The Human Senses Meet Technology
Carlos Velasco, Marianna Obrist · 2025
Abstract Do you remember the one time you forgot your smartphone at home, the Internet connection did not work, or your computer just did not turn on? Many of us have experienced those frustrating, almost desperate moments. And yet, we crave for new ways of interacting with and through technology. This chapter illustrates how the senses are increasingly meeting technology and how our experiences are moving from reality, to mixed reality (involving both physical and digital worlds), to full virtuality (digital only). The chapter presents a selection of representative examples where technology enables the design of multisensory experiences along the reality–virtuality continuum. Above all, those examples illustrate how emerging sensory devices and interfaces—stimulating all our senses, including smell and taste—and advances in artificial intelligence (AI) keep transforming the experiences we can create. This chapter hopes to inspire you to explore other multisensory experiences enabled through technology in your own environment.