Presence production

Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Technology, to be presented with due permission for public examination and criticism in the Seminar Room Abstract This investigation has been carried out at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. The main goal has been to investigate the factors determining the production of a sense of presence and reality in video mediated communication. Presence is in these studies defines as the subjective experience of being together in one place when one is physically situated in another. Presence is an emergent property; it has no physicality, but arises as a mental sensation. Special attention has been paid to spatial factors, embodiment issues, and narrative elements related to the production of presence. A context map has been used in order to model the semantics of presence production and to visualize the relationships between the determining factors. The conclusions may be summarized as follows: • Knowledge about physical and extended spaces and bodies and of the shifting of attention between these is important in presence production. • Well planned design of physical and virtual spaces enhances the sense of presence. • Coherent design and production of mediated embodiment can enhance the sense of presence. • Conscious use of content characteristics, e.g., good storytelling, can enhance the sense of presence. • Different communication modes need the support of different combinations of presence production factors. • Even technically poorly mediated communication may support a sense of presence and reality if the storytelling is good. • The human sensory environment should be supported by a sense of non-mediation, technological transparency, on the plane of discourse. • The results indicate that individual differences influence the sense of presence and reality. The perception of video mediated communication evolves as people become daily users. People seem to intuitively begin to interpret new types of mediated cues, adding what is missing in comparison to a real time physical communication experience.