PRESENCE: the sense of believability of inaccessible worlds
Introduction
Historically, the idea of a virtual world emerged from the evolution of our representation and manipulation tools. This concept reflects the convergence of two research fields: on one hand, the science and technology of representation (simulation, synthesis); and on the other, the science of observation and instrumental manipulation (physics, biology, etc.).
Concerning the first, the progress of synthesis and simulation techniques has given birth to synthetic worlds that can be seen, heard, touched, and manipulated, as the real world, revealing the difficulty of rendering them as present as real objects [1], [2]. Synthetic worlds are commonly used today in telecommunication, as a generic means of representation for humans and for communication between them. The finest part of this evolution is the Virtual Reality (VR) concept, more recently enhanced by the concepts of Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR).
Concerning the second, during this century, a striking epistemological break occurred in the designing of new instruments as well as of new theories. On one hand, we build instruments to explore and manipulate, more and more deeply, worlds that are not accessible to our senses and our common knowledge. On the other hand, our contemporary theories seem to be more and more foreign to the common human senses. For example, it is currently assumed that classical physics is closer to human understanding than quantum mechanics. The concepts of telepresence and telesymbiosis, widely used in Virtual Environments, appeared first in teleoperation [3] by trying to bring such inaccessible worlds in (i.e. to be present in) our real world, or conversely, to carry human beings in (i.e. to be present in) the distant world. Teleoperation platforms for action, perception, and multisensory information processing have been developed [4], [5] to allow us to interact with more and more distant objects, inaccessible to our common senses and cognition.
Three complementary questions summarize the problem addressed under the concept of Presence: “Why do distant, synthetic, cyber, inaccessible worlds seem insufficiently present or real for us? Why, and How can we render them more “present” for our perceptions, actions, and cognition?”
In order to allow reliable concepts and techniques to overcome these problems, we address these questions from the very different points of view of Computer Sciences, particularly Computer Arts and Physics, particularly nanosciences and nanotechnologies.
Section snippets
Why Presence in Computer arts?
In Computer arts, as a result of the extensive developments in computer sound synthesis and computer animation of the last 20 years, we understand today that a complete physical reproduction of reality by means of Computers is unreachable and in addition unsatisfying. Conversely, the purely synthetic imaginary sounds and motions have equally fallen in a similar limit of their acceptability by human perception, cognition and aesthetic judgment. As a haunting underlying, the problem of Presence
Is presence a new problem?
The distinction of what is real and what is non-real is an usual and long lasting question of philosophy as well as of the physics. During ages, several concepts have been confronted [6]:
- (a)
from radical idealism, sometimes called “critical idealism”, defended by the neo-kantien philosophers for whom the reality—the noumenon—does not exist in itself, i.e. independently of our representations, having access only to the phenomenon,
- (b)
to ontological realism which assumes that science is able to lead to
From teleoperation to synthetic worlds
An explicit problem of Presence occurs whenever human beings manipulate real objects, directly or indirectly through mechanical instruments. The lack of Presence was felt from the moment when the communication between human beings, or between them and the physical universe became deeply mediated. We distinguish two successive steps: the apparition of electrical communication in the teleoperation process and the production of real sensorial data by means of non-real objects (as synthetic images
Restoring the sense of reality
During the huge quantity of experiments that marked the evolution of our instrumental tools described above, we observe that, despite the quest of high visual realism in synthetic images, visual feedback seems not enough to trigger the feeling of Presence. Often, auditory feedback may be better. Introducing, as in conventional interaction, sensory-motor loops that only link action input data to visual or auditory icons as outputs, may enhance this feeling. But, even in the best implementation
Presence in musical playing
To validate the previous analysis in the artistic case, we present an experiment that implements playing on a virtual violin, looking for the minimal conditions to render it as believable as it is real. The used architecture is composed of a 5 DOF high fidelity force feedback device that interacts in real time with a simulated physically based model of the musical instrument.
The used force feedback device is a custom-developed manipulator [11] composed of independent bar keys. Each of them is
Conclusion
This paper presents an approach of the Presence concept, illustrated by two different extreme examples: artistic instrumental playing and nanomanipulation. After a brief review of relevant concepts in philosophy, it concludes that the question is not a new philosophical as well as psycho-cognitive question. It assumes that the novelty is in the possibility to experiment it with our contemporary instrumental background, based on the multisensory VR–MR paradigm, as generic components of an
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Can theory be embedded in visual interventions to promote self-management? A proposed model and worked example
2012, International Journal of Nursing StudiesCitation Excerpt :The more of these modalities that are embodied via the medium then the greater the “sense of reality” that will be achieved (Chandler, 2007). In computer graphics this increased sensory communication is regarded as the key to achieving “presence”, that is, the sense that a virtual representation is somehow present and real (Luciani et al., 2004). The ability of image and sound to shift representations into more concrete experiential form is supported by research examining the impact of women's experience of ultrasound scans of their unborn child (Dykes and Stjernqvist, 2001).
Experiential archaeology: Is virtual time travel possible?
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2023, Journal of Advanced Research in Applied Sciences and Engineering TechnologyAssessment of spatial presence model for image-based virtual reality
2019, AIP Conference ProceedingsAn interactive image-based virtual reality application for guided imagery therapy
2018, Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control SystemsShift-life interactive art: Mixed-reality artificial ecosystem simulation
2017, Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments