Presence (telepresence)

The concept of presence accounts for a variety of computer applications and Web-based entertainment today that are developed on the fundamentals of the phenomenon, in order to give people the sense of, as Sheridan called it, “being there.

"[4] The specialist use of the word “presence” derives from the term “telepresence”, coined by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Marvin Minsky in 1980.

[citation needed] For example, a surgeon may use a computer to control robotic arms to perform minute procedures on a patient in another room.

[2][6] Additional important aspects of a medium are visual display characteristics (image quality, image size, viewing distance, motion and color, dimensionality, camera techniques) as well as aural presentation characteristics, stimuli for other senses (interactivity, obtrusiveness of medium, live versus recorded or constructed experience, number of people), content variables (social realism, use of media conventions, nature of task or activity), and media user variables (willingness to suspend disbelief, knowledge of and prior experience with the medium).

Further development of the concept of "psychological state" has led to study of the mental mechanism that permits humans to feel presence when using media or simulation technologies.