[Here are three examples of presence, not by name of course, in popular culture: First, a demonstration of Sony’s Project Morpheus on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon from Road to VR, where you can watch the 4:34 minute video.] News Bits: Sony’s Project Morpheus Goes Prime Time with Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show June 8, 2014 by Paul James The mainstream media are slowly warning up to the advent of virtual reality, or at the very least that demonstrating new and exciting ways to play games pulls viewers of the demographics they’re interested in. Now Sony’s Project Morpheus,…

[From CBS News; a 4:13 minute video report is available here] Is “digital cloning” the future of movie making? CBS News – June 2, 2014 “Maleficent,” the story of a winged fairy turning into a wicked sorceress, brought in $70 million this weekend. The film’s special effects are state of the art. When the tiny fairies fly, you see “pixie-perfect” human faces on them. What was once filmed on a sound stage, is now shot on a “light stage,” reports CBS News’ Carter Evans. The surreal laboratory is the brainchild of Paul Debevec who heads up the University of Southern…

[From The Verge, where the story includes two images and a 9:17 minute video] Control VR gloves warp your fingers into virtual worlds $350 device tracks your arms and hands with military-designed sensors By Rich McCormick on June 5, 2014 New technologies such as Google Glass and Oculus’ Rift headset are making it easier than ever for us to get our heads into augmented and virtual realities. But while we get our heads into these alternate worlds and use our eyes to check our emails, surf the internet, even destroy enemy starfighters with a spiral of missiles, our hands are…

[From The Creators Project, where the post includes several more pictures and two videos] Enter An Alternate Sensory Reality With Max Cooper’s 4D Sound Show By DJ Pangburn — Jun 5 2014 When people talk about alternate reality, the typically describes a psychedelic experience or a science fictional world—an experience that produces something outside normal reality. The conceptualization is usually visual, perhaps because humans process visual cues much more quickly and accurately than sounds. But, a new 4D sound system is letting electronic music producer Max Cooper bring the concept of alternate reality to the world of audio, which for…

[From PC World, where the story includes other pictures; much more information is available from SoftBank; a 0:46 minute video is available on YouTube] Meet Pepper, the ‘love-powered’ humanoid robot that knows how you’re feeling Tim Hornyak Jun 5, 2014 If the thought of a humanoid robot in your home makes your skin crawl, meet the friendly Pepper. Pepper is a cute, wisecracking personal robot designed to bring joy to everyone, and Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank wants people to start buying it next year for the price of a high-end PC. The phone giant unveiled the autonomous, sophisticated machine on…

[From MIT Technology Review, where the story includes two images; see also Tape Op’s March 2014 article “The Future of Audio Engineering”] [Image: Tape Op] Microsoft’s “3-D Audio” Gives Virtual Objects a Voice Headphones that make sounds seem to come from specific points in space could be the perfect counterpoint to virtual reality goggles. By Tom Simonite on June 4, 2014 Just as a new generation of virtual reality goggles for video games are about to hit the market, researchers at Microsoft have come up with what could be the perfect accompaniment—a way for ordinary headphones to create a realistic illusion…