Based on a distributed architecture for real-time collection and broadcast of haptic information to multiple participants, heterogeneous haptic devices (the PHANToM and the CyberGrasp) were used in an experiment to test the performance accuracy and sense of presence of participants engaged in a task involving mutual touch. In the experiment, the hands of CyberGrasp users were modeled for the co...

This paper explores how traditional narrative language used in film and theatre can be adapted to create interactivity and a greater sense of presence in the virtual heritage environment. It focuses on the fundamental principles of narrative required to create immersion and presence and investigates methods of embedding intangible social histories into these environments. These issues are explo...

This user study investigated how rendering quality contributes to the sense of presence and level of task performance of participants in a virtual environment. Fiftyfive participants performed the task of dropping four objects in a two-room, virtual environment which was drawn with varying degrees of texture and lighting quality. Their physiological reactions were measured along with their accu...

In an initial section, operators' sense of remote presence during teleoperation or use of virtual environment interfaces is analyzed as to what characteristics it should have to qualify it as an explanatory scientific construct. But the implicit goal of designing virtual environment interfaces to maximize presence is itself questioned in a second section in which examples of human-machine inter...

We provide a battery of examples of delusions against which theoretical accounts can be tested. Then we identify neuropsychological anomalies that could produce the unusual experiences that may lead, in turn, to the delusions in our battery. However, we argue against Maher’s view that delusions are false beliefs that arise as normal responses to anomalous experiences. We propose, instead, that ...

Compared to collocated interaction, videoconferencing disrupts the ability to use gaze and gestures to mediate interaction, direct reactions to specific people, and provide a sense of presence for the satellite (i.e., remote) participant. We developed a kinetic videoconferencing proxy with a swiveling display screen to indicate which direction that the satellite participant was looking. Our goa...

In this paper the design, implementation and testing of the Location-Based game Passing On is explored. It is a multi-player game for mobile phones, with a focus on asymmetric and limited communication. While one player can communicate by talking, the other can answer only by knocking. This limited and asymmetric communication became one of the central gameplay resources in the game, shaping mu...

Acrophobia has been treated using exposure in imagination, exposure “in vivo”, and Virtual Reality (VR). This paper presents the development of an Augmented Reality (AR) system and a VR system that includes acrophobic scenarios. A study involving both these systems and non-phobic users has been carried out in order to compare the levels of presence and anxiety. In the acrophobic scenario, the f...

Based on the communication literature, telepresence is defined as “a mediated experience that creates for the user a strong sense of presence and entails an illusion of non-mediation”. The main body of previous studies serves industrial communication where technology is of vital concern. However, in the context of e-commerce, the appropriate focus of telepresence should be the human experience ...

This document reports in brief the findings of a study conducted to observe the relationship between a sense of presence and team training in decision making in dynamic high risk environments. A simple desktop virtual game environment is used to explore the possibility that, in this context, such semi immersive dynamic virtual environment (VE) could be used to achieve a sense of presence suffic...