49: Understanding Virtual Environments: Immersion, Presence, and Performance Tuesday, Full Day 8:30 am – 5:15 pm River Room 001 People in immersive virtual environments often report that they are transported out of everyday physical reality to another world. The concept that describes this sense of transformed "presence" is important to understanding the engineering of virtual reality experiences, and it is thoroughly explored in this course. Prerequisites Some knowledge of experimental design and some personal experience with graphics displays and systems are helpful but not required. Topics Description and critical assessment of several approaches to defining and measuring presence within a virtual environment. Experimental methods for understanding causative factors. Implications for design and engineering of a highly presence-inducing virtual experience. Application examples from the clinical domain. Organizer Mel Slater University College London Lecturers Frank Biocca Michigan State University Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. Mary C. Whitton University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Stephen R. Ellis NASA Ames Research Center Katerina Mania University of Sussex Mel Slater Anthony Steed University College London Schedule 8:30 A Model for Presence Slater 8:55 Measuring Presence Slater 9:20 Presence and Usability Steed 10:05 Discussion Slater and Steed 10:15 Break 10:30 Physiological Measures in Training Brooks 10:40 Commonly Measured Responses Whitton and Meehan 11:00 Physiological Responses and Presence Whitton and Meehan 11:25 Collecting and Interpreting Physiological Data Whitton and Meehan 12:05 Discussion Brooks, Whitton & Meehan 12:15 Lunch 1:30 Presence and Performance Mania 1:45 Spatial Awareness and Memory Tasks Mania 2:15 Social Presence Biocca 3:05 Discussion Biocca and Mania 3:15 Break 3:30 Designing and Application for Presence Ellis 3:40 Presence as the Defining Factor Ellis 4:20 The Design Process Brooks 5:00 General Discussion All Additional information from SIGGRAPH 2002 Courses is available in the Course Notes.