What’s immersion? Who’s using the term in which contexts? Has there been any kind of onthological drift over the years?

Initial Literature Research

Morton Heilig’s Sensorama

Morton Heilig

• The Cinema of the Future, 1955
• Sensorama 1962, US patent 305087 A
• demo and mini interview 1984

Ivan Sutherland’s Ultimate Display

Ivan Sutherland: The Ultimate Display, 1965:

the display […] should serve as many senses as possible. […] So far as I know, no one seriously proposes computer displays of smell, or taste. Obviously, Sutherland is not aware of the Sensorama. Excellent audio displays exist […] kinesthetic display […] "joysticks" with force feedback […] The computer can easily sense the positions of almost any of our body muscles. […] Machines to sense and interpret eye motion […]

Ivan Sutherland et al.: The Sword of Damocles – Head Mounted Display 1966:

Ivan Sutherland, Bob Sproul: Virtual Reality Before it Had That Name, Computer History Museum 1996:

…immerse an individual into an synthetic environment… (0:10')

…the project was an attention focusser (0:50')Ben Shneiderman: Choose a good driving problem

1990s

Carrie Heeter: Being There: The Subjective Experience of Presence, 1992:

Three dimensions of presence:

Subjective personal presence is a measure of the extent to which and the reasons why you feel like you are in a virtual world. Possible reasons are myriad, for example:

I see my own hand in the world.

The virtual world gives me a sense of deja vu, as if I've been here before.

Although the rules of this world are different than the laws of physics in the real world, there seems to be a consistent pattern which I can learn to recognize.

Social presece refers to the extent to which other beings (living or synthetic) also exist in the world and appear to react to you. This is in some respects a subset of personal presence, discussed separately to draw attention to the power it may have in enhancing presence. Social presence may derive from conversing with other human beings, or from interacting with animated characters. Someone or something else which seems to believe that you are there may help convince you that you are there.

Environmental presence refers to the extent to which the environment itself appears to know that you are there and to react to you. Perhaps lights turn on when you enter a room, or portals to other worlds flash into existence when you draw near. The argument is the same as for social presence. If the environment knows you are there, that may contribute to you believing that you are there.

Victor Lombardi: Virtual Reality vs. Immersive Environments: Choosing the Right Computer Interface for the Future, 1994:

Virtual Reality describes, for some, the ultimate interface between human and computer. Using Virtual Reality, or VR, the user's senses are fed perceptual material exclusively from the computer. This feedback from the computer comprises a grand array of sensory information compared to traditional GUIs. The intention is that enough realistic information will be presented to the user so that another set of surroundings will be perceived, one that is virtually real. […]

Immersive Environments. Another view on the future of the computer interface says that the machinery should not be strapped to the person's body, but instead should surround the user naturally, as in a room of one's house. These interfaces are referred to as "immersive environments."

2000s

Slater: How Colorful Was Your Day? Why Questionnaires Cannot Assess Presence in Virtual Environments, 2004:

According to Lombard and Ditton (1997):

presence as a perceptual illusion of nonmediation

According to Draper, Kaber and Usher (1998):

experiential presence [is] a mental state in which a user feels physically present within the computer- mediated environment.

According to Zahoric & Jenison, 1998; Flach & Holden, 1998

A fundamentally different view […] is presence is “. . . tantamount to successfully supported action in the environment.” It is argued that reality is formed through action, rather than through mental filters and that “. . . the reality of experience is defined relative to functionality, rather than to appearances.” What is im- portant in this approach is action (how things are done) and the affordances offered in the virtual environment, rather than just appearances, and that the sense of “being there” is grounded on the ability to “do” there. […]

On Immersion

A distinction is made between immersion and presence by many researchers (e.g., Slater & Wilbur, 1997; Draper et al., 1998). Immersion is a description of overall fidelity in relation to physical reality provided by the display and interaction systems. […]

On presence:

A fundamental problem with the vast majority of presence research is that there is no real evidence at all for the existence of the phenomenon. As researchers in the field we “know” that it exists through introspection of our own states and behaviors while experiencing immersive virtual environments.

2010s

James J. Cummings, Jeremy N. Bailenson and Mailyn J. Fidler: How Immersive is Enough? A Foundation for a Meta-analysis of the Effect of Immersive Technology on Measured Presence, 2012:

The concept of presence, or a “sense of being there,” is a frequently emphasized factor when discussing virtual environments (VEs). Indeed, the assumption that achieving presence should be a goal of the design of VEs pervades both applied and academic work with such environments. An increased sense of presence is often thought to magnify user effects (e.g., the extent to which user responses to virtual stimuli and virtual interactions resemble parallel responses to “real world” counterparts) and, in turn, to increase the effectiveness of VE applications Users, goals and context of use need to be defined in order to measure effectiveness as part of usability of the VE application. (e.g., the practical use of such environments as tools for learning, training, or therapy).

[…] Slater and Wilbur (1997) distinguish it from another related concept – immersion. Slater and Wilbur suggest that presence in a VE is inherently a quality of the user’s psychologypresence as an aspect of the user experience (ISO), representing the extent to which an individual experiences the virtual setting as the one in which they are consciously present. On the other hand, immersion can be regarded as a quality of the system’s technologyimmersion as a technical dimension, an objective measure of the extent to which the system presents a vivid virtual environment while shutting out physical reality. By this accountimmersion ⇒ presence, the technological level of immersion afforded by the VE system facilitates the level of psychological presence. I doubt this. As long as the illusion is not convincing enough the mind is looking for hints to distinguish the real world from the virtual world. Furthermore, the better the provided quality of a VR envirnoment, the less imagination is needed to complete the ficticious world. cf. the concept of closure in film making and comics; lean-back vs. lean forward; McLuhans’s cold vs. hot medium. This relationship has implications, then, for how one might operationally design for increased presence.

Slater and Wilbur note that a system is more likely to be immersive – or to shut out physical reality – if it

1. offers high fidelity simulations through multiple sensory modalities,
2. finely maps a user’s virtual bodily actions to their physical body’s counterparts, and
3. removes the participant from the external world through self-contained plots and narratives.

Such features are thought to make the interface of the system more transparent, permitting the user to then become psychologically engaged in the virtual task at hand rather than attending to the input mechanisms themselves. That is, the more immersive the system, the more likely an individual will feel present within the virtual environment, and the more likely that the virtual setting will dominate over physical reality in determining user responses. […]

How immersive is enough? […]

measure of presence (including “presence”, “telepresence”, “spatial presence”, or “social presence”) […]

a number of researchers have suggested the effect is composed of two component causalities:

1. increases in immersion components leading to greater presence and
2. increases in presence in turn leading to improvements in performance. […]performance ≟ efficiency

The common, modal independent variables from these studies permit us to examine the relative effect of a number of common immersive technology features. […] These features include:

• Tracking level
• Stereoscopic vision
• Image quality
• Field of view
• Sound quality
• Display type
• Emotional content
• Update rate
• User perspective
• Overall High vs. Low

Jose Luis Rubio-Tamayo, Manuel Gertrudix Barrio, and Francisco García García: Immersive Environments and Virtual Reality: Systematic Review and Advances in Communication, Interaction and Simulation, 2017:

Immersive Environments: Conceptual Approach: Immersive environments are defined in different approaches by authors from the 90s, in parallel to virtual reality and augmented reality. Slater and Wilbur [22] propose a framework to define presence and other factors in virtual environments. In the early 2000s, Conroy [23] tries to describe them by constructing experimental immersive worlds based on data coming from the physical world, and establishing an analogy between both. Kalawsky [24] also compares presence in virtual environments with presence in the physical world by adding the main sensory inputs “such as vision, sound, proprioception, and smell”. This idea, where different senses are used through devices to make users interact with information is common in VR and immersive environments, and then, for designing interactions and conceptualising and classifying the different components of the environment composed by artificial information. And, even though VR and immersive environments are not the same concept, a framework to define presence and describe interaction and immersion should keep similar components and features in mind.

Wikipedia: Immersion (virtual reality):

Immersion into virtual reality is a perception Here immersion is used as a psychological term, hence part of the ISO-UX domain. of being physically present in a non-physical world. The perception is created by surrounding the user of the VR system in images, sound or other stimuli that provide an engrossing total environment. […]

According to Ernest W. Adams, author and consultant on game design,[1] immersion can be separated into three main categories:

• Tactical immersion is experienced when performing tactile operations that involve skill. Players feel "in the zone" while perfecting actions that result in success.
• Strategic immersion is more cerebral, and is associated with mental challenge. Chess players experience strategic immersion when choosing a correct solution among a broad array of possibilities.
• Narrative immersion occurs when players become invested in a story, and is similar to what is experienced while reading a book or watching a movie.

Staffan Björk and Jussi Holopainen, in Patterns In Game Design,[2] divide immersion into similar categories, but call them sensory-motoric immersion, cognitive immersion and emotional immersion, respectively. In addition to these, they add a new category:

• Spatial immersion occurs when a player feels the simulated world is perceptually convincing. The player feels that he or she is really "there" and that a simulated world looks and feels "real".

Theatre and Philosophy

Matthias Hartmann, 2012:

Die Bühne ist ein Ort, wo mit dem Publikum in Interaktion getreten wird. Deshalb spielt uns die Medienzeit ja ganz stark in die Hände. Menschen haben starke Sehnsucht danach, ernst genommen zu werden und in eine Form von Kommunikation zu treten. Je mehr sie durch illusionistische Medien unmündig gemacht werden, desto stärker wollen sie in ihrer FantasieMan darf und sollte dem Publikum ruhig zutrauen, dass es mit seiner Fantasie das auf der Bühne Dargestellte komplettiert. Das führt sogar zu einer noch größeren Identifikation und Aufmerksamkeit, als ein 4K-360-3D-Filmereignis einzeln angesprochen werden. Ich erlebe es gerade ganz stark, dass immer mehr Leute in das Theater gehen. Die Menschen suchen einen Ort, an dem sie lebendig Kontakt aufnehmen mit einem Vorgang. Das ist ein wesentliches Ritual, das das Kollektiv nur noch im Theater findet.

Jahrbuch immersiver Medien 2012 - Einleitung:

Dabei ist zubetonen, dass kein Medium – nicht einmal die immersiven Medien – immersive Prozesse induzieren muss und nicht zwingend bei den Rezipierenden zum Präsenzerleben führt, da auch mit immersiven Medien distanziert bzw. reflektiert umgegangen werden kann – schließlich sind immer semiotische Prozesse im Spiel. Zudem existieren kaum total immersive und illusionistische Medien, die vorrangig die sinnliche Wahrnehmung adressieren, da sie «technisch enorm aufwendig und in vielen Punkten bis heute schlicht unmöglich sind» (Glaubitz & Schröter 2009: 284) und aufgrund der produktiven Rolle der Imagination nicht notwendig zu sein scheinen.D.h, dass auch low-fidelity VR-Systeme zu überzeugenden Ergebnissen führen können; mit den hier verwendeten Begriffen: trotz niedriger Immersion kann es dank der produktiven Rolle der Imagination zu Päsenzerleben kommen.

Über die skizzierten Begrifspaare Realismus / Abstraktion und Perzeption / Imagination können nun diejenigen medialen Strategien extrahiert werden, durch die sich der (metaphorische) Weg in das Medium hinein öffnet. Ziel dieser Strategien ist die Entgrenzung des Dargestellten bzw. des Mediums:

