A note on presence terminology

This note addresses the confounding of the term 'presence' with several different distinct aspects of experience. Distinctions should be made between immersion, presence, involvement, emotional response, degree of interest. An analogy with colour science is pursued, specifically the difference between wavelength distribution and perception of colour-where the former is like 'immersion' the latter is like 'presence' (a human response). On top of this colours may be experienced as interesting, emotion-producing and so on. Just as the emotional experience engendered by a colour is not the same as the perception of the colour, which is not a simple function of the wavelength distribution, so involvement, interest or emotional response in a virtual reality is not the same as presence, which is not the same as immersion.