Low-cost four-dimensional experience theater using home appliances

Multi-sensorial effect or four-dimensional (4-D) effect is considered in the niche arena of film playing but has become a growing business quickly. Installation of 4-D effects are typically expensive, and 4-D films are most often presented in custom-built theaters at special venues. This paper proposes a novel integration of existing video service platform and commercial smart home solution to generate 4-D effects for any non-4-D film (i.e., a 3-D or a 2-D film). Specifically, we describe how the designer can use home appliances to create the effects for a 4-D experience theater at home. Instead of using an expensive and special 4-D movie effect system, we use a low-cost off-the-shelf IoT platform for a smart home to create the 4-D movie effects for any non-4-D film. Therefore, the viewer can enjoy 4-D movies at home without special equipment other than home appliances. In our solution, an IoT device-management system called IoTtalk is utilized to integrate the video service system and the smart home system. Since these systems may be located in distant places, the delays for video streaming and triggering of 4-D effects must be synchronized. We have conducted measurements to indicate that in our design, the synchronization issue can be ignored without affecting the user experience.