The scientific literature discussing virtual reality and telepresence has evolved immensely since the early nineties.

The technological innovations related to virtual reality, such new googles with faster and better software, have also enabled researchers to test them across different industries. But most important they have induced the development of deeper research questions and applications across different industries.

They include medicine, tourism, education, law, music, spots and much more.

In this article I present a selection of publications discussing virtual reality and telepresence from 1990 until 2018. The list involves conference papers, books, books chapters and scientific articles.

To facilitate the review, I have separated the publications into three periods: 2018-2008; 2007-1997; 1996-1990.

PLEASE NOTE: This is not a definite list. it is based on my subjective appreciation for each one, as they have helped me and triggered my fascination on the topic.

Also, do not forget to watch the following selection of videos I have gathered discussing virtual reality:

So I honestly hope this article can help can help you, in case you are writing a research paper or a thesis (bachelor, Masters or PhD) about virtual reality and telepresence.

But for now, here we go!


Publications: 2018-2008

  1. Bailenson, J. N., Yee, N., Blascovich, J., Beall, A. C., Lundblad, N., & Jin, M. (2008). The use of immersive virtual reality in the learning sciences: Digital transformations of teachers, students, and social context. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 17(1), 102-141.
  2. Biocca, F., & Levy, M. R. (2013). Communication in the age of virtual reality. Routledge.
  3. Boas, Y. A. G. V. (2013, January). Overview of virtual reality technologies. In Interactive Multimedia Conference (Vol. 2013).
  4. De la Peña, N., Weil, P., Llobera, J., Giannopoulos, E., Pomés, A., Spanlang, B., … & Slater, M. (2010). Immersive journalism: immersive virtual reality for the first-person experience of news. Presence: Teleoperators and virtual environments, 19(4), 291-301.
  5. Edwards, J. (2011). Telepresence: virtual reality in the real world [special reports]. IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 28(6), 9-142.
  6. Faiola, A., Newlon, C., Pfaff, M., & Smyslova, O. (2013). Correlating the effects of flow and telepresence in virtual worlds: Enhancing our understanding of user behavior in game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), 1113-1121.
  7. Hyun, M. Y., & O’Keefe, R. M. (2012). Virtual destination image: Testing a telepresence model. Journal of Business Research, 65(1), 29-35.
  8. Guttentag, D. A. (2010). Virtual reality: Applications and implications for tourism. Tourism Management, 31(5), 637-651.
  9. Lee, K. C., & Chung, N. (2008). Empirical analysis of consumer reaction to the virtual reality shopping mall. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(1), 88-104.
  10. Mandal, S. (2013). Brief introduction of virtual reality & its challenges. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 4(4), 304-309.
  11. Mollen, A., & Wilson, H. (2010). Engagement, telepresence and interactivity in online consumer experience: Reconciling scholastic and managerial perspectives. Journal of business research, 63(9-10), 919-925.
  12. Nah, F. F. H., Eschenbrenner, B., & DeWester, D. (2011). Enhancing brand equity through flow and telepresence: A comparison of 2D and 3D virtual worlds. MIs Quarterly, 731-747.
  13. Ritchey, K. (2008). U.S. Patent Application No. 11/830,637.
  14. Sherman, W. R., & Craig, A. B. (2018). Understanding virtual reality: Interface, application, and design. Morgan Kaufmann.
  15. Strickland, J. (2009). How virtual reality works.

