Olfaction and Selective Rendering

Abstract

Accurate simulation of all the senses in virtual environments is a computationally expensive task. Visual saliency models have been used to improve computational performance for rendered content, but this is insufficient for multi‐modal environments. This paper considers cross‐modal perception and, in particular, if and how olfaction affects visual attention. Two experiments are presented in this paper. Firstly, eye tracking is gathered from a number of participants to gain an impression about where and how they view virtual objects when smell is introduced compared to an odourless condition. Based on the results of this experiment a new type of saliency map in a selective‐rendering pipeline is presented. A second experiment validates this approach, and demonstrates that participants rank images as better quality, when compared to a reference, for the same rendering budget.

Examining Potential of Scents for Enhancement of User Performance with Mobile Apps

“…(v) Heart rate monitor bracelet (see Figure 1(g)): for completeness, QoE should be monitored both using subjective, self-reported, measures, as well as objective ones. Of the latter, the most commonly used are physiological measures [44][45][46][47][48][49]. In this respect, in our study, we chose to monitor the participant's heart rate.…”

Audio-Visual-Olfactory Resource Allocation for Tri-modal Virtual Environments

“…Chen et al [15] performed a study to corroborate this effect and concluded that a multimodal saliency map weighing both visual and olfactory inputs was required. Harvey et al [25] showed that conventional image saliency maps can no longer be relied upon in the same way in olfactory-visual environments and demonstrated a validated model based on empirical findings.…”

3D Structural Connectivity in Healthy Adults: Detecting Structural Connections and Their Underlying Substrates for Olfactory Saccadic Pathway

“…Based on studies carried out by Judauji, J. et al (2012) as well as another study by Morrot, G. et al (2001), both which investigated to what extent visual cues could affect olfactory processing through visual-olfactory associations, deduced that visual cues directly influences odor identification, perception and also attention [21] [51] . Alternatively, studies conducted by Kuang, S. and Zhang, T. (2014) and another by Harvey, C. (2018) examined cross-modal integration in olfactory-visual coupling and found that olfactory cues influence gaze shifts and visual attention finding a functional pathway with which odor stimuli can initiate and guide eye movements [9] [49] [53] . These studies made implications of functional associations between odor and visual pathways but the structural associations were still undiscovered [28] [39] [40] .…”