Spatial Presence, Performance, and Behavior between Real, Remote, and Virtual Immersive Environments

Spatial presence encompasses the user's ability to experience a sense of “being there”. While particular attention was given to assess spatial presence in real and virtual environments, few have been interested in measuring it in telepresence situations. To bridge this gap, the present work introduces a study that compares the execution of a task in three conditions: a real physical environment, a remote environment via a telepresence system, and a virtual simulation of the real environment. Following a within-subject design, 27 participants performed a navigation task consisting in following a route while avoiding obstacles. Spatial presence and five related factors (affordance, enjoyment, attention allocation, reality, and cybersickness) were evaluated using a presence questionnaire. In addition, performance measures were gathered regarding environment recollection and task execution. The evaluation also included a behavioral metric measured by obstacle avoidance distance extracted from participants' trajectories. Results indicated a higher presence in the real environment, along with the best performance measures. No difference was found in spatial presence between the remote and the virtual conditions, although a higher degree of affordance and enjoyment was attributed to the virtual environment, and a higher degree of reality was attributed to the remote environment. The number of collisions was found to be lower in the remote condition compared to the virtual condition. Similarly, the avoidance distance was also bigger (and almost similar) in the real and the remote environments compared to the virtual environment indicating a greater caution of participants. These cues highlight that the behavior of participants in the remote condition was closer to their behavior in the real situation than it was in the virtual condition. Furthermore, positive correlations were found between the reality factor and two of the three performance measures, as well as with the behavioral metric. This suggests that the degree of physical existence of the space in which participants operate can influence their performance and behavior.

[1]  G. Riva,et al.  From intention to action: The role of presence , 2011 .

[2]  G. A. Miller.  THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW THE MAGICAL NUMBER SEVEN, PLUS OR MINUS TWO: SOME LIMITS ON OUR CAPACITY FOR PROCESSING INFORMATION 1 , 1956 .

[3]  Mel Slater,et al.  More Breaks Less Presence , 2003 .

[4]  Michael J. Singer,et al.  Virtual Environments for Dismounted Soldier Training and Performance: Results, Recommendations, and Issues. , 1998 .

[5]  Desney S. Tan,et al.  Physically large displays improve performance on spatial tasks , 2006, TCHI.

[6]  Ferdinando Milella,et al.  The effects of substitute multisensory feedback on task performance and the sense of presence in a virtual reality environment , 2018, PloS one.

[7]  Patrick Bourdot,et al.  Spatial Presence in Real and Remote Immersive Environments and the Effect of Multisensory Stimulation , 2018, PRESENCE: Virtual and Augmented Reality.

[8]  Jonathan Stevens,et al.  The Relationship between Presence and Performance in Virtual Simulation Training , 2015 .

[9]  Stephen B. Gilbert,et al.  Perceived Realism of Virtual Environments Depends on Authenticity , 2016, PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.

[10]  Marc Busch,et al.  Being there again - Presence in real and virtual environments and its relation to usability and user experience using a mobile navigation task , 2017, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[11]  Holger Regenbrecht,et al.  Measuring the Sense of Presence and its Relations to Fear of Heights in Virtual Environments , 1998, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[12]  Fredrik Rehnmark,et al.  Robonaut: NASA's Space Humanoid , 2000, IEEE Intell. Syst..

[13]  Pamela J. Wisniewski,et al.  The physical-virtual table: exploring the effects of a virtual human's physical influence on social interaction , 2018, VRST.

[14]  Stéphane Bouchard,et al.  The Meaning of Being There is Related to a Specific Activation in the Brain Located in the Parahypocampus , 2009 .

[15]  David W. Schloerb,et al.  A Quantitative Measure of Telepresence , 1995, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[16]  M. Lombard,et al.  Measuring Presence: The Temple Presence Inventory , 2009 .

[17]  Jeremy N. Bailenson,et al.  How Immersive Is Enough? A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Immersive Technology on User Presence , 2016 .

[18]  Robert Höldrich,et al.  3D binaural sound reproduction using a virtual ambisonic approach , 2003, IEEE International Symposium on Virtual Environments, Human-Computer Interfaces and Measurement Systems, 2003. VECIMS '03. 2003.

[19]  Michael Meehan,et al.  Physiological measures of presence in stressful virtual environments , 2002, SIGGRAPH.

[20]  Lili Liu,et al.  Learning Effects of Virtual Game Worlds: An Empirical Investigation of Immersion, Enjoyment and Performance , 2014, AMCIS.

[21]  Gunther Reinhart,et al.  Telepresence in Industrial Applications: Implementation Issues for Assembly Tasks , 2010, PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.

[22]  D. Randy Garrison,et al.  ASSESSING TEACHING PRESENCE IN A COMPUTER CONFERENCING CONTEXT , 2019, Online Learning.

[23]  Gerd Bruder,et al.  Virtual proxemics: Locomotion in the presence of obstacles in large immersive projection environments , 2015, 2015 IEEE Virtual Reality (VR).

[24]  Mel Slater,et al.  A Virtual Presence Counter , 2000, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[25]  Robert B. Welch,et al.  How Can We Determine if the Sense of Presence Affects Task Performance? , 1999, Presence.

[26]  Maria V. Sanchez-Vives,et al.  A Virtual Reprise of the Stanley Milgram Obedience Experiments , 2006, PloS one.

[27]  Mel Slater,et al.  Depth of Presence in Virtual Environments , 1994, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[28]  Paul Skalski,et al.  The Role of Presence in the Experience of Electronic Games , 2004 .

