Webinar presentation by Ayelet Batist, on the sense of immersion in virtual reality, or "Virtual Reality Presence". The slides share research studies done on participants using VR equipment and discusses some worries regarding the psychological impact of VR experiences.

1. Virtual Presence
Ayelet Batist

2. (Virtual) winds of change
“What children and youngsters play with
is likely to deeply impact how they interact.
For Baby boomers it was TV,
for Millennials it is mobile and touch screens.
For Mindcrafters it'll be VR (Virtual Reality).”
Robert Scoble & Shel Israel

3. Pure Magic
What’s this immersion?
Are there degrees of immersion?
How does it happen?

4. Tricking the Brain
Turning up the immersion

5. Presence
What do we mean when we say presence in VR?
Social Presence
the degree to which people
feel connected to other people
in the virtual world
Self Presence
the degree to which people
believe their own avatar is
actually them
Presence
the degree to which the user feels as if they are present in the
virtual environment (as opposed to present in the physical world)

6. Turning on the Immersion
From 2D to 3D
From 3rd Person
to 1st Person

7. What makes experiences immersive
from 1st Person to VR: “User Person“ Putting the user inside the content

8. Adding Movement
Jeremy Bailenson
“Vivid graphics don’t trick the brain, movement does”
The illusion begins when
the sensory input matches
the movement

9. “The Pit” Experiment

10. “The Pit” Experiment
Participant says:
“I’m (…) walking across a rickety plank spanning a 30-foot-deep pit.
Of course, there is no plank, and there is no pit. The scene is a digital mirage.
… But those facts don’t seem to mean much to … my brain that can’t quite
disbelieve what my eyes are telling it. Virtual reality… is so realistic, so immersive,
that it feels something like an actual experience.”

11. Adding Touch
Haptic Feedback:
The use of the sense of touch to
provide information in a user interface

12. Controlling an avatar
Floating controllers Seeing the body

13. Controlling an avatar
controlling an avatar
is not exactly
avatar embodiment

14. The Rubber Hand Illusion

15. Embodiment in an avatar
Seeing avatar being touched & feeling touch
Seeing avatar without haptic feedback
Touch feedback without seeing avatar

16. Embodiment in an avatar
Homuncular flexibility
Users can learn to control
avatars that are very different
from normal human bodies
flexibility in the brain’s mapping
of the human body
Jaron Lanier
3 hands?

17. “The Tail” Experiment
Hitting targets with tailControlling a tail

18. Body-Mind Shift
Dress (you avatar) for the job you want

19. Change your body, change your mind
“Fake it ’til you become it.” Amy Cuddy

20. Our avatars affect us
The Proteus Effect
The tendency of people to be
affected by their digital avatars and
social networking personas

21. Self Image Shift
Experiment: child avatar
Objets felt bigger and participants
felt and acted more childishly
(a short while after the experiment)

22. Empathy / Bias Shift
Experiment: Dark Skinned avatar
After embodiment in dark skinned
avatars in VR, participants’ biases for
dark skinned people have shifted

23. Walking in another’s shoes
Seeing the world through
the eyes of another, in VR,
induces empathy

24. Wearing ourselves
Love yourself a little

25. When I’m 64
Experiment: Future Self
Wearing avatar of a future self motivated participants
to prefer saving money over immediate rewards

26. Eye of the Tiger
Experiment: Exercising avatar
When participants saw their avatar
lose weight, they were inclined to
exercise more after the experiment

27. It’s a bird... It’s a plane... It’s a flying avatar!
Experiment: Superhero avatar
After flying like a superhero in VR, participants were inclined to offer help

28. Environmental brainwash?
Experiment: Cut down tree
Participants used less paper
after the VR experience of
cutting down a tree

29. Worried?
The dark side of VR immersion

30. False memories
Experiment: Swimming with whales
Kids believed a VR experience was a memory from real life

31. (even more) Personalized Marketing

32. Who said that?
Experiment: Speaking avatar
Participants felt they spoke when seeing
their avatar speak in a virtual mirror

33. User Guardians
Calling all responsible designers

34. Calling all responsible designers
1. Get informed.
2. Get the information out there.
4. Choose the right side.
3. Consider users. Test.

35. 1. Get informed.
Calling all responsible designers
2. Get the information out there.
4. Choose the right side.
3. Consider users. Test.

36. 1. Get informed.
Calling all responsible designers
2. Get the information out there.
4. Choose the right side.
3. Consider users. Test.

37. Calling all responsible designers
2. Get the information out there.
4. Choose the right side.
3. Consider users. Test.
1. Get informed.

38. Calling all responsible designers
2. Get the information out there.
4. Choose the right side.
1. Get informed.
3. Consider users. Test.

39. TNX
Ayelet Batist
ayelet.batist@gmail.com