Co-presence and proxemics in shared walkable virtual environments with mixed colocation

The purpose of the experiment presented in this paper is to investigate co-presence and locomotory patterns in a walkable sharedvirtual environment. In particular, trajectories of users that usea walkable tracking space alone are compared to those of userswho use the tracking space in pairs. Co-presence, in a sense of perception of another person being present in the same virtual spaceis analyzed through subjective responses and behavioral markers.The results indicate that both perception and proxemics in relation to co-located and distributed players differ. The effect on the perception is however mitigated if participants do not collide with theavatars of distributed co-players.