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!