Presence and Aura in AR Experiences

In this project, we are investigating how to evaluate “experiential” AR systems (in contrast to task-focused systems, for example). We are studying both what attributes of an experience to evaluate (presence? fun? learning?) and how to evaluate each attribute. Our starting point is to look at the Presence research in VR, and examine how this work applies in AR and MR. Our hypothesis is that interactions between the physical and virtual worlds are the key feature that will determine the sense of “presence” (or lack of mediation) the participant feels. One key element of understanding the relationship between the physical and virtual worlds is to understand the importance of the real world on any experience, computer augmented or not. Thus, we have been investigating the use of the concept of “aura” as a measure of the intangible aspect of systems the involve real locations