[The term isn’t used, but there are lots of presence-related observations in this story about a new interactive, non-linear, 360 degree animated video story with a Christmas theme, designed to be viewed with smartphones or tablets, or with Google Cardboard. The story is from The Verge, where it features the 4:14 minute video and several more images. –Matthew]

Rear Window at Christmas: Behind Google’s new interactive animated short

A team-up with the creators of Wallace and Gromit is the latest step for Google’s Spotlight Stories

By Adi Robertson
on December 22, 2015

The scene is a snowy apartment building out of the 1950s, rendered in a bright, slightly retro palette. A janitor trudges across the courtyard, then stops, wary. Someone is out there. Someone large, nimble, and wearing a floppy red hat. Then you turn your phone. The janitor slides away, and instead you’re looking into the third-floor window of a snoring tenant.… read more. “New interactive animated Christmas video uses mobile devices as if a literal window”

[Since most of us won’t be taking the in–person tour, here’s a way to experience the White House decorated for the holidays; the story is from iDigitalTimes Australia and features the 5:17 minute 360 degree video. –Matthew]

[Image: From Engadget]

Google Provides Virtual Reality Video Tour Of The White House

By Ken Salcedo
Mon, 12/21/2015

Google managed to get in the White House and was able to capture 360-degree videos showing some of the Presidential home’s rooms and corridors. Users will be able to watch the five-minute video on YouTube, or they can even experience it on the company’s Cardboard VR headset.

The 360-video footage was taken with Google’s new Jump rig which consists of 16 cameras. The $15,000 camera rig was designed in partnership with GoPro and comes with software that is able to stitch video captured into a viewable 360-degree video.… read more. “Visit the White House at Christmas time via VR”

[Among Dr. Furness’ interesting observations are the comparison of VR to Star Trek’s Vulcan “mind meld”; the story is from NPR. –Matthew]

[Image: Dr. Thomas Furness (left) in one of the labs stretched throughout a nondescript house in Seattle that’s home to his RATLab. Gil Aegerter/KUOW]

Grandfather Of VR: The Virtual Can Show The Beauty Of The Real

December 17, 2015
Jamala Henderson

Thomas Furness is known as the pioneer who stood at the inception of what we know today as virtual reality.

He often gets called the “grandfather of virtual reality”: he started with work on interfaces of fighter aircraft cockpits and now, at 72, he’s been at it for more than four decades — longer than the creator of Oculus Rift has been alive. And with his looks and demeanor, Furness would make a convincing Santa, only the kind who literally schools people in three kinds of engineering, aeronautics and astronautics at the University of Washington, and whose elves come with graduate degrees.… read more. “Grandfather of VR: The virtual can show the beauty of the real”

[This intriguing art installation was designed explicitly to evoke presence; the story is from The Creators Project blog, where it includes more pictures and a 3:51 minute video. You can experience the Infinity Room at Houston’s Day for Night Festival through Sunday (December 20). –Matthew]

An Artist Put Infinity in a Room in Istanbul

By Kevin Holmes — Sep 15 2015

Representing the infinite is, in its very nature, problematic. But that hasn’t stopped it from making an appearance in art, time and again. LA-based Turkish artist Refik Anadol tackles the concept in his installation Infinity Room, an immersive room that radiates projected generative patterns across its four walls. It’s part of what Anadol calls his Temporary Immersive Environment Experiments and is exhibited at the Zorlu Center of Performing Arts in Instabul.

These audiovisual pieces transform a space into a simulated, abstract, mind-bending environment.… read more. “Artist Refik Anadol’s immersive “Infinity Room””

[The health and fitness applications of VR and presence continue to evolve; this story from The Verge describes some of the design challenges; see the original for more images and a 2:40 minute video. –Matthew]

Exercising in virtual reality with the VirZoom motion controller

Gaming meets SoulCycle

By Nick Statt
on December 16, 2015

Video games and exercise don’t play well together. Sure, there’s the eight-year-old Wii Fit, drumming with the new Rock Band, and a slew of dedicated exercise games using Microsoft’s Kinect and featuring fitness trainers you’ve never heard of. But video games are more often a sedentary activity, asking only that you stretch occasionally and go to the bathroom in between long stretches of sitting.

Then there’s the VirZoom, a strange accessory for virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR. If VirZoom looks like an exercise bike, that’s because it is.… read more. “Exercising in virtual reality with the VirZoom motion controller”