Virtual Reality: How Much Immersion Is Enough?

Angela McCarthyCP5080, SP1

2010

Overview► Paper Insights► Authors► Introduction► Success Stories► Immersion Benefits► Demonstrating Benefits ► Results► Future Work► Metadata► Conclusion

Paper Insights►Published in July, 2007 ►Under IEEE Computer Society as a

cover feature in Computer, Volume 40

Authors► Doug A Bowman

o Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech

o Completed Ph. D., in the College of Computing and the GVU Center at Georgia Tech

o 100+ publicationso 1997-2009

► Ryan P McMahano Ph. D., Computer Science and Applications. Expected

May 2010 at Virginia Techo 4 Publicationso 2006-2008

Introduction►Small history of Virtual Reality (VR)►Immersion, Virtual Environments (VE)►Features

oHead Mounted DisplaysoMultiscreen Stereoscopic Displays

►Looking at how much immersion is required for user experience

Success Stories►Phobia Therapy

o Public Speaking►Military Training

o Infantry Training in urban combat tactics►Entertainment

o DisneyQuest – placing visitors inside the game►Success due to the reliance of the realistic

experienceo Requires high level of sensory fidelity

• Visual, Auditory and other sensory cues

Immersion’s Benefits► Increased sense of presence

o More realistic experience► Depth Cues

o Users exercise their built-in capacity for understanding stereopsis and motion parallax

o Uses in scientific visualization, design review, and virtual prototyping.

► Traditional Approach: Immersion > Presence > Application Effetiveness

► Authors Approach: Immersion Components > Immersion Benefits > Application Effectiveness

Demonstrating Benefits►Controlled empirical studies

o Immersions effect on task performance• E.g. Increasing display size/resolution to track

time taken to complete a visual searching taskoComparing stereo to non-stereooHead-tracking vs no head-trackingoMultiscreens vs single screens

• For each scenario, there were noticeable increases/decreases on users task performance

Results► Positive effects of immersion on spatial thinking► Found that some visualisations that are less

complex may perform as well as more immersive ones

► Higher levels of immersion o Contributes to improved interaction task

performanceo Reduces information clutter

► Display size/resolution effects task completion timeo High Resolution displays producing best results

Future Work►Understanding various components of

immersionoMeasurable user performanceoUnderstandingo Preference

►Two conflicting goalso VR to thrive/succeed due to benefitsoHelp others avoid costly situations where

high immersion not necessary

Metadata►Cover Feature for Computer, IEEE►Language

• E.g. “If all that these technologies provide for the user are oohs and ahs and a unique user experience, it would be difficult to justify the expense and development complexity that immersive VR requires”

►Images►Diagrams

Images appropriate for medium, helps reader

visualise with text

Diagrams and tables provide quick reference points, easy to

read, straight to point

Metadata continued…

►Small number of references (13)o Some references examples of VR

applications►Acronyms/Abbreviations presented

early as possibleoAllows non-IT readers to read with ease

►Appearance

Conclusion►Good balance of technical and general

information (technical information set in yellow boxes separate from general text)

►Easy to read, keeps the reader engaged►Makes good use of real-world

applications to further engage readers►Good structure/flow

Questions?Thanks for listening!