Vividness

with NPM’s goal to enhance their brand impression about the relics. Also, interactivity can be achieved through multiple sensory channels that allow people to explore VEs through sight, sound, touch, and sometimes even through smell (Wang & Reid, 2011).

NPM made available a complete VR exhibition for our experiment to observe interactivity among visitors.

In Table 2.1, emerging trends can be seen in how interactivity has been included in various VR studies. The various focus include marketing (Ebbesen & Ahsan, 2017), consumers and products (Ahmed, 2018; Cheng et al., 2014; Park et al., 2018), applications in games (Seibert, 2014; Seibert & Shafer, 2018), and in education and learning settings (Bailenson et al., 2008; Christopoulos et al., 2014). However, almost none of them apply to the museum context. Thus, we will apply Steuer’s (1992) definition of interactivity as a stimulus in this study based in a museum context.

2.1.2 Vividness

There are many definitions and terms for vividness as mentioned above. In addition to vividness, fidelity (Witmer et al., 2005), imagery richness (Van Kerrebroeck et al., 2017), and media capability (Hess et al., 2009) also refer to the same concept.

Studies of vividness within different research fields are summarized in Table 2.2.

Table 2.2. Vividness

Source Research Context

Definition of Vividness

Steuer, 1992 n/a The ability of VR to produce a sensorial-rich mediated environment.

Dimensions: Breadth & Depth

Use Steuer’s definition.

Dimensions: Breadth & Interactivity

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Jiang, 2004 E-commerce Use Steuer’s definition.

Focus on the way in which an environment presents information to the senses.

Fortin

&Dholakia, 2005

Web Advertising

Use Steuer’s definition. It is also referred to as media richness Dimensions: Breadth & Depth

B. G.Witmer et al., 2005 n/a

Rename as sensory fidelity with two dimensions:

(1) Visual: the fidelity of the visual sense in the VE (2) Auditory: the audio aspects of the VR

Dimensions: Visual & Audio Fidelity.

S. R.Park,

Use Steuer’s definition and define five affordances of vividness.

 Realistic objects: Having an object that looks rea land for that object to act real

 Spatial 3D: the three-dimensional sense of immersion provided by virtual worlds

 Avatars: the roles interact with objects, allow the user to know exactly where he or she is

 Multimedia: media affords various means of conveying information

 Haptic feedback: the term used to convey a sense of touch to users.

Focus on five affordances that can contribute to vividness in the virtual worlds.

Y.Jung, 2008 virtual community

Use Steuer’s definition.

Dimensions: Breadth & Depth

Vividness here is the determinant of telepresence and social presence.

Hess et al.,

2009 UI Design

Media capability serves as a key determinant of social presence.

Based on Steuer’s definition.

Focus on its impact on social presence rather than telepresence.

Petridis, Dunwell, deFreitas,

&Panzoli, 2010

Game The similarity between real and virtual space.

Dimensions: Audiovisual Fidelity & Functional Fidelity

Huang, Xiao, Sun, &Xu, 2010

Museums

Base on Steuer’s definition:

Visual vividness is an important components of system vividness, it reflects the visual quality presented by the system information).

Focus on visual impact of vividness.

Similar to visual fidelity.

Steinmann, Product The representational quality of how product information is conveyed to users due to the

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pictorial product representation.

Focus on mental imagery.

Chua

&Banerjee, 2015

Marketing Vividness refers to the way a medium appeal to individuals’ senses.

Dimensions: Breadth & Depth

North &North,

2016 Aerospace Use Steuer’s definition.

Focus on the difference of presence between an IVE ¹and TVRE².

VanKerrebroe

ck et al., 2017 Marketing

Imagery richness is of importance in product presentations and marketing communications as it enables more realistic representations of products or environments

Focus on the three-dimensional model of vividness (message type, content interactivity, message representation).

Safety Issue Ability of the simulator with respect to visual clarity and depth perception.

Focus on depth perception and visual fidelity.

Meinel

&Chujfi, 2017

Virtual Working Environment

Use Steuer’s definition and discuss extended dimensions which has similar concept:

(1) Realism factors: It offers a sensorial-rich

mediated environment to provide confidence to effectively perform activities

(2) Sensory factors: The richness and modus of the information shared and consistency across the environment.

Focus on the cognitive adaptability in personalizing digital VR workspaces.

Pardo, Suero,

&Pérez, 2018 3D scanning

The quality of reproduction. Extent of how much visual appearance of real objects remains its origin, which captured through a 3D scanner, rendered in a personal computer and displayed in a virtual reality device. Focus on the visual fidelity of transforming real object into virtual world.

Vividness refers to the ability of VR to produce a sensorially rich mediated environment (Steuer, 1992). It is one of the important determinants of telepresence, relating to the breadth and depth of the message (Figure 2.1). Breadth is the number of sensory dimensions, cues, and senses presented, while depth is the quality and resolution of the presentation (Fortin & Dholakia, 2005). Another closely related concept, fidelity, divides vividness into audio fidelity and visual fidelity (Witmer et al.,

1 Immersive Visualization Environment

2 Traditional Virtual Reality Environment

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2005). Fidelity refers to certain external factors that might effectively improve the transfer of spatial knowledge from virtual to real situations (Wallet et al., 2011).

There is a need to transfer process knowledge acquired within VE to real-world situations, since increasing audio/visual fidelity often implies increased functional fidelity (Petridis et al., 2010). We concur with Petridis (2010) that high-fidelity can achieve adequate immersion to engage the learner. We can test this assumption using NPM’s case. This study follows Witmer’s (2005) definition because the dimensions of breadth and depth are not clear enough to measure its effectiveness (e.g. nowadays VR equipment has already evolved to a peak with certain sensory dimensions). In contrast, the dimension of fidelity (audio and visual) is more amenable as a measurement in a VR museum experience.