Designing for Presence: Embodied Interaction in Computer-Mediated Realities
Holger T. Regenbrecht, Thomas W. Schubert · 2023
There is only embodied interaction in computer-mediated realities. We use our bodies to sense, interact with, process, and remember environments. Effective computer-mediated realities, i.e. mixed and virtual realities, depend on the user's feeling of being part of those environments. We are explaining our approach towards a theoretical model for this sense of presence. Based on techno-psychological, philosophical, and socio-psychological models we are presenting a theory for the understanding of and design for such mediated realities. We emphasize the role of the human body as a sensing and interacting instrument and argue that presence is achieved by self-controlled navigation, object interaction, and subject interaction. Presence therefore derives from body-related possibilities of interaction with the environment. We demonstrate this through the definition of a theoretical presence model for embodied interaction in computer-mediated realities.This article is dedicated to Martin K Purvis—one of the few modern renaissance scholars who is not only well educated and well read, but who continues to inspire young and curious minds, We hope that our thoughts presented here will inspire and entertain Martin as well as other readers with interests in the crossing boundaries of technology, psychology, and philosophy.