Augmenting TV Viewing using Acoustically Transparent Auditory Headsets

Abstract

This paper explores how acoustically transparent auditory headsets can improve TV viewing by intermixing headset and TV audio, facilitating personal, private auditory enhancements and augmentations of TV content whilst minimizing occlusion of the sounds of reality. We evaluate the impact of synchronously mirroring select audio channels from the 5.1 mix (dialogue, environmental sounds, and the full mix), and selectively augmenting TV viewing with additional speech (e.g. Audio Description, Directors Commentary, and Alternate Language). For TV content, auditory headsets enable better spatialization and more immersive, enjoyable viewing; the intermixing of TV and headset audio creates unique listening experiences; and private augmentations offer new ways to (re)watch content with others. Finally, we reflect on how these headsets might facilitate more immersive augmented TV viewing experiences within reach of consumers.

Accessibility of Interactive Television and Media Experiences: Users with Disabilities Have Been Little Voiced at IMX and TVX

“…The number of participants from these studies varied between 2 and 27 (M=14.1, SD=9.8). Three papers [11,14,17] conducted studies with users without impairments or included participants without impairments as a control condition. The majority of the contributions (73.7%) fall in the IMX topic of interest regarding technologies, systems, and interfaces (column T 3 in Table 2), followed at a large distance (31.6%) by immersive and interactive content and experiences (column T 2 ).…”

“…Next, we provide a brief summary of the contributions made by those papers. McGill et al [17] discussed augmented TV viewing with acoustically transparent auditory headsets that, among various features, enable audio descriptions for people with visual impairments. Kang et al [11] were interested in promoting social interaction via augmented print media and interviewed eight participants, of which two with visual impairments, about their habits and preferences for reading newspapers.…”

“…people with disabilities [14,19,28] and, thus, require design that is inclusive of users with various visual, motor, hearing, and cognitive abilities. Examples include presenting visual content via non-visual modalities to viewers with visual impairments [1,17], displaying subtitles [6] and sign language interpreters for people with hearing impairments [41], and designing effective techniques for people with motor impairments to interact with television [5,14,33].…”

Assessing Social Text Placement in Mixed Reality TV

“…Our experience of TV content in the future is likely to be enhanced by consumer MR headsets, which can bolster immersion (e.g., modifying the viewing environment to match the content [29], or providing unique listening experiences [15]) and social presence (e.g. [1,16]).…”

“…Should such user representations be next to us (as in [16]), or next to the TV to enable us to see our friend's reactions interleaved with the content? Should the at-a-distance user's speech appear as if they are seated next to us, or originate from a user representation (e.g., 3D avatar) next to the virtual TV, or originate as if from the TV itself (similar to [15])? Logical next steps are to aim for a full understanding of the pros and cons of different social presence levels in MR (e.g., low: text, high: avatars, speech), detect and pinpoint when, if any, users want to switch levels (e.g., moving from 3D avatars to text), and their preferences in specific contexts.…”