Interaction with virtual agents — Comparison of the participants' experience between an IVR and a semi-IVR system

In this paper we compare participants' behavior and experience when navigating through a virtual environment populated with virtual agents in an IVR (Immersive Virtual Reality) system and a semi-IVR system. We measured the impact of collision and basic interaction between participants and virtual agents in both systems. Our findings show that it is more important for our semi-IVR systems to facilitate collision avoidance between the user and the virtual agents accompanied with basic interaction between them. This can increase the sense of presence and make the virtual agents and the environment appear more realistic and lifelike.