Is The Subjective Feel of “Presence” an Uninteresting Goal? Roberto Casati and Elena Pasquinelli

Sense of Presence in Virtual environments: Realism or Believability?

Varieties of realism in computer mediated environments PhotorealismPhotorealism : creating computer generated scenes that appear so convincing that they are indistinguishable from photographs or films –by accurately reproducing the geometry and light reflection properties of surfaces –or the behavior of animated characters, of natural phenomena and of the physical conditions of the environment (such as collisions, falls, etc.) takes center stage Non-photorealismNon-photorealism: any rendering style that does not try to create a photographic look is termed non- photorealistic; this includes: scientific visualization, the creation of cartoons, the emulation of traditional artistic media.

Believability behind realism? Is it necessary to mimic physical reality in order to produce computer mediated phenomena which enhance the sense of Presence the user experiences? Is it sufficient to reproduce the details of the geometry and illumination of real objects?

What is the sense of Presence? Current visions: –Presence as the subjective feeling of being there, in a place or situation –Presence as an illusion of non-mediation –Presence as a complex form of perception formed through an interplay of raw (multi- )sensory data and various cognitive processes No specificity for the sense of presence in virtual reality

Specificity of the concept of Presence in Virtual Environments Symbolic experiencesSymbolic experiences : reading a book or interacting with a text-based environment. Absence of the perceptual characteristics of the interaction. virtual reality The user of virtual reality interacts with the “synthetic” environment through non- symbolic systems, such as the perceptual and the motor system: within the limits traced by the development of software and hardware systems, a virtual object is something one can have the impression of touching, seeing, actively modifying. Experiences with perceptual mediaExperiences with perceptual media such as photography or cinema. Absence of active interaction with objects and events. virtual reality The user of virtual reality has the possibility of actively intervening and interacting with the synthetic environment, both relatively to the point of view of the user or his movements, and as regards the modifications he is able to bring about in the world of artificial objects.

The experience of the user in virtual environments is then peculiar because it is perceptual and interactive It is hence necessary to deal with the problem of the objects and events of the virtual world in terms of their perception and of the interaction the user can establish with them: –From the quest for a mysterious, unarticulated and at best unspecified subjective feeling –To the mechanisms of object perception

Object perception and the completeness of the stimuli (point to point realism)

Non-necessity of the completeness of the stimuli for the perception of complete, uniform objects –I’m looking at my cat is in the garden, behind the fence. Unlike the Cheshire cat of Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, even in the absence of sensory stimulation corresponding to each of the components of an object such as my cat, I’m ready to say that there’s a cat behind the fence, and that the cat is complete (it has parts that I may not be able to see). –Let’s now play with a balloon. I hold it in my hand, then I throw it in the air; I catch it and throw it again, and so on. In the time span in which the balloon doesn’t touch my hand I do not receive any tactile stimulation from it. The interruption of contact doesn’t make the balloon disappear. I continue to “perceive” the balloon in the absence of a material stimulation of the receptors.

Non-sufficiency of the point to point reproduction of a stimulus for the perception of an object We do not normally see the blind spot of our retinas (the retinal area where the optic nerve emerges and which is insensible to luminosity stimuli), but a continuous and uniform world. –This can be explained by flling in mechanisms that are more central than visual perception or by sensorimotor mechanisms: the visual system is not a sort of plate where the image is passively impressed as a whole, but a perceptual and motor system which explores the environment by directing its attention now on some details, then on others When observing a cat behind a fence, the visual system is able to make the cat “appear” and “disappear” simply by displacing the eyes or the head, slightly changing its perspective or point of view. The consequent modification of the appearance of the object is crucial information for the identification of the shape, localization, etc. The motor ability is not, then, an optional component of seeing, but a constitutive one

The “generalized tunnel effect”. So called ‘object-files’ have been introduced in the literature to account for the perceptual survival of objects in the absence of continuous sensory information – When an object is the focus of attention, it is assigned a mental file which is kept alive for a while in case the object disappears. When the object reappears, a file is assigned to it and then merged with the previously created file.

In virtual reality too, delivering a complete visual duplicate of an object is then neither necessary nor sufficient in order to produce the impression of an object. It is not the fidelity to the real model (the world) that makes the synthetic environment looking and feeling real, but the fidelity to the perceptual conditions involved in the construction of real objects. This can be done by taking into account the specific sensorimotor determinants of visual perception, or some higher level features such as object files. The believability of synthetic objects depends on the adequacy of the reproduction of the perceptual mechanism involved, and not on the realism of the reproduction of the stimulus.

Specific mechanisms to be exploited for enforcing believability in virtual objects and environments Perceptual simplification: The perceptual system exploits some mechanisms in order to simplify internal calculations, such as exemple specific motor constraints to perception –When perceiving the shape of a trajectory, the perceptual system responds to laws of covariation of the geometric (shape of the trajectory, such as an ellypse) and cinematic (velocity of the exploration of the different parts of the ellypse) properties of the movement executed Perceptual integration: The perceptual system tends to integrate information from different sensory modalitites and to give rise to coherent complex unities –When faced to slight sensory discrepancies between information form different sensory modalities the system tends to produce a percept that doesn’t correspond exacly to the first nor to the second but wich tends to be unique and coherent (non conflictual)

Presence as an unnecessary goal?

Less is more One of the reasons of the success of drawings and photographs may lie in the very fact that pictures are sacrificing some of the elements that may instead help conveying a stronger feel of presence. The fact that a picture is static and gives only a partial representation of an object could be a huge advantage for some cognitive queries one may want to address to pictures. For instance, one can explore visually a picture in a way which may not be available for an ordinary object. cognitively “central” element of attention that is at stake, and not the relatively peripheral and phenomenal feel of presence, then static pictures are better cognitive devices. In such a case, clearly less is more. But if less is more, then there is plenty of room at the bottom.