Studying immersion in audiovisual experiences can help technologists deliver engaging and enhanced experiences. As a first step toward this goal this paper details an investigation conducted to establish an experimental paradigm for quantifying immersion and determining the influence of immersive tendency (susceptibility to become immersed) on immersion. A balanced incomplete block design was employed where 21 assessors rated 15 commercially available stimuli (representative of the highest quality encountered in domestic AV applications) without repetitions and simultaneous comparisons. The assessors were instructed to rate immersion on a graphic line scale and document their familiarity with the content. A questionnaire was administered to measure the immersive tendency after the rating experiment. The results show that the assessors can comprehend the description of immersion and follow the experimental protocol. It is found that immersion is a graded experience and the correlation between immersive tendencies and immersion ratings is predominantly statistically insignificant. The experimental paradigm presented in this paper can form the framework for assessing immersion and developing novel methods to thoroughly explore the concept of immersion in audiovisual experiences.

Authors: Agrawal, Sarvesh; Bech, Søren; Bærentsen, Klaus; De Moor, Katrien; Forchhammer, Søren
Affiliations: Bang & Olufsen a/s, 7600 Struer, Denmark; Technical University of Denmark, Department of Photonics Engineering, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark; Bang & Olufsen a/s, 7600 Struer, Denmark; Aalborg University, Department of Electronic Systems, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark; Aarhus University, Department of Psychology, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark; Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Information Security and Communication Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway; Technical University of Denmark, Department of Photonics Engineering, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark(See document for exact affiliation information.)
JAES Volume 69 Issue 9 pp. 656-671; September 2021
Publication Date: September 3, 2021

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