Presence in Altered Environments: Changing Parameters Changing Presence

摘要

The U. S. Army Research Institute (ARI) has been investigating the use of Virtual Environments (VE) for Dismounted Soldier simulations for several years. One constant issue investigated in the research program has been the issue of Presence. Presence has been defined as the subjective experience of being in one place or environment, even when one is physically situated in another (Witmer & Singer, 1998). In recent research examining performance during a search task with and without a body-matching avatar, no differences were found in the evaluation of presence (Singer, Ehrlich, & Allen, 1998). A recent replication and extension of that research incorporated additional visual display characteristics in a between groups design. The research replicated the previous Virtual Environment (VE) conditions and added expanded display conditions using real world (RW) display mockups, with appropriately reduced resolution and diminished luminance. The four RW conditions were matched to normal helmet mounted displays, doubled the horizontal view, doubled the vertical view, or presented a "normal" field of view. In both the VE and RW conditions, participants were required to perform two tasks in three rooms. In the first room participants were required to follow a marked course as rapidly as possible. In the second and third rooms the participants were required to search for and acquire floor targets in order and drop markers into them. Analysis of the VE presence scores replicated the previous results, finding no difference in rated presence, with the exception of the Naturalness subscale. The Disembodied point of view was rated more natural than the avatar condition. In comparisons between the VE and the matching FOV RW condition, the RW conditions were significantly lower than the VE. However, within only the RW conditions, the Involved/Control subscale was always rated significantly higher than the VE matching condition. It may be that the avatar representation did not provide the immediately obvious information that it was intended to provide, and required longer adaptation times. The Control superiority over a restricted FOV with diminished resolution would seem to also fit this argument, in that hindering or diminishing interactions with the experienced world diminishes the amount of presence one has in the world.