Most of our everyday life experiences are multisensory in nature, they consist of what we see, hear, feel, taste, smell, and much more. Almost any experience, such as eating a meal or going to the cinema, involves a magnificently complex sensory world.
In recent years, many of these experiences have been increasingly transformed through technological advancements such as multisensory devices and intelligent systems. This book takes the reader on a journey that begins with the fundamentals of multisensory experiences, moves through the relationship between the senses and technology, and finishes by considering what the future of those experiences might look like, and our responsibility in it.
This new edition seeks to further empower the reader to shape their own and other people's experiences by considering the multisensory worlds in which we live. It includes updated content on new technologies such as generative AI, and further development of an ethical framework around multisensory experiences. This book is a powerful and personal story about the authors' passion for, and viewpoint on, multisensory experiences.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
'In this fantastically illustrated, and substantially revised edition of Multisensory Experiences, the reader gets a very real sense of the excitement currently swirling around the world of multisensory experience design. Providing a range of contemporary multisensory examples at the frontiers of art and science from around the globe, the new edition effectively highlights how the latest developments in technology such as AI, VR, AR, and robotics are now seamlessly being integrated into a wide range of multisensory experiences spanning the reality-virtuality continuum, and take the reader on an exciting journey of multisensory experience design for future space travel. Readers interested in multisensory experience design will find a wealth of intriguing examples and inspiring ideas within this timely new edition. * Charles Spence, Professor in Experimental Psychology at Oxford University and author of Sensehacking: How to use the power of your senses for happier, healthier living * The passion and depth of knowledge for our multisensory world radiate from every page, as Carlos and Marianna champion all senses, especially smell and taste, long overlooked in traditional design, research, and daily life. They reveal how these senses ground us in the present, while also unlocking vivid time travel through memory and exploring their potential for the future. This book is a must-read for anyone eager to unleash the boundaries of their sensory experiences and ideas of the future. * Valentina Parma, Ph.D., Assistant Director & Assistant Member, Monell Chemical Senses Center * In a rapidly evolving technological landscape, Multisensory Experiences stands out as a thoughtful analysis of the sensory-driven future. It provides a solid foundation for understanding the implications of these advancements, making it an essential read for anyone interested in the evolving nature of human-technology interaction. * Shengdong (Shen) Zhao, Professor, Synteraction Lab, School of Creative Media & Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong * An enlightening exploration of how our senses can be enhanced and integrated via technology! A wild ride into the realms of multisensory experience that engages and enlightens! This book made me rethink the boundaries of human abilities and how the use of technology affords a rich new world of potential experiences. Humans are amazing creatures displaying sensory abilities that are both well-understood and mysterious. This book showed how these wonderous abilities can be augmented to allow a greater understanding of our senses as well as increase our sense of wonder. * Florian 'Floyd' Mueller, Professor of Future Interfaces, Director of the Exertion Games Lab, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. * What music or drink would complement your reading of this book? This book opens the door to a realm of experience design you've never imagined. No matter how advanced AI becomes in processing sensory information, the human mind uniquely integrates multisensory input to evoke a spectrum of emotions - love, comfort, delight, and even awe. This innate ability to explore and enjoy multisensory experiences may always set us apart. This book thoughtfully explores aspects of humanity that will remain unchanged as technology evolves, by illustrating how seemingly strange new innovations can enhance these fundamental qualities. This is a timely book that should be widely shared. * Takuji Narumi, Associate Professor, Multisensory VR Researcher, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, Japan * Velasco and Obrist offer a captivating exploration of how our senses-both the familiar and the unexpected-interact to shape our human experience. The book bridges the gap between science and innovation, offering fresh insights into the future of enhanced perception and immersive engagement. A must-read for anyone curious about the future of human interaction with the digital world. * Pattie Maes, Professor of Media Technology; Germeshausen Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, USA * Praise for the first edition Traveling and eating are experiences of the five senses. We recognize the world through the window of the five senses. However, for a long time, only the visual and auditory windows were open to the digital world. This book introduces, with rich examples, how state-of-the-art digital media such as virtual reality can change the relationship between computer and us. I hope this book is a looking glass that reveals a way of understanding how technology can enrich our everyday life. * Masahiko Inami, Professor, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo * A must read for researchers and practitioners learning about multisensory experiences and creating them artificially. Authors provided a solid framework using real life examples and connected broad set of disciplines to dissect the complex "experience" we live everyday, and our expectations from the technologies to enable them. The book is engaging, thought provoking and easy to read, with ample examples resonating with readers, jolting their thinking, and resolving with satisfying closures. It covers fundamental of "what is an experience?", its essential constituents, and "why, what, when, how, who and whom" of futuristic technologies enabling it. * Ali Israr, Research Scientist Haptics, Facebook Reality Labs, USA * It's easy to overlook given our contemporary screen-based dependence on swiping and typing, but our experience of the world goes beyond sight and touch, to include smell, taste, and sound-an entire universe of rich perceptual experiences our senses create in concert with each other. Who better to serve as our guides to the opportunities and responsibilities that accompany multisensory design than Marianna Obrist and Carlos Velasco, with their very different backgrounds and shared sense of curiosity and playfulness. * Nicola Twilley, Co-host of Gastropod, USA * Multisensory Experiences is a fascinating exploration that gives the reader a new understanding of our relation to human experience and the world around us. This book is a must read for anyone in the business of designing experiences, be that in a room, on a screen, on a plate, in a headset or wine glass. This book delights and inspires showing us a world of possibility that technology can bring to mulitsensory experiences. This book builds on the mindfulness revolution by giving us more complex, layered and detailed understanding of human sensory experience and how we may choose to modify that with technology. * Birch Hamilton, Executive Director Screen Directors Guild of Ireland, Ireland *
Carlos Velasco is Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing at the BI Norwegian Business School (Norway), where he co-founded the Centre for Multisensory Marketing. Carlos received his D.Phil. in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University, after which he worked on a number of postdoctoral and consulting projects in Europe, Asia, and North and South America. His work is situated at the intersection between Psychology, Marketing, and Human-Computer Interaction, and focuses on understanding, and capitalizing on, our multisensory experiences and their guiding principles. Carlos has worked with a number of companies from around the world on topics such as multisensory experiences, food and drink, branding, and consumer research. For more information, visit https://carlosvelasco.info
Marianna Obrist is Professor of Multisensory Interfaces in the Department of Computer Science at University College London (UCL), and Deputy Director (Digital Health) for the UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering. Previously, she was Professor of Multisensory Experiences at the University of Sussex and a Marie Curie Fellow at Newcastle University, UK. She holds a Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) from the University of Salzburg, Austria. Internationally recognised for pioneering Multisensory HCI research, Marianna's work significantly impacts various domains, from immersive experience design to health and wellbeing applications, emphasising touch, taste, and smell as powerful sensory modalities for future interfaces.
Autor*in
Associate ProfessorAssociate Professor, Department of Marketing, BI Norwegian Business School, Norway
Professor of Multisensory InterfacesProfessor of Multisensory Interfaces, Department of Computer Science at University College London
1: The Exciting World of Multisensory Experiences
2: The Fundamentals of Multisensory Experiences
3: The Human Senses meet Technology
4: From the Known to the Unknown Future
5: Laws of Multisensory Experiences
