IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July 2018 - 37

similar to smartphones and the Internet [21]. Though still in
its infancy, consumer VR is expected to be a multibillion-dollar industry. For the field of CE, therefore, the prevailing
thought is focused on how this technology will be intertwined
with our society.
Due to the diversity of devices and applications, it is uncertain which technology/method could be the perfect solution
for every interaction design as it pertains to immersion. While
the definitions of immersion are diverse and multifaceted, it is
commonly believed that immersion provides the boundaries
within the core concept of VR, i.e., the concept of presence
[26]. While immersion functions as a trigger for the willing
suspension of disbelief [14] that allows users to cross these
boundaries, many questions remain: Of what are these boundaries made? How exactly do users get immersed in VR? How
are interaction design, user preferences, and immersion relat-

ed? From a developer's perspective, the last question is essential for producing successful applications. For this reason, our
consumer VR study explicitly focuses on users' experiences
with different interaction designs and various virtual environments. Our goal is to present a typology of user preferences
concerning immersion.

Related WoRk

Promising nothing less than the ultimate display of realism,
the notion of VR has inspired many imaginations. What makes
VR so special is the concept known as presence [14], which
allows for alternative views to be presented to the surrounding
world as well as to oneself. The magic of VR lies within its
ability to give the user the feeling of being present in the virtual environment. Since VR is the representation of possible
worlds and selves, its goal is to make them appear as real as
possible by creating a subjective sense of presence in the user [16]. Through the use of VR, it
even becomes possible to induce changes in
the attribution of selfhood. During a multisensory conflict, for instance, participants may
feel as though a virtual body seen in front of
them is their own body, which may result in
them becoming mislocalized to a position outside of their bodily borders [12]. Other experiments have shown that the switch to an avatar
of another gender [27], age [3], or skin color
[20] may lead to similar phenomena.
From a developer's point of view, the question of how to make use of these possible alterations to perception is crucial; however, the
prevailing research still lacks a deeper understanding of how to do so. In years to come, the
VR gaming industry will be faced with a generation of new users, and the virtual worlds
that have been produced will have varied impacts on these users. This raises speculation as
to the impact a virtual environment has on a
user's self-perception as well as about which
environments are especially well suited to have
an impact on users at all.
According to Slater [26], presence is determined by two major aspects: place illusion and
plausibility. The latter aspect presents the need
for a user to interact in a coherent way with the
virtual environment to feel immersed. For this
study, it is important to note that immersion is a
necessary, rather than a sufficient, condition for
presence. In addition to the need for an immersive technology, the interaction techniques in VR
may also play a crucial role in the determination
of presence [28]. To augment meta-analysis of
how much immersion is adequate, the idea of
interaction and immersion has been studied
extensively [8]. Various approaches have been
Image (c)IStockphoto/baloon111.
explored to improve the immersion of VR systems,
july 2018

IEEE ConsumEr ElECtronICs magazInE

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July 2018