The Effects of Gender and the Presence of Third-Party Humans on Telepresence Camera Height Preferences

With the rise of immersive virtual reality and telepresence, it is important to understand the factors that contribute to creating an optimal user experience. In particular, there are divergent recommendations for setting camera heights in virtual contexts that facilitate telepresence. Therefore, we conducted a 2x2 mixed-design experiment with 93 college students asking them to select their preferred camera height when varying camera placement (overhead, chest) and the presence of human avatars (present, not present). We found that while camera placement did not have a significant effect of preferred camera height, the presence of avatars (increased height preference) and gender (women preferred lower heights) were significant. Our results provide evidence that factors within a virtual environment and individual differences influence users’ preferences of camera height. Thus, systems designed for immersive virtual reality and telepresence should customize camera height based on these factors.