**Abstract**

Presence has been described to be crucial in several virtual reality (VR) applications. Among the factors influencing presence, realistic virtual environment has been examined extensively from the angle of geometry-based virtual reality (GBVR) application. The visual of the applications has been manipulated by altering numerous technological characteristics or by adding more sensory information (such as touch and smell). However, realistic virtual environment in GBVR application often required complex programming and takes longer time to develop. As such GBVR application is not acceptable for the application that needs to have a collection of realistic panoramic virtual environments. An alternative solution for above statement is image-based virtual reality (IBVR) application. IBVR refers to photo-based images, stitched together to develop a realistic panoramic virtual environment. Based on this method, many realistic virtual environments can be created in much less time but with limited interaction function. Despite this limitation, realistic virtual environment in image-based virtual reality is expected to enhance user's spatial presence experience, which is supported by spatial presence theoretical model. There a few levels in this theoretical model before the formation of spatial presence, and the most important part in this theoretical model is primary egocentric reference frames (PERF), adapting calmness to produce spatial presence experience. Thus, this chapter describes the summary on adapting calmness as PERF.

**Keywords:** presence, spatial presence, virtual reality, image-based virtual reality, interactivity

## **1. Introduction**

Virtual reality (VR) is one of the technologies that can produce artificial virtual environment or medium which user can attach and communicate whether in low or high interactivity [1, 2]. VR is grouped with image-based virtual reality (IBVR) and geometry-based virtual reality (GBVR). The most popular is GBVR that has fascinated the most presence researcher because GBVR application can deliver high interactivity and high immersion toward user's presence experience [3, 4]. However, developing high realistic artificial environment in GBVR is time-consuming [4]. As an alternative, a promising type of VR that can produce high realistic artificial environment in much less time is IBVR.

IBVR is defined as simulated artificial environments from a collection of stitch photographs which users can interact and navigate in a 3D realistic artificial environment despite the absence of geometric programming. IBVR can produce more than one realistic virtual environment with a low performance processor. The main navigation functions of IBVR are zooming in/out the margin in artificial environment, hotspot hopping from between a few artificial environments and pan the artificial environment in 360 degrees.

Interactivity in IBVR is limited for navigation compared to GBVR which provides high interactivity to navigate and manipulate. Despite the limited navigation function in IBVR, users can experience presence. The formation is that, however, according to [5–7], despite high interactivity, the degree of user's mind of acceptance of artificial environment more than the real surrounding is essential to experience user's presence. Thus, in [6], a spatial presence theory is proposed which does not focus on interactivity; however, the most important aspect to produce user's spatial presence experience is because of the user acceptance on the visual or the spatial of the artificial environment. This theory convinces that IBVR with high realistic artificial environment and limited functions is still capable of producing and enhancing user's spatial presence experience.

#### **2. Problem statement**

Realistic panoramic artificial environment provided by IBVR application, to date, lack of research has been found investigating spatial presence in it due to its low and limited navigation capability that primes researchers and anecdotes believe that it offers low sense of presence [2]. Most important is users can relax when watching the virtual environment or mediated environment to enhance spatial presence experience. Examples of mediated environment are videos, movies, documentaries, pictures, and books. A few researches specify that the collection of realistic plot in mediated environments could elicit and enhance user's spatial presence experience [6]. Thus, it is expected that IBVR which compresses stitched images to produce artificial environments could induce spatial presence experience among users.

There is a researcher who conducts a study of the model parts, namely components and user actions [16]. Based on previous researches, none of them discusses the media characteristics that are involved in order to reach the PERF hypothesis first before a user starts experiencing spatial presence experience. Even though in spatial presence theory by [11], the researches concentrates on the fact that media characteristics can increase user's spatial presence experience via the PERF hypothesis. In addition, no research is conducted on the specific criteria of PERF hypothesis.