• Illusionismus/Realismus: Besitzt ein Medium diese Eigenschaft, wird es (zunächst) nicht als Medium wahrgenommen und das Dargestellte erscheint den Rezipierenden als unvermittelt. Sie akzeptieren den «Bildgegenstand als das, was das Bild darstellt: etwa ein unreflektiert gesehenes Spiegelbild (mit dem entsprechenden Erschrecken über diesen ‹Fremden› in der Wohnung). Die Gegenwart des Bildgegenstands evoziert hier die Gegenwart des Dargestellten» (Schirra & Scholz 1998: 75).
• Ent-Rahmung: Immersive Medien bzw. sogenannte Raummedien machen sich diese Strategie zunutze: «[The] boarder to reality [...] gets ‹out of sight› by manipulating the limiting frame of the image and the field of view of the spectators» (Woletz 2011: 67). Woletz macht dazu zwei Entwicklungslinien immersiver Strategien aus: Zum einen die Ent-Rahmung des Bildes und dessen gleichzeitiges Umgeben der Rezipierenden (Rundfresken, Panoramen, Wandbemalungen); zum anderen die Guckkästen, bei denen man durch eine Öffnung in das Innere eines Kasten schaute, in welchem Grafiken mit täuschend echter Räumlichkeit dargestellt wurden. Und auch wenn sich die Betrachter nicht – wie etwa beim Panorama – wirklich im Kasten befinden, werden sie doch durch die starke Beschränkung seines Blickfeldes – die dennoch mit einer Ent-Rahmung gleichgesetzt werden kann – gleichsam in die Szenerie hineingezogen (vgl. Woletz 2011: 67; Klein 2004: 56–61).
• Repräsentische Dichte/Plastizität: Im Versuch der Produktion einer totalen Wirklichkeitsillusion steht die perceptual immersion im Fokus der Anstrengungen und damit eine Aktivierung sowohl der Fern- als auch der Nahsinne durch das Medium (stereoskopes 3-D, Smell-O-Rama, Tastkino, 4-D; Simulatoren), durch die das Dargestellte an Realismus und Plastizität gewinnt.
• Avatar / Interaktivität: Dieser – lediglich in einer Fußnote angesprochene – Punkt bezieht sich auf die Möglichkeit durch virtuelle Räume zu navigieren und virtuelle Objekte zu manipulieren, kurz: in einer virtuellen Welt zu handeln. Durch einen Avatar werden Spielende in der virtuellen Welt des Spiels – als Doubles – repräsentiert; er ermöglicht es ihnen, dort zu handeln und sich selbst dort anwesend zu fühlen (self presence) (vgl. Steuer 1993; Tamborini & Bowman 2010): «[This] allows the player to connect to the space as more than an operator on that space. Identification with the player’s position in the game space, experienced as both a simple extension or duplication of the player and as the narcissistic incorporation of the image of the in-game position into the player’s specular image, allows the player to enter into the game space as a valid and verisimilar agent of the game space.» (Taylor 2003: k.S.)

Diese hier lediglich skizzierten immersiven Strategien sollten es in zukünftigen Ausführungen zu diesem Themenkomplex erlauben, das Konzept der Immersion zu segmentieren und so die Grundzüge der Strukturierung medialer Erlebnisräume präziser zu bestimmen. […] Die Rolle der Imagination scheint dabei – wie bereits angedeutet – ein Schlüssel zum tieferen Verständnis dieses Phänomens zu sein.

A Chat with Erik Champion

9-Dec-2017, edited version

Matthias:

I suspect that different people have a different understanding of the term immersion, which makes it a little bit tricky to use the term at all.

Some use it as a technical term that means the means of VR. That’s too narrow from my point of view. Or to phrase it differently, I would like to use immersion for an important concept and not just for measuring the amount of VR gear.

Presence is offered in return to talk about the dimension of… what…? total attention. For Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi it is flow – and there the visual high-fideltiy of the medium does not matter at all. It is a dimension of attention. I can be fully focussed on a narrative – in cinema / in a theatre / while reading a book – and never be confused about myself sitting on a chair…! I do not need to feel "presence" to be fully immersed in a story… IMO.

Erik:

It is old but Schuemie wrote a great survey on it. Witmer and Singer have a totally different concept to Slater and Garau but this paper by Slater [2004, PDF] may be similar to your concern.

We use different notions of immersion interchangeable, actually I think Frank Biocca wrote about immersion in VR and immersion in books about 15 years ago and Carrie Heeter did as well.

