This article describes a series of experiments which were carried out to measure the sense of presence in auditory virtual environments. Within the study a comparison of self-created signals to signals created by the surrounding environment is drawn. Furthermore, it is investigated if the room characteristics of the simulated environment have consequences on the perception of presence during vo...

A sense of spatial presence as a feeling of “being there” is an important part of the virtual experience. Navigation is a fundamental task in virtual environments and the specific navigation methods that are employed influence a user’s sense of presence. In this paper we investigate how different metaphors for vertical navigation impact spatial presence. We introduce a new elevator metaphor for...

Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Technology, to be presented with due permission for public examination and criticism in the Seminar Room Abstract This investigation has been carried out at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. The main goal has been to investigate the factors determining the production of a sense of presence and reality in video mediated communication. Presen...

In previous work, we have found significant differences in the accuracy with which people make initial spatial judgments in different types of head-mounted, display-based immersive virtual environments (IVEs; Phillips, Interrante, Kaeding, Ries, & Anderson, 2010). In particular, we have found that people tend to less severely underestimate egocentric distances in a virtual environment that is a...

This paper focuses on the user’s perception of virtual agents embedded in real and virtual worlds. In particular, we analyze the perception of spatial relations and the perception of coexistence. For this purpose, we measure the user’s voice compensation which is one of the human automatic behaviors to their surrounding environment. The results of our evaluation study reveal that people compens...

This work offers a comparative analysis between the constructs of sense of presence and mindfulness performed along dimensions such as awareness, attention and non-judgemental acceptance. Related constructs such as flow and absorption are also included in the analysis.

We investigate the role of presence in a serious game for intercultural communication and negotiation skills by comparing two interfaces: a 3D version with animated virtual humans and sound against a 2D version using text-only interactions with static images and no sound. Both versions provide identical communicative action choices and are driven by the same underlying simulation engine. In a s...

This paper presents systems which enable eye contact in leisure video conferencing. The proposed solutions include a software based and a hardware based approach. Two experiments were conducted to test the performance of the systems by measuring the users’ sense of presence. The results showed that both solutions succeeded in establishing eye contact but there was no direct indication of an inc...

Large displays are becoming ubiquitous and one important property of large displays is that they afford larger visual angles and physically larger screen sizes. However, there has been little investigation of the effects of large displays on users; furthermore, few studies have employed physiological measures, nor isolated the effects on presence and emotional responses of large visual angle an...

Technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) that induce presence in a virtual, but still external, perceived world, have great power to evoke emotional experiences that can lead to psychotherapeutically valuable changes in the individual. This reflects the power of presence – seen as the feeling of being located in a perceived, external world – in developing and affecting psychological wellbeing....