Embodied Multisensory Immersive Experiences: APerspective Into Emerging Threats and PossibleSolutions

Abstract

Multisensory immersive virtual reality experiences, encompassing audio, visual, haptic, and/or digital smells and tastes, have been shown to enhance a user's sense of immersion and embodiment, leading to improved experiences, task performances, and even clinical outcomes. While the great majority of published works tend to highlight the benefits of such embodied experiences, in this perspective-style paper, we shed light on emerging threats that are often overlooked in the literature. Here, we group these threats into four categories: discomfort, safety, privacy and security, and societal issues. We give examples of such threat vectors and discuss potential solutions. Overall, it is hoped that this perspective will help raise awareness of these emerging threats, such that solutions can be developed from the ground up for future embodied experiences.