Over the past decade, advancing technologies have introduced
consumers to more-realistic experiences through higher levels of
fidelity (the objective degree of exactness with which real-world
experiences and effects are reproduced by a computing system [1]).
Larger displays, higher resolutions, faster refresh rates, and
stereoscopic capabilities have increased the display fidelity (the
objective degree of exactness with which real-world sensory stimuli
are reproduced) of home televisions. Similarly, the latest generation
of video game systems (e.g., Nintendo Wii and Xbox Kinect) with
their natural, gesture-based interactions have delivered increased
levels of interaction fidelity (the objective degree of exactness with
which real-world interactions can be reproduced). Despite the
popularity of these technological advances, it is not completely clear
how increased display fidelity and interaction fidelity impact the user
experience of consumers.
In the virtual reality (VR) community, researchers have explored
the effects of increasing fidelity by studying immersion. Slater et al.
defined immersion as “a description of a technology” and discussed
how display qualities and interaction mappings affect a system’s
fidelity [2]. In contrast, Bowman and McMahan defined immersion
as “the objective level of sensory fidelity a VR system provides” and
excluded interactions from their definition [3]. Additionally, some
researchers have used the term “immersion” synonymously with
“presence” (the psychological sense of “being there” [2]). To avoid
confusion due to these incompatible uses of the term “immersion,”
and because our work focuses on the effects of a system’s level of
fidelity (similar to the first two definitions above), we choose to use
the term “fidelity” instead of “immersion.” Furthermore, we claim
that the overall level of fidelity comes from a variety of system
characteristics, and that a deep understanding of fidelity requires
controlled evaluation of the effects of those different aspects of
fidelity. Toward that end, we distinguish between display fidelity
(sensory realism) and interaction fidelity (action realism).