Editorial: Cutting-Edge Technologies for Multi-Sensory Research at the Frontier Between Disciplines

Sebastien Fiorucci¹Jérémie Topin¹Jean-Christophe SAKDAVONG^2*Bruno Mesz^3*

• ¹Universite Cote d'Azur, Nice, France
• ²UMR5263 Cognition, Langues, Langage, Ergonomie (CLLE), Toulouse, France
• ³Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Caseros, Argentina

of congruent colors and shapes did impact taste perception. Participants associated angular shapes and the green color with sourness. The study highlights the role of visual cues in shaping taste experiences.Whereas the previous study altered passive perception, Parra et al. 5 explored how a conversational agent, MyndFood, can actively promote mindful cooking and eating. In a study with 40 participants, those who interacted with the mindful version of the agent reported greater enjoyment and food awareness while preparing sushi compared to those who interacted with a non-mindful version. The findings suggest that conversational agents can enhance the cooking and eating experience by promoting mindfulness.Addressing the different challenge of accessibility, Welewatta et al. 6 developed SEMA, a multisensory system that uses tactile, auditory, and somatosensory cues to help visually impaired students experience and interpret paintings. Tested with 22 visually impaired participants, the system showed strong potential, with 92.6% of users preferring it, and could enhance art experiences for the visually impaired community.Finally, turning to human-machine interaction in critical settings, Evangelou et al. 7 studied how mid-air haptic technology affects user agency in gesture-based interactions, particularly in automotive settings. They found that mid-air haptics increased users' sense of agency compared to visual feedback, regardless of the meaning behind the feedback. The study involved 36 participants who completed a time perception task using gesture poses with different sensory feedback types. The results showed a positive association between mid-air haptics and user agency, trust, and usability, highlighting its potential benefits in automotive contexts.Taken together, these five articles illustrate the breadth and potential of multisensory research at the frontier of disciplines.They demonstrate how technology can both model and personalize our environments to improve cognitive performance (Bartoletti et al. 3 ), while also revealing how specific visual cues can alter our core perception of taste (Guberman et al. 4 ). These studies pave the way for concrete applications, whether by enriching daily experiences like cooking (Parra et al. 5 ) or by compensating for sensory deficits to make art accessible to the visually impaired (Welewatta et al. 6 ).Finally, they highlight the importance of sensory feedback in enhancing user agency and trust in complex interactions, such as in-car gesture controls (Evangelou et al. 7 ). These contributions, spanning cognition, perception, accessibility, and human-computer interaction, confirm that multisensory integration is a critical field for shaping future human experiences.