A Method for Quantifying the Benefits of Immersion Using the CAVE

Immersive virtual environments (VEs) have often been described as a technology looking for an application. Part of the reluctance from industry to make regular use of immersive VEs stems from the fact that there is no empirical evidence suggesting that immersive applications provide any benefit over non-immersive ones. We present a method in this paper that can be used to statistically support claims for the benefits of immersion. In attempting to quantify the benefits of immersion, we focus on two major components: physical immersion and head-based rendering. Prior experiments intended to demonstrate the benefits of immersive VEs have tended to confound variables or examine aspects other than immersion. Our method using a CAVE permits the independent evaluation of the effects of physical immersion and head-based rendering. The number and location of active display surfaces controls the level of physical immersion, while enabling/disabling the head tracker and permitting freedom of movement control head-based rendering. This approach has been used successfully in our pilot study regarding the benefits of immersion in abstract information visualization. This method can also be used in a wide variety of other experiments, and we present a brief description of some for possible future study.