Daniel Pietschmann

The Effect of Authentic Input Devices on Computer Game Immersion

A key question in the field of computer game studies is the user experience during the gameplay. One of the main factors influencing this experience is the control mechanism that players use to interact with the game system. With the launch of the Wii Console in 2006, Nintendo introduced an innovative concept of controlling computer games that allows users to manipulate and to interact with game elements on the screen by moving and pointing the input device. The usage of game controllers with a high degree of perceptual closeness should influence the gaming experience in such a manner that the degree of immersion is higher compared to the usage of a regular gamepad which eventually leads to a higher entertainment value. We conducted a study to examine the influence of the input device players use to control a game on the immersion and perceived entertainment value. The results of the study show, in accordance with our assumptions, that a more authentic input device results in a higher degree of immersion and entertainment value.

Continuous Measurement of Breaks in Presence: Psychophysiology and Orienting Responses

Assessing presence using questionnaires can yield interesting insights into the user experience in virtual environments, but is also limited both in terms of reliability and validity. Breaks in presence (BIPs) are an interesting alternative, given that the researcher can assess them correctly. Prior studies on the psychophysiology of BIPs followed an exploratory approach by not providing a cognitive mechanism for BIPs and lacking in external validity. We argue that BIPs can be considered a special form of orienting responses involving both the real and the virtual world. In the first of the presented studies, we investigated which types of BIPs can be differentiated and to what degree they affect the user experience. In the second study, we modified a commercial video game by introducing the previously identified BIPs and recorded psychophysiological measurements. The results are in line with findings on orienting responses and should provide fertile ground for future research.

Spatial Mapping of Physical and Virtual Spaces as an Extension of Natural Mapping: Relevance for Interaction Design and User Experience

Natural user interfaces are designed to be intuitive, and quick to learn. With the use of natural mapping, they rely on previous knowledge or skills from users by employing spatial analogies, cultural standards or biological effects. Virtual environments with a high interaction fidelity also use rich spatial information in addition to natural mapping, e.g. stereoscopy or head-tracking. However, an additional factor for naturalism is the relationship of perceived interaction spaces: We propose to examine the Spatial Mapping of the perceived physical and virtual spaces as an extension of Natural Mapping. Similarly to NM, a high degree of spatial mapping using an isomorphic mapping should result in more intuitive interactions, reducing the mental workload required. However, the benefits of Spatial Mapping on user experience and task performance are only evident for complex spatial tasks. As a consequence, many tasks do not benefit from complex spatial information (e.g. stereoscopy or head-tracking).

Development and Evaluation of an Easy-to-Use Stereoscopic Ability Test to Assess the Individual Ability to Process Stereoscopic Media

With the rise of 3D cinema in recent years, 3D stereoscopic images have quickly conquered the entertainment industry. As a consequence, many scholars from different research disciplines study the effects of stereoscopy on user experience, task performance, or naturalism. However, parts of the population suffer from stereoblindness and are unable to process stereo images. For scientific studies, it is important to assess stereoblindness to avoid bias in the gathered data. Several clinical tests are available to measure deficiencies in stereo vision, but they often require special equipment and a trained investigator. We developed an easy to use and economic Stereoscopic Ability Test (SAT) that can be used directly within the intended experimental environment. Initial evaluation data for the test and guidelines for the test application are discussed.

Do We Differ in Our Dispositional Tendency to Perceive Virtual Agents as Animate Beings

With few exceptions, the role of user factors in the evaluation of virtual agents has largely been neglected. By taking them into account properly, researchers and virtual agent developers might be able to better understand interindividual differences in virtual agent evaluations. We propose the animacy attribution tendency as a novel user factor that assesses a users individual threshold to accept virtual entities as living and animate beings. Users scoring higher in animacy attribution tendency should accept anomalies in virtual agent behavior more easily and thus provide favorable evaluations. To investigate the impact of this novel concept along with other user factors, we first developed a test to assess interindividual differences of animacy attribution and subsequently carried out an online-study, during which participants had to evaluate video recordings of different virtual agents.

Cooperation in virtual environments with individual views

When users are interacting collaboratively in a virtual environment it cannot be guaranteed that every user has the same input device or that they have access to the same information. Our research aims at understanding the effects of such asymmetries on the user embodiment in collaborative virtual environments (CVEs). In order to do this, we have developed a prototyping platform for cooperative interaction between two users. To change the information a user has, we are incorporating “special views”[1] for each person. Also, an easily expandable array of input devices is supported, e.g. Mouse/Keyboard, Novint Falcon, Razer Hydra, ART Flightstick, Leap Motion, etc. Those devices can provide additional information to a user, like haptic feedback, but they can also be used to restrain a user, for example by providing a device with less degrees of freedom.

Natural Mapping in virtuellen Umgebungen

Neben den im letzten Kapitel diskutierten Darstellungsmodalitaten werden Interaktionen in virtuellen Umgebungen masgeblich durch die Eingabemoglichkeiten bestimmt. Als Grundmodell fur interaktive Kommunikation mit Technik sieht die HCI-Forschung die naturliche Face-to-Face-Kommunikation mit anderen Menschen (Durlak, 1987). Die Interaktion mit virtuellen Umgebungen soll dabei auf Erfahrungen und Erwartungen des menschlichen Wahrnehmungsapparates aufbauen (Steuer, 1992). Der Interaktionsprozess selbst wird durch eine Kombination sensorischer Stimuli des Mediums, der Art und Weise der Interaktionstechniken mit der virtuellen Umgebung und der Charakteristik des Nutzers bestimmt (Steuer, 1992). Die HCI-Forschung beschaftigt sich mit Schnittstellen des Informationsaustausches zwischen dem Nutzer und den technischen Komponenten des Nutzer-Interfaces (User Interface; UI) darstellen.

Spatial Mapping von Wahrnehmungsräumen

Nachdem in den vergangen Kapiteln grundlegende Konzepte zu User Experience (Kapitel 2), mentalen Modellen (Kapitel 3), binokularen Spatial Cues (Kapitel 4) und Natural Mapping (Kapitel 5) im Detail diskutiert wurden, werden die besprochenen Ansatze in diesem Kapitel fur die Konzeption von Spatial Mapping zusammengefuhrt.

Two Step Process Model of Spatial Presence Formation

In Kapitel 2 wurden verschiedene Konzepte zur Modellierung von User Experience in virtuellen Umgebungen diskutiert. Dabei wurde Presence als das komplexeste und gleichzeitig in der VR-Forschung am meisten verbreitete Konzept im Detail vorgestellt. Presence wird als subjektiver Zustand verstanden, bei dem die technische Vermittlung sensorischer Stimuli nicht wahrgenommen wird, sondern die Situation so verarbeitet wird, als ware sie real. Natural Mapping und Spatial Mapping zielen darauf ab, Interaktionen innerhalb einer virtuellen Umgebung moglichst authentisch zu realen Bezugsobjekten zu gestalten, sodass die Qualitat der Wirklichkeitsillusion (also die Immersivitat des Systems) erhoht wird. Die Wahrnehmung eines Interaktionsraumes ist dabei fur Mapping-Prozesse zentral (siehe Kapitel 5 und 6).

Einführung: Spatial Mapping in virtuellen Umgebungen

Der Mensch steht im Zentrum einer durch Virtualisierung bestimmten Welt. Aus dem Mixed-Reality-Kontinuum zwischen Virtualitat und Realitat (Milgram, Takemura, Utsumi & Kishino, 1994) finden immer mehr Technologien ihren Weg in unseren Alltag, um diesen zu erleichtern.