A comparative study of presence in virtual reality vs. presence in the real world

The main objective of this project was to study and compare the relationship between the sense of presence in the virtual environment and the sense of presence in the physical world while experiencing the virtual world. The study consisted of two parts, each experimenting with thirty-five subjects. A virtual plane environment was experienced using a head-tracking system and a head-mounted display. After completing fifteen minutes in the simulation, participants were given a sense of presence questionnaire. The Parts I and II results lead to a preliminary and interesting theory that a person's overall sense of the world actually increases slightly when put into a virtual environment.