#### **3. Literature review**

Wirth [11] defined spatial presence as "a feeling of being bodily present in a mediated environment (self-location) and a feeling of being able to act in synthetic environment (possible action)." A spatial presence theoretical model that integrates media factors and human factors are presented in [11], and the formation of a user's spatial presence experience is shown in **Figure 1**.

The formation of spatial presence theoretical model as shown in **Figure 1** is from components in the bottom to produce first level and components to produce second level. Components consist of four parts which are media factors, process components, user actions, and user factors. The formation started from the "empty slot" to adapt mind to the visual in the media. Empty slot is user's mind giving attention

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spatial presence.

*Spatial presence theoretical model from [11].*

**Figure 1.**

ence experience.

presence experience exists.

*Calmness in Virtual Environments Enhance User's Spatial Presence Experience*

to the media. Then, the user's mind will keep receiving input from the media until the percent of adapting media is higher than real surrounding. From this theory, the primary egocentric reference frame is important in bridging the user's mind to

In the second step, a user's spatial situational model allows the user to accept the primary egocentric reference frame (PERF). PERF can be defined as the process where a user's mental model accepts the existence of the mediated environment and unconsciously leaves behind the user's mental model of the real environment.

Based on the diagram of the spatial presence theory in **Figure 1**, primary egocentric reference frame (PERF) is intermediate between three important relationships. The first correlation is between spatial situational feeling and spatial presence experience. The second correlation is between media factors and spatial presence experience. The third correlation is between the user's action and spatial presence experience. These correlations conclude that PERF is an important role in creating a user's spatial pres-

The existence of PERF is due to the hypothesis which is constructed by an individual. This hypothesis is developed based on the first individual's perception about what he/she watches. For example, when an individual sees pictures of food, he/ she assumes that the food in the picture is delicious. So, PERF hypothesis is that the food is delicious. Once this hypothesis is received by an individual, then the spatial

Basically from the literature review, a persuasive media factor is agreed by the researchers to produce a user's spatial presence experience. However, lacks of specific characteristics are produced by the researchers about the media factors that can produce a user's spatial presence experience. In fact, this theory informs the reader that spatial presence experience exists if a user feels it as situational. Based on the explanation of the previous subsections, it has been noted that there are a few steps that the user's mind have to experience before experiencing a user's spatial presence experience. Spatial presence theory mentions that if the user is consciously

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82862*

*Calmness in Virtual Environments Enhance User's Spatial Presence Experience DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82862*

#### **Figure 1.**

*Interactive Multimedia - Multimedia Production and Digital Storytelling*

artificial environment in 360 degrees.

and enhancing user's spatial presence experience.

**2. Problem statement**

**3. Literature review**

spatial presence experience is shown in **Figure 1**.

IBVR is defined as simulated artificial environments from a collection of stitch photographs which users can interact and navigate in a 3D realistic artificial environment despite the absence of geometric programming. IBVR can produce more than one realistic virtual environment with a low performance processor. The main navigation functions of IBVR are zooming in/out the margin in artificial environment, hotspot hopping from between a few artificial environments and pan the

Interactivity in IBVR is limited for navigation compared to GBVR which provides high interactivity to navigate and manipulate. Despite the limited navigation function in IBVR, users can experience presence. The formation is that, however, according to [5–7], despite high interactivity, the degree of user's mind of acceptance of artificial environment more than the real surrounding is essential to experience user's presence. Thus, in [6], a spatial presence theory is proposed which does not focus on interactivity; however, the most important aspect to produce user's spatial presence experience is because of the user acceptance on the visual or the spatial of the artificial environment. This theory convinces that IBVR with high realistic artificial environment and limited functions is still capable of producing

Realistic panoramic artificial environment provided by IBVR application, to date, lack of research has been found investigating spatial presence in it due to its low and limited navigation capability that primes researchers and anecdotes believe that it offers low sense of presence [2]. Most important is users can relax when watching the virtual environment or mediated environment to enhance spatial presence experience. Examples of mediated environment are videos, movies, documentaries, pictures, and books. A few researches specify that the collection of realistic plot in mediated environments could elicit and enhance user's spatial presence experience [6]. Thus, it is expected that IBVR which compresses stitched images to produce artificial environments could induce spatial presence experience among users. There is a researcher who conducts a study of the model parts, namely components and user actions [16]. Based on previous researches, none of them discusses the media characteristics that are involved in order to reach the PERF hypothesis first before a user starts experiencing spatial presence experience. Even though in spatial presence theory by [11], the researches concentrates on the fact that media characteristics can increase user's spatial presence experience via the PERF hypothesis. In addition, no research is conducted on the specific criteria of PERF hypothesis.

