Tangible Presence in Blended Reality Space

We discuss issues relating to presence arising from the recent evolution of tangible interaction techniques as an alternative interaction paradigm to the familiar WIMP-based Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). The intersection of sensory, cognitive and also emotional aspects in such interfaces takes us a significant step further than GUI techniques. We introduce our concept of Tangible Presence in Blended Reality Space, and its study as an emerging weaving of HCI and presence research. An experimental study is then described, which examined the influence of three key factors in the way blended realities may be implemented: tangibility, viewpoint and avatar identity. The study examined the effect of manipulations of these factors on rated presence and self-presence. Our findings emphasize the importance of tangibility for presence, but suggest that presence and self-presence are unrelated phenomena. Finally, as critical concerns in future work to design and implement blended reality spaces for a variety of purposes, context sensitivity and usability issues are discussed. Keywords--Blended Reality Space, Tangibility, Presence, Rehabilitation, Collaboration