Subjective-situational Study of Presence

The paper is devoted to the description of the interview approach to reveal presence state and its types such as environmental, social and personal presence. The questions of the interview is described and analyzed in detail. The questions were formulated in view of the subject's behavior and the reactions during tests. Also the answers of the test subjects are analyzed from a perspective of sense of presence revealing. The interview method proved its efficiency. This method allowed to identify in practice types of presence being under researching. In addition, it has enabled a better understanding of the dynamics of the perception changes in the case of presence. The flexibility of this method allows to adjust it under specific virtual environment, and to clarify all key aspects to understand presence. © 2014 Springer International Publishing

The Fantastic Voyage: an arts-led approach to 3D virtual reality visualization of clinical stroke data

Stroke survivors directly link stroke education with their ability to access appropriate treatments and reduce their risk of future strokes. However, with such a diverse population a universal mode of delivering education must be sought. This paper places the artist at the heart of educating patients and carers about their disease by developing a technical process of delivering 3D CT patient stroke data on the Virtual Reality (VR) platform Oculus Rift DK2. VR has already been proven as an efficacious rehabilitation tool for this population but its use in education has not yet been established. This work is being piloted in a new collaboration between the Art & Design Faculty at the University of New South Wales, Australia and the Stroke Rehabilitation Service at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney. Importantly, this paper places the artist's at the center of the process -- from developing the concept, to prototyping and creating the final visual aesthetic. The different stages of the technical design process are also described in this paper. These provide an early framework for working with VR in a clinical context. The practicalities and pitfalls of navigating vascular datasets in immersive real-time 3D on VR are discussed at the end of this paper. Several recommendations for the future development of this process and its scalability for clinical use are made