Lean-Back Machina: Attention-Based Skippable Segments in Interactive Cinema

Interactive cinema appears as an enticing blend of cinema and games. However, active control has been argued to disrupt the appeal of the cinematic experience, and so-called lean-back interactions have been proposed. Such experiences seek to increase narrative immersion without posing demands to the user, or them necessarily being conscious of the control. This paper seeks to investigate how such mechanism can be designed by leveraging attention-measuring Brain-Computer Interface to cater to individuals’ interests and increase narrative engagement for interactive films. This is done by skipping seamlessly ahead to the next exciting plot point when detecting drops in viewer’s attention, thereby tailoring parts of the film while keeping the overarching story. A short prototype film was produced with virtual production techniques and evaluated in a between group experimental design (n = 24). Participants in the experimental condition watched an interactive version of the film, which contained skippable segments based on viewers’ level of attention, while those in the control condition watched a non-interactive version with an edit matching one from the experimental group. The results showed no significant difference in narrative engagement; however, the experimental group showed a significantly higher overall attention than the control group. This suggests that attention-based skippable segments could have some impact on viewer engagement, and it may be beneficial for creating personalized edits for viewers, although further investigations are needed.