SITUATION AWARENESS IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS: A THEORETICAL MODEL AND INVESTIGATION WITH DIFFERENT INTERFACE DESIGNS

摘要

The aim of this research is to propose a model of SA and interaction in virtual environments of the relationship among immersion, presence, situation awareness, and performance. The research presents an experiment to examine presence, task/user performance and SA with different VE interface designs (hybrid 2D&3D, 3D non-naturalistic, 3D naturalistic) and head tracking system (non-tracking, tracking). The interrelationship among immersion, presence, SA, and performance is also investigated. The results from VRSARM and VRSAGAT indicated that the participants, who felt present and immersed, exposed to hybrid 2D&3D were more situationally aware than those who exposed to 3D non-naturalistic and 3D naturalistic. By using sickness questionnaire, the participants who exposed to 3D non-naturalistic experienced higher sickness symptom than those who exposed to hybrid 2D&3D and 3D naturalistic. There were no significant main effects on recall measure, VRSAGAT, or presence. VRSARM indicated that there was a significant correlation between immersion and presence (r = 0.66, p < 0.000), presence was positively correlated with SA (r = 0.373, p < 0.003), and immersion was positively correlated with SA (r = 0.532, p < 0.000). However, there was no significant correlation between presence and performance or SA and performance. It was therefore concluded that presence does not lead to enhance performance, and the relation between SA and performance is not apparent. Nevertheless, this experiment is used to generate design implications for future directions for SA in VE in which associations between variables might be found based on the IPSAP model presented here.