Synchronisation of olfactory-enhanced multimedia: Perspectives from an empirical study

The concept of synchronisation is of fundamental importance in multimedia systems and applications. It relates to defining and maintaining the temporal relationships between two or more correlated media objects that are combined, processed and presented together to produce a multimedia system or application. The focus of the research presented in this paper is on olfactory enhanced multimedia, which concerns itself with associating computer generated smell with other media. However, the lingering nature of smell, as opposed to the transitory nature of other media objects that multimedia applications are accustomed to, such as video and audio, means that specific attention needs to be given when synchronising other media content with olfactory data. Results highlight the existence of two perceptual synchronisation regions for olfactory enhanced-multimedia applications. Moreover, olfaction ahead of audiovisual content was shown to be less noticeable than the inverse case, of olfaction behind audiovisual content.