GVU Technical Report Number:
GIT-GVU-94-06
Title:
Presence as the Defining Factor in a VR Application
Authors:
Larry F. Hodges
Rob Kooper
Thomas Meyer
Johannes J. deGraaff
Barbara O. Rothbaum
Dan Opdyke
James S. Williford
Max M. North
Abstract:
The sense of presence that a user experiences in a virtual environment is
perhaps the best known attribute of virtual reality. It is an appeal to this
sense of presence that is used to distinguish virtual reality as something
different from merely a multimedia system or an interactive computer
graphics display. Our basic understanding of presence, however, is still
primarily anecdotal in nature. We have yet to rigorously explore basic
questions about the nature of presence.
We describe an application of virtual reality, virtual reality graded
exposure (VRGE), in which a sense of presence is the salient factor
determining the success of the application. Sujective and objective data
from a clinical study on the usefulness of VRGE for treating persons with
acrophobia is analyzed as experimental evidence for formulating several
assertions about the characteristics and nature of presence. We then discuss
the implications of our assertions on several open questions concerning the
definition, quantification and usefulness of presence
Keywords:
Virtual reality, virtual reality graded exposure (VRGE), presense
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