingly gaining a foothold in the spatial audio community [10, 11, 23]. Using IMEI [Immersive Music Experience Inventory] to study immersive experience, we follow the definition of immersion by Wycisk et al. [13], which is based on the definition by Witmer and Singer as a “psychological state characterized by perceiving oneself to be enveloped by, included in, and interacting with an environment that provides a continuous stream of stimuli and experiences” [22], while simultaneously emphasizing emotional and mental aspects of the experience highlighted by Georgiou and Kyza [24]. The IMEI questionnaire asks for ratings of ten items that have been selected in accordance with a many-facet Rasch model of immersion. Each item is rated on a four-point scale and an overall pseudo-continuous immersion rating is obtained by averaging the ten item ratings."
And the paper concludes as follows:
"Overall, the proposed approach may be regarded as a step towards a framework for modeling and predicting perceptual and psychological responses to surround sound loudspeaker reproduction independent of particular speaker arrangements, production techniques and content types and formats. Comparing acoustic properties could help to explain and contextualize varying results obtained in different studies on multichannel loudspeaker reproduction – which is otherwise relegated to hypothetical deliberations based on different experimental conditions and program material."
It's a long read, and some of it made my head hurt, but I thought I'd pass it along for those who might be interested.
