QUALINET White Paper on Definitions of Immersive Media Experience (IMEx)
It addresses interdisciplinary confusion in immersive media for researchers and practitioners, but it is incremental as it synthesizes existing work rather than introducing new methods.
This white paper tackles the lack of consensus in defining immersion and presence across fields by surveying existing definitions to propose a unified definition of immersive media experience (IMEx), and it describes related aspects like Quality of Experience, influencing factors, assessment, and standardization.
With the coming of age of virtual/augmented reality and interactive media, numerous definitions, frameworks, and models of immersion have emerged across different fields ranging from computer graphics to literary works. Immersion is oftentimes used interchangeably with presence as both concepts are closely related. However, there are noticeable interdisciplinary differences regarding definitions, scope, and constituents that are required to be addressed so that a coherent understanding of the concepts can be achieved. Such consensus is vital for paving the directionality of the future of immersive media experiences (IMEx) and all related matters. The aim of this white paper is to provide a survey of definitions of immersion and presence which leads to a definition of immersive media experience (IMEx). The Quality of Experience (QoE) for immersive media is described by establishing a relationship between the concepts of QoE and IMEx followed by application areas of immersive media experience. Influencing factors on immersive media experience are elaborated as well as the assessment of immersive media experience. Finally, standardization activities related to IMEx are highlighted and the white paper is concluded with an outlook related to future developments.