Evaluating Presence and Technology Acceptance of an Intelligent Reality Virtual Museum Prototype

Intelligent Reality refers to the fusion of integrated technological innovations to develop complex computing systems aiming to blend the real with digital worlds and enable humans and machines to seamlessly work together leveraging each other’s strengths. This paper presents the results of a study evaluating the user experience of visiting an Intelligent Reality virtual museum prototype in terms of presence, technology acceptance, and environment perceptions, as a small-scale Cyber-Physical-Social Eco-System proof of concept. A virtual reality (VR) system was designed, and a real robot was placed in a technology museum to foster cyber-physical synchronisation, for users to visit and navigate in the environment. The study results revealed high degree of presence achieved by users in the VR world, with positive acceptance of technology and environment evaluation. Most importantly, the results highlighted the importance of presence in such systems and how it relates to acceptance and to the overall users’ perception of a VR world.