This paper presents the preliminary results of a research project aimed at exploring the perceived sense of presence incorporated in diverse technologies used in Virtual Museums. It initially presents the selection criteria and the five museum websites involved in the analysis. Then, it describes the evaluation process, in which a group of subjects explored the museums’ on-line resources and co...

The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of a mood-induction procedure in a Virtual Reality (VR-MIP) environment for inducing relaxation and generating sense of presence, and to test whether the stimulation of the senses of touch and smell improves the efficacy of this VR-MIP. A controlled study was carried out with four experimental conditions. All of them included the VRMIP to induce re...

Feeling deeply connected to yourself and your body creates a richer experience of presence in a virtual world, even when your body is sitting in a chair wearing VR googles. We call this embodied presence. Connection to the self and body (paying attention to present-moment sensations and feelings) enhances the sense of self and the sense of presence, regardless of whether you are in the natural ...

Virtual reality systems have reached a certain level of maturity in terms of visual and aural quality, but the sense of presence also requires believably behaving environment. A new field of adding intelligence into virtual environments is emerging. We describe shortly the field of virtual reality, and how AI can be applied there. We outline the possibilities of using AI to enhance existing app...

The present paper is a review of the role of individual factors in Spatial Presence. If Spatial Presence is a subjective mental phenomenon psychological factors must have an important role on it. Our review shows that, even though many authors claim about the need for a better understanding about this relation, empirical evidence is still very limited. Personality-related factors as absorption,...

A statistical forecast methodology exploits large-scale patterns in monthly U.S. Climatological Division Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) values over a wide region and several seasons to predict area burned in western U.S. wildfires by ecosystem province a season in advance. The forecast model, which is based on canonical correlations, indicates that a few characteristic patterns determine ...

Observers see a white triangle on the top of three black disks; the white triangle appears lighter, although it has the same luminance of the white background. Also squared or irregular “anomalous” figures can be created (Kanizsa & Gerbino, 1987). Several competing explanations have been put forward for the effect (Dumais, & Bradley, 1976; Coren, 1991; Ramachandran & Rogers-Ramachandran, 2005),...

pollution of urban soils dramatically reduces life and environmental quality. the most commonpollutants are heavymetals and organic contaminants like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinatedbiphenyl. main source of these pollutants is fossil fuels which are pervasive in urban and/or industrializedareas. identifying type and intensity of the pollution is essential to prepare an effec...

BRENT EDWARD INSKO: Passive Haptics Significantly Enhances Virtual Environments (Under the direction of Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.) One of the most disconcertingly unnatural properties of most virtual environments (VEs) is the ability of the user to pass through objects. I hypothesize that passive haptics, augmenting a high-fidelity visual virtual environment with low-fidelity physical objects, w...