VR systems create a compelling illusion that one is inside a computer-simulated environment. Presence, the sensation of being "in a place" when immersed in a virtual world, has been described as the "essence" of VR. By increasing presence, one increases the amount of information participants can process and recall from a virtual experience, and thus improving pre-sence is an important human factors research goal.

This goal is made easier in that VR allows multimodal representations of objects. Presenting converging evidence to the brain from both visual and auditory input has been found to increase presence. In the real world, tactile cues are largely processed without our awareness, yet they make a critical contribution to our sense of self and to our construction of reality. Touching a virtual object would likely evoke an even more compelling experience of presence in VR.