Introducing Basic Principles of Haptic Cinematography and Editing

Abstract

Adding the sense of touch to hearing and seeing would be necessary for a true immersive experience. This is the promise of the growing "4D-cinema" based on motion platforms and others sensory effects (water spray, wind, scent, etc.). Touch provides a new dimension for filmmakers and leads to a new creative area, the haptic cinematography. However design rules are required to use this sensorial modality in the right way for increasing the user experience. This paper addresses this issue, by introducing principles of haptic cinematography editing. The proposed elements are based on early feedback from different creative works performed by the authors (including a student in cinema arts), anticipating the role of haptographers, the experts on haptic content creation. Three full short movies have been augmented with haptic feedback and tested by numerous users, in order to provide the inputs for this introductory paper.