Explorations of alternative constructs to presence in Augmented and Mixed reality

The concept of "presence" in VR is often defined as "the sense of being there," where "there" often refers to a virtual environment. While it is very broadly accepted that presence is a foundational phenomenon in immersive experiences, there is some debate in the community as to what presence actually is defined as and what is the best way to measure it. Given the different standpoints on definitions, researchers have built different, primarily subjective, measures, which do share some similarities but differ in scope. There is further discussion on the nature of presence in AR and MR experiences where there is a lack of the place illusion (PI), which is a key component in measuring presence. Debates tend to center on whether presence can be measured in AR/MR, how it should be measured in AR/MR, and what "there" is if there's no virtual environment.Presence is commonly described as requiring a virtual environment, and thus it isn't clear if it is useful in AR/MR where the experiences are not fully immersive. The common presence measures may not be applicable, as many of them compare aspects of the experience of the virtual environment to the physical environment, something which is harder to quantify when virtual objects are overlaid onto the real world. So far, these measures have only been shown to be reliable in very specific types of AR/MR experiences and may not be fully generalizable.Further, the concept of presence as a whole may not exist in the same way in AR/MR, and requires further exploration in these contexts. As more headsets with XR capabilities hit the market and become available to consumers, rapidly allowing the real and virtual worlds to blend together, it is now more prudent than ever to explore how to best evaluate AR/MR experiences. There is a need to focus on alternative constructs to presence in AR/MR environments that capture the nuances of hybrid-reality-specific phenomena. We seek to explore new forms of measures and metrics in AR/MR that are separate from the presence model and account for the complexities of VE-less XR.We are seeking works that explore: alternative AR/MR metrics focusing on performance, collaboration, or behavior (i.e., eye-tracking, pose-tracking, gestures, etc.); congruence and plausibility, and their effects; physical-virtual congruence; contextual coherence; bio-signals as a measure in AR/MR (i.e., EEG, ECG); perceptual anchoring; and interaction with co-present real environments. We will also accept work that explores how presence-related constructs should be adapted or supplemented when virtual content is embedded within the real world, including surveys of the usage of such methods. We encourage both traditional AR/MR work, as well as work that is more grounded in outside fields such as neuroscience. Both original user studies and theoretical works are welcome. Topic editors: Anthony Steed, Richard Skarbez Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82640/explorations-of-alternative-constructs-to-presence-in-augmented-and-mixed-reality