Abstract
Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology and tends to be more and more widely developed. Virtual realities can be considered as a new form of simulation devices; a new way to represent reality in a sensible manner. They are defined firstly on the technology they use and on the other hand, on a conceptual plan. Indeed, virtual reality activates perceptual and cognitive mechanisms as well as concrete representations. VR technology may either be immersive or non-immersive. Immersive technology implies a display through a stereoscopic device i.e. a video helmet, while non- immersive VR is displayed via a personal computer's screen and three-dimensional graphics. This latter is called "desktop display". On a conceptual hand, VR is represented as a three-dimensional environment in which we can navigate, interact in real time, and that provides a feel of presence (Psotka, 1995). This study concerns factors, which influence the feel of reality within the field of virtual reality (VR). The study of reactions or inducted phenomena may lead us to better understand them and to contribute to their development. We are going to investigate which factors are contributing to this feel of reality when an interaction with a virtual environment is undertaken. In order to achieve this, we are going to study the influence of certain factors by comparing different image-based VR systems. In order to achieve it, we will expose several participants to three non-immersive systems (a video game, a VR representation of the Helsinki city centre and our deliverable) and rate their sense of presence. All these systems are able to give a feel of presence to their users. The effective measure of presence in each of those environments will lead us to understand this impression of reality which we may have or not have when using VR systems. Presence is defined as the subjective impression of being in a simulated environment (Slater and Usoh, 1993).
