[Here’s another interesting application of VR and presence; as so often happens, this story from The Los Angeles Times includes many descriptions of presence but not the term itself. -Matthew] [Image: Neal Taylor watches and listens a Los Angeles Philharmonic performance via a virtual reality headset in the orchestra’s Van Beethoven. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)] L.A. Philharmonic’s Van Beethoven takes virtual reality for a classical spin September 24, 2015 David Ng Can the technology that set the video gaming world abuzz create classical music fanboys and girls? The Los Angeles Philharmonic has launched a virtual reality project in…

[Shared augmented reality is more difficult than shared VR, with all kinds of interesting potential uses; this story, which features some of our presence colleagues, is from MIT Technology Review; btw, as the CNET coverage notes, the headsets are called “Reality Mashers.” –Matthew] [Image: One of Lanier’s students, Andrea Stevenson Won, wears a headset developed in his lab at Microsoft.] Microsoft Researchers Are Working on Multi-Person Virtual Reality Researchers in Jaron Lanier’s lab at Microsoft are exploring ways for people to share the experience of mixed reality. By Will Knight on October 12, 2015 Augmented or mixed reality, which renders…

[Note: Apologies for the lack of posts Monday, due to computer server problems beyond our control] [Aside from all the good this invention can do in testing vision, as someone with reduced vision (due to congenital nystagmus) and of course interested in VR and presence, I find its potential for personalized prescription VR screens particularly interesting; the story is from MIT Press. –Matthew] [Image: Ramesh Raskar holding the Netra device. Credit: John Werner/Camera Culture Group] Smarter lenses Newly launched mobile eye-test device could lead to prescription virtual-reality screens Rob Matheson | MIT News Office October 19, 2015 After five years…

[Here’s an ambitious plan for a 21st century virtual World’s Fair; this story is from Variety and there’s more coverage in Fortune; the Landmark press release is available via PR Newswire, and an earlier story in ISPR Presence News describes the company’s plans for mixed reality theme parks. –Matthew] Landmark Entertainment Is Building A Virtual Reality World’s Fair October 15, 2015 Janko Roettgers, Senior Silicon Valley Correspondent Landmark Entertainment President and CEO Tony Christopher thinks it’s about time that the world joined virtual reality: Landmark is unveiling plans to build what it calls a Virtual world’s fair, which could eventually…

[This first-person account of watching a political debate in VR identifies both strengths and limitations and raises questions about which will and won’t be solvable as the technology evolves. The story is from Mashable, where it features more images. –Matthew] I used virtual reality goggles to watch the CNN Democratic debate and it was underwhelming Jason Abbruzzese October 14, 2015 The Democratic debate almost made me throw up – but not for the reasons you expect. I’m in a giant hall, in the back right corner facing the stage. I look up and to my right, and I can see…

[The research described in this news from the University of Lincoln describes a way to enhance medium-as-social-actor presence. In press coverage, “Dr Murray told the BBC that how robots interact socially will be key to future robot research. ‘Obviously it depends on the application and, in a factory, we don’t want robots that make mistakes,’ he said. ‘But with robot companions, it is not so much the look of the robot but its behaviour. If you want a robot to become friendly and for people not to [be] wary of it, it will need certain traits.’” –Matthew] How perfect is…