Investigation of Factors Producing a Sense of Virtual Reality Using Substitutional Reality

Abstract

Substitutional Reality (SR) is a technology that can render the boundary between the real and the virtual unclear by switching between live and recorded footage. In this research, we examined factors not yet investigated by SR and conducted experiments to investigate their effectiveness in an SR context.As existing research has, in order to standardize conditions, used recorded footage only, we conducted a comparative experiment in order to investigate the effectiveness of existing research, and to investigate whether there was any discrepancy between live and recorded footage. Since the existence of inconsistencies makes it trivial to identify footage as live, and since the human element makes the introduction of inconsistencies inevitable, we also conducted an experiment to investigate the extent of the combined effect communication (which has already been recognized as effective by prior research), inconsistencies, and other factors would have. Finally, as a non-human factor, we conducted an experiment investigating the effect of being made aware of the passage of time.We found that there was not a major discrepancy between live and recorded footage, but the existence of inconsistencies did enable users to recognize live footage. We also found that communication had a comparative larger impact on the user’s sense of reality than did inconsistencies or posture. We found that the sensation of the passage of time, conveyed to the subject by “resuming” the footage, has the potential to make the distinctions between live and recorded footage less clear.