[This post from the MIT Media Lab website (it also appears in Medium and IEEE Spectrum) is a first-person report on a program of research that examines children’s social (medium-as-social-actor presence) responses to robots; I think it’s a model for how to introduce a wider audience to these ideas (e.g., I plan to assign and discuss it in undergraduate courses). The original version includes several more pictures and a video. –Matthew]

[Image: A child listens to DragonBot tell a story during one of our research studies. Credit: Personal Robots Group]

Making new (robot) friends

Understanding children’s relationships with social robots

by Jacqueline M. Kory Westlund

Hi, my name is Mox!

This story begins in 2013, in a preschool in Boston, where I hide, with laptop, headphones, and microphone, in a little kitchenette. Ethernet cables trail across the hall to the classroom, where 17 children eagerly await their turn to talk to a small fluffy robot.… read more. “Understanding children’s relationships with social robots”

[This post from Google’s blog reports on interesting results and lessons learned from an experiment in presence. The original includes more images; for more information see coverage in Daily Coffee News. –Matthew]

Daydream Labs: Teaching Skills in VR

Ian MacGillivray, Software Engineer
July 20, 2017

You can read every recipe, but to really learn how to cook, you need time in the kitchen. Wouldn’t it be great if you could slip on a VR headset and have a famous chef walk you through the basics step by step? In the future, you might be able to learn how to cook a delicious five-course meal—all in VR. In fact, virtual reality could help people learn all kinds of skills.

At Daydream Labs, we tried to better understand how interactive learning might work in VR. So we set up an experiment, which aimed at teaching coffee making.… read more. “Google’s presence experiment: VR vs. video to train people to make espresso”

[This story from 4K describes options for experiencing next week’s total solar eclipse via technology. The CNN press release notes that “While only a fraction of the country will be able to witness the total eclipse in-person, CNN’s immersive livestream will enable viewers nationwide to ‘go there’ virtually and experience a moment in history, seven times over.” For more information about all aspects of the eclipse see coverage on the NASA website. –Matthew]

Where to Watch The 2017 Total Solar Eclipse In Full 4K And Virtual Reality

by Stephen on August 14, 2017

Although not even the best 4K OLED or QLED TVs on the market will beat experiencing a Total Solar Eclipse live and in-person with your own eyes (while using special-purpose solar filters, such as “eclipse glasses” or hand-held solar viewers), for those who can’t get a true naked-eye view of the upcoming fantastic astronomical event, there’s CNN.… read more. ““Be there” for the August 21 total solar eclipse via 4K and VR”

[This story from CNBC highlights the need for robot designers to carefully consider the range of responses, including medium-as-social-actor presence responses, their creations will evoke. For more on this topic see the recent story in Psychology Today’s blog “How do We Read Emotions in Robots? Of social robots, innovation spaces, and creatively trying things out.” –Matthew]

Next-gen robots: The latest victims of workplace abuse

• Robots must contend not just with internal flaws and bugs but with humans.
• Recent introductions of robots to everyday scenarios have led people to initiate some intriguing forms of interaction.
• Knightscope’s security bot, for example, has been harassed by kids, painted in red lipstick and used as a canvas for graffiti artists.

Mike Juang
Published 9 Aug 2017 | Updated 11 Aug 2017

With jobs it’s oftentimes not the work that’s difficult, but the people.

Take STEVE, for instance.… read more. “Designing robots to account for intriguing ways humans interact with them”

[This short interview from the Vive blog is about the use of virtual reality and presence to explore a universal experience in a visceral, first-person way. The original blog post includes a second image; for a text and audio report on the experience that includes more images see coverage by Southern California Public Radio (SCPR); and a 0:39 minute trailer is available on YouTube. –Matthew]

Take a trip to The Other Side in Flatline

Stephen Reid
August 3, 2017

What happens at the exact moment of death? Religion and science disagree, but many survivors of near-death experiences have similar stories from all around the world. In Flatline, you’ll have your own near-death experience in virtual reality. We chatted to Julian McCrea of Portal Experiences about the creation of this unique app.

Hello Julian! Tell us your part in the production of Flatline.… read more. “Have a near death experience in VR in “Flatline””