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Article Excerpt
Introduction
Recently, there have been an increasing number of design applications that adopt the concept of Virtual Environments (VEs) for immersive or semi-immersive virtual design spaces. Simulating an environment before construction allows users to trial systems and designs where there could otherwise be unnecessary delay, expense or hazards. The opportunity for a user to be immersed in the environment gives even greater opportunity for engagement and interaction with factors that may not otherwise be obvious. Such applications may include simulated walkthroughs of virtual spaces, including complex environments or machinery. The ability to rapidly create and use such systems has benefits for industry and also for research, where the ability to test hypotheses regarding VEs can allow for greater understanding of the relevance and importance of certain factors.
The effectiveness of VE-based spaces is often connected to the sense of presence. Presence is defined as the subjective experience of being in one place, even when one is physically not there (Witmer & Singer, 1998). Current research on presence has primarily focused on the concept of personal presence, "transportation" or "being there" in the Virtual Worlds (VWs) (Schubert & Friedmann, 1988; Schubert, Regenbrecht & Friedmann, 2001; Witmer et al., 1998), in which navigation and knowledge acquisition have been regarded as important tasks performed within virtual environments (VEs) (Satalich et al., 1995; Witmer, Bailey & Parsons, 1996). Navigation is an inherently cognitive process and an understanding of the knowledge it requires can inform the study of navigation (Nash, Edwards, Thompson & Barfield, 2000). In 1952, Morton Heilig, who was called the "Father of Virtual Reality", commented on his experience with Cinerama in New York as such: "When the curtain swept up to reveal the now-legendary wide-screen roller coaster ride, I realized that the film's creators were no longer content to have me look at the roller coaster but were trying to put me physically on the ride. The audience no longer surrounded the work of art; the work of art surrounded the audience--just as reality surrounds us. The spectator was invited to plunge into another world. We no longer needed the device of identifying with a character on the other side of the 'window.' We could step through it and be a part of the action!" (from Rheingold, 1991).
As user experience, the feeling of "being there", or presence, is actually independent of any specific type of technology. It is simply the product of the human mind. However, with the improvement of immersive technologies, computing and network technologies, more accurate reproductions and simulations of reality could be created. This creates an increasing awareness of the relevance and importance of the "presence" experience. Presence has become an important research topic in areas such as cinematic displays, virtual environments, telecommunication and collaboration, and so on. Lombard and Ditton, (1997) characterised the concept of presence using six features; social richness, realism, transportation, immersion, social actor within medium, and medium as social actor. Realism and transportation are the most popular features of the concept of presence proposed by researchers. 'Realism' represents the extent to which VEs appear to be realistic and 'transportation' represents peoples' perception of being present in the VEs.
As one of the important types of presence, object presence is the ability to interact...
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