Publications 2007-1997

  1. Bar-Cohen, Y. (2003). Haptic devices for virtual reality, telepresence, and human-assistive robotics. Biologically inspired intelligent robots, 73.
  2. Burdea, G. C., & Coiffet, P. (2003). Virtual reality technology. John Wiley & Sons.
  3. Goldberg, K. (1998). Virtual reality in the age of telepresence. Convergence, 4(1), 33-37.
  4. Mantovani, G., & Riva, G. (1999). “Real” presence: how different ontologies generate different criteria for presence, telepresence, and virtual presence. Presence, 8(5), 540-550.
  5. Ritchey, K. (2007). U.S. Patent Application No. 11/131,647.
  6. Riva, G. (2007). Virtual reality and telepresence. Science, 318(5854), 1240-1242.
  7. Riva, G., Mantovani, F., Capideville, C. S., Preziosa, A., Morganti, F., Villani, D., … & Alcañiz, M. (2007). Affective interactions using virtual reality: the link between presence and emotions. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10(1), 45-56.
  8. Ryan, M. L. (1999). Immersion vs. interactivity: Virtual reality and literary theory. SubStance, 28(2), 110-137.
  9. Sanchez-Vives, M. V., & Slater, M. (2005). From presence to consciousness through virtual reality. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 6(4), 332.
  10. Satava, R. M. (1997). Virtual reality and telepresence for military medicine. Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, 26(1), 118-120.
  11. Sherman, W. R., & Craig, A. B. (2002). Understanding virtual reality: Interface, application, and design. Elsevier.
  12. Sherman, W. R., & Craig, A. B. (2003). Understanding virtual reality. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kauffman.
  13. Schuemie, M. J., Van Der Straaten, P., Krijn, M., & Van Der Mast, C. A. (2001). Research on presence in virtual reality: A survey. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 4(2), 183-201.
  14. Stone, R. J. (2001). Haptic feedback: A brief history from telepresence to virtual reality. In Haptic Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 1-16). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
  15. Zheng, J. M., Chan, K. W., & Gibson, I. (1998). Virtual reality. Ieee Potentials, 17(2), 20-23.


Publications 1996-1990

  1. Burdea Grigore, C., & Coiffet, P. (1994). Virtual reality technology. London: Wiley-Interscience.
  2. Cohen, M., Aoki, S., & Koizumi, N. (1993, November). Augmented audio reality: Telepresence/VR hybrid acoustic environments. In Robot and Human Communication, 1993. Proceedings., 2nd IEEE International Workshop on (pp. 361-364). IEEE.
  3. Fisher, S. (1991). Virtual environments, personal simulation and telepresence. Implementing and Interacting with Real Time Microworlds.
  4. Heim, M. (1994). The metaphysics of virtual reality. Oxford University Press.
  5. Held, R. M., & Durlach, N. I. (1992). Telepresence. Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments, 1(1), 109-112.
  6. Hine, B., Stoker, C., Sims, M., Rasmussen, D., Hontalas, P., Fong, T., … & Nygren, E. (1994, May). The application of telepresence and virtual reality to subsea exploration. In Second Workshop on Mobile Robots for Subsea Environments.
  7. Milgram, P., Takemura, H., Utsumi, A., & Kishino, F. (1995, December). Augmented reality: A class of displays on the reality-virtuality continuum. In Telemanipulator and telepresence technologies (Vol. 2351, pp. 282-293). International Society for Optics and Photonics.
  8. Ritchey, K. J. (1996). U.S. Patent No. 5,495,576. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
  9. Rosenberg, L. B. (1994). “Virtual fixtures”: perceptual overlays enhance operator performance in telepresence tasks.
  10. Satava, R. M. (1993). Virtual reality surgical simulator. Surgical endoscopy, 7(3), 203-205.
  11. Satava, R. M. (1995). Medical applications of virtual reality. Journal of Medical Systems, 19(3), 275-280.
  12. Sheridan, T. B. (1992). Musings on telepresence and virtual presence. Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments, 1(1), 120-126.
  13. Steuer, J. (1992). Defining virtual reality: Dimensions determining telepresence. Journal of communication, 42(4), 73-93.
  14. Stone, R. J. (1991, June). Advanced human-system interfaces for telerobotics using virtual reality and telepresence technologies. In Advanced Robotics, 1991.’Robots in Unstructured Environments’, 91 ICAR., Fifth International Conference on (pp. 168-173). IEEE.
  15. Stone, R. (1992). Virtual reality and telepresence. Robotica, 10(5), 461-467.

Final Thoughts

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention: If you have the time and interest, I would really appreciate if you could participate on our current studies involving virtual reality:

So yeah, in case you were searching for literature on virtual reality and telepresence, I hope my list here has helped you. But do not forget to keep on searching.

There are many other publications that could have been added here and that were not.

As I mentioned before, this is simply a list of publications I have gathered along the years and that for some reasons have interested me. I am sure there is much more out there!

Cheers!