# The Sense of Presence within Auditory Virtual Environments **Abstract:** Introduction Presence, Vol. 5, No. 3, Summer 1996. 290-301 The concept of virtual presence, the feeling of being immersed in a virtual environment, and telepresence, the feeling of being at a remote actual environment, has received considerable attention in light of recent advances in display technologies. Presence, however, is not an entirely new concept, nor is it a phenomenon limited to complex immersive display technologies: it has long been a preoccupation of authors, artists, and film producers to create media that will draw in and enhance the level of presence (Sheridan, 1992a). For example, Barfield, Sheridan, Zeltzer, and Slater (1995) discuss the concept of presence in the real world, arguing that it can result from reading a captivating book, watching a movie, or even day dreaming. Regardless of such long-standing and diverse interests in presence, literature based on empirical data is sparse. Nonetheless, promising advances in establishing theories of presence, research in measuring presence, and the identification of factors affecting presence, are emerging in the current literature (Loomis, 1992; Sheridan, 1992a; Zeltzer, 1992; Slater & Usoh, 1994; Barfield & Weghorst, 1993; Hendrix & Barfield, 1996). Loomis (1992), for example, theorizes that complete "presence" will be experienced in a simulated environment only when sensory and cognitive equivalence is achieved. Complete sensory equivalence will occur when display technologies © / 996 by the Massachusetts Ins **Authors:** [[Hendrix]]