Users of immersive virtual reality (VR) are often observed to act realistically on social, behavioral, physiological, and subjective levels. However, experimental studies in the field typically collect and analyze metrics independently, which fails to consider the synchronous and multimodal nature of the original human activity. This paper concerns multimodal data capture and analysis in immersive collaborative virtual environments (ICVEs) in order to enable a holistic and rich analysis based on techniques from interaction analysis. A reference architecture for collecting multimodal data specifically for immersive VR is presented. It collates multiple components of a user's nonverbal and verbal behavior in single log file, thereby preserving the temporal relationships between cues. Two case studies describing sequences of immersive avatar-mediated communication (AMC) demonstrate the ability of multimodal data to preserve a rich description of the original mediated social interaction. Analyses of the sequences using techniques from interaction analysis emphasize the causal interrelationships between the captured components of human behavior, leading to a deeper understanding of how and why the communication may have unfolded. In presenting our logging architecture, we hope that we will initiate a discussion of a logging standard that can be built by the community so that practitioners can share data and build better tools to analyze the utility of VR.

What does it feel like to own, to control, and to be inside a body? The multidimensional nature of this experience together with the continuous presence of one's biological body, render both theoretical and experimental approaches problematic. Nevertheless, exploitation of immersive virtual reality has allowed a reframing of this question to whether it is possible to experience the same sensations towards a virtual body inside an immersive virtual environment as toward the biological body, and if so, to what extent. The current paper addresses these issues by referring to the Sense of Embodiment (SoE). Due to the conceptual confusion around this sense, we provide a working definition which states that SoE consists of three subcomponents: the sense of self-location, the sense of agency, and the sense of body ownership. Under this proposed structure, measures and experimental manipulations reported in the literature are reviewed and related challenges are outlined. Finally, future experimental studies are proposed to overcome those challenges, toward deepening the concept of SoE and enhancing it in virtual applications.

This paper presents the use of our multimodal mixed reality telecommunication system to support remote acting rehearsal. The rehearsals involved two actors, located in London and Barcelona, and a director in another location in London. This triadic audiovisual telecommunication was performed in a spatial and multimodal collaborative mixed reality environment based on the “destination-visitor” paradigm, which we define and put into use. We detail our heterogeneous system architecture, which spans the three distributed and technologically asymmetric sites, and features a range of capture, display, and transmission technologies. The actors' and director's experience of rehearsing a scene via the system are then discussed, exploring successes and failures of this heterogeneous form of telecollaboration. Overall, the common spatial frame of reference presented by the system to all parties was highly conducive to theatrical acting and directing, allowing blocking, gross gesture, and unambiguous instruction to be issued. The relative inexpressivity of the actors' embodiments was identified as the central limitation of the telecommunication, meaning that moments relying on performing and reacting to consequential facial expression and subtle gesture were less successful.