Wirth [11] defined spatial presence as "a feeling of being bodily present in a mediated environment (self-location) and a feeling of being able to act in synthetic environment (possible action)." A spatial presence theoretical model that integrates media factors and human factors are presented in [11], and the formation of a user's

The formation of spatial presence theoretical model as shown in **Figure 1** is from components in the bottom to produce first level and components to produce second level. Components consist of four parts which are media factors, process components, user actions, and user factors. The formation started from the "empty slot" to adapt mind to the visual in the media. Empty slot is user's mind giving attention

**184**

*Spatial presence theoretical model from [11].*

to the media. Then, the user's mind will keep receiving input from the media until the percent of adapting media is higher than real surrounding. From this theory, the primary egocentric reference frame is important in bridging the user's mind to spatial presence.

In the second step, a user's spatial situational model allows the user to accept the primary egocentric reference frame (PERF). PERF can be defined as the process where a user's mental model accepts the existence of the mediated environment and unconsciously leaves behind the user's mental model of the real environment.

Based on the diagram of the spatial presence theory in **Figure 1**, primary egocentric reference frame (PERF) is intermediate between three important relationships. The first correlation is between spatial situational feeling and spatial presence experience. The second correlation is between media factors and spatial presence experience. The third correlation is between the user's action and spatial presence experience. These correlations conclude that PERF is an important role in creating a user's spatial presence experience.

The existence of PERF is due to the hypothesis which is constructed by an individual. This hypothesis is developed based on the first individual's perception about what he/she watches. For example, when an individual sees pictures of food, he/ she assumes that the food in the picture is delicious. So, PERF hypothesis is that the food is delicious. Once this hypothesis is received by an individual, then the spatial presence experience exists.

Basically from the literature review, a persuasive media factor is agreed by the researchers to produce a user's spatial presence experience. However, lacks of specific characteristics are produced by the researchers about the media factors that can produce a user's spatial presence experience. In fact, this theory informs the reader that spatial presence experience exists if a user feels it as situational. Based on the explanation of the previous subsections, it has been noted that there are a few steps that the user's mind have to experience before experiencing a user's spatial presence experience. Spatial presence theory mentions that if the user is consciously watching the virtual environment, he will unconsciously forget about what is happening around him/her which means that the user is experiencing spatial presence experience.

As mentioned in the previous section, the spatial presence theoretical model from [6] is suitable for the development of the spatial presence model for IBVR. This section reviews the related work that applies spatial presence theory from [6]. Even though the selected theory is introduced in 2003, the enhancement and validation of the theory is continuously interested by the researcher until 2015. The related works on the selected spatial presence theory are presented in **Table 1** and the descriptions are the following paragraphs.

Wirth [6] presented a spatial presence theory. Again, the author highlights that spatial presence is about the feeling of the synthetic environment that the user has after the PERF stage [6]. Spatial presence is caused by an unconscious spatial cognition. The author indicates that the user responds to the possible actions in the synthetic environment [14]. In the author's words, "the experience of this feeling in virtual environments, mediated real (remote) environments, or real environments is referred to as spatial presence" [14, p. 163]. What is more from author, "a perceptual emotion consciously experienced as the feeling of being there in virtual environments, mediated real (remote) environments, or real environments is referred to as spatial presence" [15, p. 899].

