A Comparative Immersiveness Study Using Virtual Agent in Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Desktop Environments

Billy Chang, Masters Student

Dept of CSSE, University of Canterbury

Fri Nov 05 15:10:00 NZDT 2004 in Room 031, MSCS

Abstract

The effectiveness of a virtual reality system depends largely on its ability to immerse users into the environment. This study presents a new way to measure immersiveness, with the use of €˜mimicry€™, a phenomenon found by psychologists, that we human often mimic someone or something that we feel affectionate towards. Using a virtual character agent, we will watch how experimental participants interact with the agent and how often the participants mimic the virtual agent, across the different virtual platforms. It is hypothesised that the participants will more likely mimic the agent’s movement in Augmented Reality Systems, than in Virtual Reality System, and in Desktop Environment the least.