Edinburgh Napier University

  The paper describes the main themes of a recently funded research project under the European Communitys Future and Emerging Technologies Presence initiative. The aim of the research is to develop new tools for empirical and theoretical studies of presence based on the concept of the observer's embodiment in the computationally created virtual environment.
The approach will be based on true-to-life visual and auditory information presented in real-time. These will utilise a range of projection technologies from Head Mounted Displays to a six sided CAVE. The project will undertake a series of empirical investigations into the experience of being there in relation to real places and objects. Analysis of presence will be at the level of psychological, physiological and neurological. At this early stage of the research four themes are presented: acquisition and real time
rendering of real places; augmentation of such representations; psychophysiological aspects of presence and establishing a sense of place and embodiment.