Measurement of presence and its consequences in virtual environments

✍ Scribed by SARAH NICHOLS; CLOVISSA HALDANE; JOHN R. WILSON

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 480 KB
• Volume: 52
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1071-5819
• DOI: 10.1006/ijhc.1999.0343

✦ Synopsis

A sense of presence is one of the critical components required by any e!ective virtual environment (VE). In contrast, side e!ects such as sickness may be produced in some virtual environments, detracting from the enjoyment or usefulness of the VE and from subsequent performance of the participant. Both presence and sickness in virtual environments are multifactorial phenomena not easily amenable to understanding or measurement. The "rst experiment reported here compares use of direct performance measures and rating scales to assess presence, whilst varying the VE display medium (head mounted and desktop displays) and whether or not sound was used in the VE. The second experiment addresses associations between presence, sickness and enjoyment of virtual environment participation. There was enough comparability between a re#ex response within the VE and the rating scales to justify future exploration of the former measure of presence. A number of explanations are given for the partial association found between presence and sickness.