Heeter differentiated presence in beingthere [1992] and Biocca recently in mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/PRES_a_00255

[immersion as a technical term that means the means of VR] is not a commonly held idea of Presence in the Presence community

Matthias:

I can be fully focussed on a narrative (in cinema / in a theatre / while reading a book) and never be confused about myself sitting on a chair…! I do not need to feel "presence" to be fully immersed in a story… IMO."

Erik:

2 issues, the book is present to you; but yes, relationship between presence and immersivity is complex even if there does seem to be a relationship, is it subjective or inter-subjective?

Mel Slater: Measuring Presence: A Response to the Witmer and Singer Presence Questionnaire

Matthias:

I do not want to disregard low-fidelity UI/VR/AR in order to engage the user by inviting him to use her imagination to complete the scene. I don’t have to trick them to make them feel to be on a dangerous powerplant for instance.

Erik:

And treatment of phobias in low res VR shows the more technology is not always necessary.

Narcis Parés and Roc Parés, 2006: Towards a Model for a Virtual Reality Experience: The Virtual Subjectiveness

Matthias:

The user interface should be usable, clear, learnable, straight forward, predictive, etc. Then the user gets used to it, builds trust and can eventually forget the tool and focus on the content/problems to solve.

A musician focusses on the music and not on his fingers and the instrument anymore. That’s why I pull the idea of flow into the discussion.

I think the equation >better immersive tools equals better presences equals better performance< is not true. Sometimes it might be. But is an assumption, and there are other ways for better user satisfaction and joy of use.

And_ Setting research goals and arguing about them is almost impossible if people use the same words for different stuff. Thanks a lot for your refs, thoughts, time!

Erik:

Final link, But final link. this is a useful survey paper: Martijn J. Schuemie et al: Research on Presence in VR: a Survey

Movies

Welt am Draht (World on a Wire), Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1973; IMDB – part 1 | part 2

Disclosure (Enthüllungen), Barry Levinson, USA 1994; based on a book by Michael Crichton, 1994, IMDB

13th Floor, 1999, IMDB

Matrix, 1999, IMDB

References

• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Creativity, Fulfillment and Flow, TED 2004
• James J. Cummings, Jeremy N. Bailenson and Mailyn J. Fidler: How Immersive is Enough? A Foundation for a Meta-analysis of the Effect of Immersive Technology on Measured Presence, 2012
• Carrie Heeter: Being There: The Subjective Experience of Presence, 1992
• Morton Heilig: The Cinema of the Future,1955; /via
• LINK Kiel: Jahrbuch immersiver Medien 2016: «Interaktive Medien: Interfaces – Netze – Virtuelle Welten»
  • Jahrbuch immersiver Medien 2011 - Einleitung / Alternativ
  • Jahrbuch immersiver Medien 2012 - Einleitung /
    • Patrick Rupert-Kruse: Notizen zur Strukturierung medialer Erlebnisräume zwischen Phantasma und Apparatus
• Narcis Parés and Roc Parés: Towards a Model for a Virtual Reality Experience: The Virtual Subjectiveness, 2006
• Slater: How Colorful Was Your Day? Why Questionnaires Cannot Assess Presence in Virtual Environments, 2004
• Frank Steinicke: Being Really Virtual. Immersive Natives and the Future of Virtual Reality. 2016
  • Chapter 2: The Science and Fiction of the Ultimate Display
• Ivan Sutherland: The Ultimate Display, 1965
  • Fred Brooks on Ivan Sutherland’s 1965 “Ultimate Display” Speech, 2016
• Ivan Sutherland et al.: Sword of Damocles – Head Mounted Display 1966
  • Ivan Sutherland, Bob Sproul: Virtual Reality Before it Had That Name, Computer History Museum 1996
• Like Whoa: Here’s what the immersive, 3D computer interface of the future will feel like, 2013

HH

• Was ist Immersion? omnia360, Jun 2017
• unified #6 Thema Virtual Reality, nextMedia.Hamburg, 2017
• Frank Steinicke: Realität und Virtualität: Ein Kontinuum ohne Grenzen

Theater

• Schnittstelle Theater - Dramaturgische Gesellschaft 1/04
• Matthias Hartmann, 2012

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