The feeling of being there: Developing a practical framework for objective, continuous and standardized presence measurement for virtual environments

Introduction

Presence is the feeling of being in a virtual environment. It is the concept that provides the most explanatory value to the degree of effectiveness of virtual reality applications. This concept has received an increase in relevancy due to the recent evolution of virtual reality (VR) technology and an increase in attention from the scientific community.

Importance of Measuring Presence

Developing new immersive solutions to aid in healthcare, training, entertainment, and research hinges on the ability to objectively measure presence so that the quality of these applications can improve significantly.

Tool Development

We aim to develop a tool for measuring and analyzing presence by combining two methodologies developed in the Attention Lab at Utrecht University. The methodologies utilize psychophysiological approaches to measure the internal state of the user through analyzing visual working memory and body movement patterns.

Collaboration with Industry Partner

Together with our industry partner EducationXR, we then plan on iterating on the tool by using real-life data and integrating the method into our partner's available analytics suite to identify how we can improve usability and compatibility.

Startup Foundation

With the learnings from our work with EducationXR and our experience in transferring validated research into services and applications in the area of clinical assessment and rehabilitation, we plan to found a startup company to sell the tool we developed in the form of a software product.

Promoting Standardization

By working together with policymakers and interest groups, we plan to actively work on promoting standardization in the VR industry while marketing our tool as a way to achieve a higher quality user experience.

Future Impact

Through this process, we hope to improve the VR infrastructure in the VR industry as well as in related industries. With the ability to produce more impactful solutions that contribute positively to society through education, healthcare, and research, we hope that VR can have a positive impact and lead to novel innovation.