Presence Theory

The concept of presence and its related theories have mainly been developed by Frank Biocca, Matthew Lombard, Kwan Min Lee, and other scholars in communication and computer science. The origin of the term presence comes from Marvin Minsky who used the term telepresence to explain the possibility that humans could feel the sense of being physically transported to a remote work space via a teleoperating system. Since then, various terms (e.g., virtual presence, mediated presence) have been used to describe similar phenomena. Lombard defines presence as the perceptual illusion of being in a situation that is unmediated, and Lee defines it as a psychological state in which the virtuality of experience is unnoticed. According to Lee, presence occurs when technology users do not notice the technology-mediated nature of experiencing (e.g., telecommunication) and/or the artificiality of experienced objects such as computer agents or social robots.

The concept of presence is important because it is at the heart of all mediated and simulated experiences through which humans try to overcome their sensory channel limitations by using psychological (e.g., imagination), physical, and/or human-made technologies. For example, almost all ancient tribes had a convention of narrating fantasy tales of tribal history to the younger generation. Through imagination, each generation of listeners transported themselves to different times and spaces in which the events supposedly had occurred. Physical tools (written language, media, telephone, computer simulation, etc.) provide rich sensory props for imagination. Written narratives provide reliable and detailed descriptions of events. Film and television visualize imaginary worlds. Telecommunication devices simulate face-to-face communication by providing real-time interaction and delivering autiientic (or at least, very realistic) voices of interactants. Sophisticated simulation technologies create a virtual world by accepting almost all human sensory inputs and providing multisensory feedback and output. In all the examples above, presence occurs when tools successfully create compelling experiences in a way that users do not notice the virtuality of experience.