[We usually study individual, brief presence experiences, but the ‘performance’ in this story looks ahead to when VR and presence is a way of life. It’s from The Creators Project, where you’ll find four more images and two videos. –Matthew]

This Guy Just Spent 48 Hours in Virtual Reality

By DJ Pangburn — Jan 14 2016

After decades of broken dreams, virtual reality appears to be fulfilling its promise. It’s not just that the hardware and software are finally arriving with Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear headsets (motion sickness not excluded); it’s that artists, game designers, filmmakers, and other creatives are finally building substantial worlds for it. Along with this, certain individuals like Mark Farid want to see how long a human can live in virtual reality—as much for a feat of endurance as a performative act.

Predictably, given Farid’s ambition, he still hasn’t lived 24 hours a day for 28 days inside virtual reality.… read more. “Long-term presence: This guy just spent 48 hours in virtual reality”

[No need to imagine what the game player will see – these clever people “injected an actor into a scene using VR” and then captured their performance; the story is from Ars Technica, where it includes the 3:50 minute explanatory video. See the studio’s blog for more information and images. –Matthew]

Is this the world’s first full virtual-reality motion/voice capture session?

Actors combine mo-cap suit, HTC Vive to become characters, see virtual teleprompters.

by Sam Machkovech – Jan 13, 2016

Forget latex suits and white ping-pong balls. Motion-capture sessions for video games and films have only gotten more intense over the years, thanks to advances like improved, LED-loaded motion-capture outfits and the ability to see robust TV-screen renders of an actor’s performance as soon as a take is complete.

Of course, not every studio has a Peter Jackson-caliber budget for motion capture facilities, but the small development team behind upcoming VR game The Gallery: Call of the Starseed found an affordable path to capturing a human actor’s performance—and then remembered they already had one cutting-edge gadget handy: the dev kit for the upcoming HTC Vive virtual reality system.… read more. “Game creators put actors in VR for more natural motion capture”

[Research question: Are puppies cuter when you experience them in VR? This story from Popular Mechanics (where it features a different image) mentions a few interesting possible sporting event applications of VR as the technology evolves. For information on the different ways to see the Puppy Bowl players in VR see the Discovery website and for full details on the event, see the press release. –Matthew]

[Image: Source: PCProactive]

The Most Exciting (Dog-Related) Sporting Event Will Show Practices in VR

Why would you watch the Super Bowl when you can strap on some Goggles and go hog wild at the Puppy Bowl?

By John Wenz
Jan 11, 2016

Yeah, yeah, the Super Bowl is coming up and 114 million people are going to watch it even though the Jacksonville Jaguars aren’t playing. But the real beginning-of-the-year sporting event, outside of the Winter Classic, is the Puppy Bowl.… read more. “Experience the Puppy Bowl in virtual reality”

[This news release from Nanyang Technological University highlights developments in robotics and artificial intelligence that help independently acting social robots and user-inhabited telepresence robots evoke presence. Pretty amazing, and progress is sure to continue… –Matthew]

[Image: Prof Nadia Thalmann (left) posing beside Nadine. NTU-built EDGAR telepresence robot (right).]

NTU scientists unveil social and telepresence robots

Published on: 29-Dec-2015

Say hello to Nadine, a “receptionist” at Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore). She is friendly, and will greet you back. Next time you meet her, she will remember your name and your previous conversation with her.

She looks almost like a human being, with soft skin and flowing brunette hair. She smiles when greeting you, looks at you in the eye when talking, and can also shake hands with you. And she is a humanoid.

Unlike conventional robots, Nadine has her own personality, mood and emotions.… read more. “Nadine and EDGAR: NTU scientists unveil social and telepresence robots”