[29]  J. Loomis,et al.  Interpersonal Distance in Immersive Virtual Environments , 2003, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[30]  Rosa María Baños,et al.  An Augmented Reality System for the Treatment of Acrophobia: The Sense of Presence Using Immersive Photography , 2006, PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.

[31]  Daniel Mestre,et al.  Affective, anxiety and behavioral effects of an aversive stimulation during a simulated navigation task within a virtual environment: A pilot study , 2011, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[32]  Jean-Marc Vézien,et al.  The Construction and Validation of the SP-IE Questionnaire: An Instrument for Measuring Spatial Presence in Immersive Environments , 2019, EuroVR.

[33]  Mary C. Whitton,et al.  A Survey of Presence and Related Concepts , 2017, ACM Comput. Surv..

[34]  Christine Youngblut,et al.  The relationship between presence and performance in virtual environments: results of a VERTS study , 2003, IEEE Virtual Reality, 2003. Proceedings..

[35]  Mel Slater,et al.  Place illusion and plausibility can lead to realistic behaviour in immersive virtual environments , 2009, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[36]  J. Freeman,et al.  'It's been Emotional': Affect, Physiology, and Presence. , 2002 .

[37]  Philip W. Fink,et al.  Obstacle avoidance during walking in real and virtual environments , 2007, TAP.

[38]  Eric D. Ragan,et al.  The Effects of Higher Levels of Immersion on Procedure Memorization Performance and Implications for Educational Virtual Environments , 2010, PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.

[39]  Gary Pettey,et al.  Revisiting the use of secondary task reaction time measures in telepresence research: exploring the role of immersion and attention , 2014, AI & SOCIETY.

[40]  Mary C. Whitton,et al.  Walking > walking-in-place > flying, in virtual environments , 1999, SIGGRAPH.

[41]  Michael P. Snow,et al.  Empirical Models Based on Free-Modulus Magnitude Estimation of Perceived Presence in Virtual Environments , 1998, Hum. Factors.

[42]  Russell H. Taylor,et al.  Medical robotics in computer-integrated surgery , 2003, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[43]  Marc Busch,et al.  Being there for real: presence in real and virtual environments and its relation to usability , 2014, NordiCHI.

[44]  Michael J. Singer,et al.  Measuring Presence in Virtual Environments: A Presence Questionnaire , 1998, Presence.

[45]  Frank Biocca,et al.  The Effect of the Agency and Anthropomorphism on Users' Sense of Telepresence, Copresence, and Social Presence in Virtual Environments , 2003, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[46]  Daniel Mestre,et al.  Afforded actions as a behavioral assessment of physical presence in virtual environments , 2009, Virtual Reality.

[47]  Rod McCall,et al.  Measuring presence in virtual environments , 2004, CHI EA '04.

[48]  Thomas B. Sheridan,et al.  Musings on Telepresence and Virtual Presence , 1992, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[49]  Mel Slater,et al.  Temporal and Spatial Variations in Presence: Qualitative Analysis of Interviews from an Experiment on Breaks in Presence , 2008, PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.

[50]  Wijnand A. IJsselsteijn,et al.  Presence: Where Are We? , 2001, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[51]  Mel Slater,et al.  Using Presence Questionnaires in Reality , 2000, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[52]  Olivier Warusfel,et al.  Twenty Years of Ircam Spat: Looking Back, Looking Forward , 2015, ICMC.

[53]  Christoph Klimmt,et al.  A Process Model of the Formation of Spatial Presence Experiences , 2007 .

[54]  Luís Magalhães,et al.  Different interaction paradigms for different user groups: an evaluation regarding content selection , 2014, Interacción '14.

[55]  Paolo Fiorini,et al.  Medical Robotics and Computer-Integrated Surgery , 2008, 2008 32nd Annual IEEE International Computer Software and Applications Conference.

[56]  Giuseppe Riva,et al.  From the body to the tools and back: A general framework for presence in mediated interactions , 2012, Interact. Comput..

[57]  Katerina Mania,et al.  Connections between lighting impressions and presence in real and virtual environments: an experimental study , 2001, AFRIGRAPH '01.

[58]  Seung-A. Annie Jin,et al.  Avatars Mirroring the Actual Self versus Projecting the Ideal Self: The Effects of Self-Priming on Interactivity and Immersion in an Exergame, Wii Fit , 2009, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[59]  Jonathan Freeman,et al.  A Cross-Media Presence Questionnaire: The ITC-Sense of Presence Inventory , 2001, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[60]  Frank Biocca,et al.  Telepresence via Television: Two Dimensions of Telepresence May Have Different Connections to Memory and Persuasion , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[61]  Wijnand A. IJsselsteijn,et al.  Effects of Sensory Information and Prior Experience on Direct Subjective Ratings of Presence , 1999, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[62]  Woodrow Barfield,et al.  A Conceptual Model of the Sense of Presence in Virtual Environments , 1999, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[63]  Kelly S. Kingdon,et al.  Human Performance in Immersive Virtual Environments: Effects of Exposure Duration, User Control, and Scene Complexity , 2002 .

[64]  Jonathan Steuer,et al.  Defining virtual reality: dimensions determining telepresence , 1992 .

[65]  Alistair G. Sutcliffe,et al.  Presence, memory and interaction in virtual environments , 2005, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[66]  Martijn J. Schuemie,et al.  Research on Presence in Virtual Reality: A Survey , 2001, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..