In clinical settings where VE were used for exposure, high rates of presence were correlated with therapeutic success. Higher rates of presence are associated with higher acceptance of technology. This is based on the assumption that next to the characteristics of a person characteristics of the technology are determing factor. Presence in elderly people has not been investigated yet. Elderly people are believed to be less familiar with technology which makes it interesting to investigate their ability to experience presence.

20 young adults and 20 elderly people were compared regarding their sense of presence (IPQ), their Intention to Use (ITU) technical devices and their Technology Acceptance (TUI) in general. The aim is to investigate the differences in the two groups regarding their experienced presence in a VR-Scenario and on differences in their Technology Acceptance.

The ongoing project „Information- and Communication technology Applications: Research on user-oriented Solutions“ (ICARUS) focuses on human-technology-interaction and additionally on the development of a suitable questionnaire. 20 young participants (15 f/5 m) and 20 healthy, elderly participants (16 f/4 m) were presented to a virtual, interactive caféscenario using a head-mounted display (HMD; Sony HMZ-T1, Minato, Japan).

The VE was created with Ogre 3D using the café-scenario as a positiveneutral stimulus which is familiar to all participants. The course of the test has been standardised. Before and after the experimental phase, questionnaires were completed by the participants. Presence was measured using the Immersion Presence Questionnaire (IPQ) which includes 14 7-point-Likertscale-items measuring the factors Spatial Presence, Involvement and Realness. The questionnaire for Technology Acceptance (TUI) consists of 32 7-point-Likertscale-items measuring the factors Interest, Immersion, Usefulness, Scepticism, Anxiety, Ease of Use, Accessibility and Curiosity and a 3 item VAS-Scale, the Intention to Use-scale (ITU).

[Oral Presentation and Poster at the 4th YR-RISE Workshop 2012 on Research for innovative solutions for the elderly, 24.-27. September 2012, Eindhoven, Niederlande; Project: ICARUS Project]