Mobile
Media Type
The Third Media Type: Touch
Research shows that multimodality, or use of multiple sensory channels, delivers greater realism, immersion, and emotional engagement in digital interactions. These potential improvements are especially true of portable handheld devices like phones, which because of size and power constraints, cannot reproduce sound and video with the jaw-dropping fidelity we have come to expect from our home theaters and desktop computers.
Read more about the third media type
Mobile interactive media design used to be all about audio and video, but now that the TouchSense System is letting devices render touch sensations the same way they do sound and images, it’s time the term “multimedia” became more properly inclusive of the third sense.
Samsung applied this principle in its SCH-B450 and SCH-B550 premium-class featurephones for the Korean market. The handsets’ multimedia playback engines are integrated with the TouchSense® Player, so that appropriately encoded MPEG-4 audio and video files render precise vibrotactile sensations in sync with the other sensory channels. In post-production by publishing partners, TouchSense Studio tools are used
- To analyze the rhythm and frequency content of audio tracks
- Automatically generate backing vibraton content
- Inject it into existing multimedia files
The resulting touch-enabled media are made available for purchase and over-the-air download through SK Telecom’s LiveBell service.
Multimedia = Sight + Sound + Touch
Users of the service can customize their phones with ringers consisting of popular song snippets and synchronized vibration tracks. The haptic vibe provides a subwoofer-like low end that greatly compensates for the intrinsic bass weakness of mobile phone speakers, or it can be used when the phone is in silent mode to identify callers.
The technology also makes it possible to add a rumble force track into short video content, like music videos and movie excerpts. An action film trailer, for example, can be brought to life with a wide gamut of high-impact tactile accompaniments for explosions, gunfire, crashes, and so on. Users deserve that theater-class experience even when they’re sitting on the subway.
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