Multisensory Experiences: Beyond Audio-Visual Interfaces

Abstract: Multisensory experiences, that is, experiences that involve more than one of our senses, are part of our everyday life. However, we often tend to take them for granted, at least when our different senses function normally (normal sight functioning) or are corrected-to-normal (using glasses). However, closer inspection to any, even the most mundane experiences, reveals the remarkable sensory world in which we live in. While we have built tools, experiences and computing systems that have played to the human advantages of hearing and sight (e.g., signage, modes of communication, visual and musical arts, theatre, cinema and media), we have long neglected the opportunities around touch, taste, or smell as interface/interaction modalities. Within this talk, I will share my vision for the future of computing and what role touch, taste, and smell can play in it.

Speaker Bio: Marianna Obrist is Professor of Multisensory Experiences and Head of the Sussex Computer Human Interaction (SCHI ‘sky’) Lab and the Creative Technology Research Group at the School of Engineering and Informatics at the University of Sussex, UK. Her research focus is on the study of touch, taste, and smell experiences for novel interface design. Before joining Sussex, Marianna was a Marie Curie Fellow at Newcastle University, UK, and prior to this an Assistant Professor at the University of Salzburg, Austria. Marianna is an inaugural member for the ACM Future of Computing Academy, and was selected Young Scientist 2017 and 2018 to attend the World Economic Forum in the People’s Republic of China. Marianna is co-chairing the CHI 2030 task force defining a strategy for the future of the ACM CHI conference. Most recently, Marianna become a Visiting Professor at the Burberry Material Futures Research Group at RCA London and is currently Visiting Professor at the HCI Engineering Group at MIT CSAIL.