Sacau et al. [9] also proposed a few individual factors that measured user's spatial presence experience. The authors start with proposing two individual factors that can provoke user's spatial situational model; domain specific interest and spatial visual imagery; while absorption is proposed as the individual factor that can provoke user's spatial presence experience. Moreover, the authors also highlight that PERF is about a condition that can construct spatial presence experience.

Lukowska [10] describes that a research is also needed to give attention for presence experience. The author's research is about the formation of spatial presence from physical environment to virtual environment. Attention to the VR application makes him/her feel presence. If there is an auditory signal in the physical environment, the user feels distracted. The attention shifts from the virtual environment to physical environment. However, when the user neglects the auditory signal, then the user can shift the attention back to virtual environment. There are two important descriptions related to this model: efficacy of shifting and absorption level. Efficacy of shifting is about the influence of the process in the mediated environment such as VR application in feeling presence. Absorption level is about the impact on a detection process by affecting the perception threshold level.

Enhancement on the model follows with [8]; the role of emotional involvement and trait absorption are proposed to enhance spatial presence theoretical model. Their research indicates that these factors provide a formation process in developing


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in the room.

form is provided below.

*Calmness in Virtual Environments Enhance User's Spatial Presence Experience*

before these factors are applied in spatial presence theoretical model.

also exist two parts, spatial situational model and spatial presence.

user's presence experience. However, a further investigation has to be considered

Besides enhancing the spatial presence model, Hofer et al. [12] validated the model by using structural equation modeling. There are some items for a variable that is received and discarded. Once again the addition is carried out on part of the user experience factor of spatial presence. These factors are the emotional involvement and absorption trait can make the user experience spatial presence. These additions were validated and show that emotional involvement plays an important role in creating spatial presence but through this validation, it is evident that there

After the three locations in IBVR applications are developed, testing is conducted. Three steps are involved in this study: familiarization session, constructing

During this phase, the objective of the study was explained to the users to enable them to list the features in IBVR application that can create a spatial presence. Users were also allowed to explore the virtual environment and this environment is not be used in the following experiment. Before the study starts, respondent is shown with location of flower farm but this location will not be shown in the study. The purpose to show the flower farm is to teach the respondents on a few functions in

Users are allowed to try the IBVR application because of the mental model theory. Mental model for familiar and unfamiliar users with the IBVR application is different [11]. If users are not accustomed to using the application, they may feel bad or lose their willingness to use the application. In contrast, users who are familiar with computer applications already know how to use the IBVR application even though they are unfamiliar with the system. These users should not have a problem exploring the system during an experiment when they are alone

A description of how to develop the personal construct in the repertory grid

their spatial presence experience in the "positive" column of the form.

the IBVR characteristics that they wrote in the "positive" column.

is that they are based on individual mental models.

• First, a respondent writes the IBVR characteristics that they believe can enhance

• Second, in the "negative" column, a respondent writes the opposite feature of

• Third, a respondent rates the three locations in the "rate the type of locations" column. All users are asked to rate each construct in a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = least desired to feel presence and 10 = most desired to feel presence). As a reminder, the respondents are not given examples of IBVR characteristics so that their mental models are not disturbed. The characteristic of such personal constructs

elicitation, and understanding the personal construct of the respondents.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82862*

**4. Research methodology**

**4.1 Familiarization session**

this application such as hotspot and panning.

**4.2 Construct elicitation/grid completion**

**Table 1.** *Related work on selected spatial presence theory.*

#### *Calmness in Virtual Environments Enhance User's Spatial Presence Experience DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82862*

user's presence experience. However, a further investigation has to be considered before these factors are applied in spatial presence theoretical model.

Besides enhancing the spatial presence model, Hofer et al. [12] validated the model by using structural equation modeling. There are some items for a variable that is received and discarded. Once again the addition is carried out on part of the user experience factor of spatial presence. These factors are the emotional involvement and absorption trait can make the user experience spatial presence. These additions were validated and show that emotional involvement plays an important role in creating spatial presence but through this validation, it is evident that there also exist two parts, spatial situational model and spatial presence.
