[The headline is just one of the interesting results in this story from Forbes, where the original includes more charts. –Matthew]

VR Needs More Social: 77% of Virtual Reality Users Want More Social Engagement

John Koetsier
April 30, 2018

77% of people who use virtual reality want more social engagement in VR, according to a new survey of 4,217 consumers. And while many of their headsets don’t get regular use, most intend to use their VR headsets more in the future.

“Led by Generation Z and Millennials, 77% of respondents who own a VR headset say they are interested in interacting socially with other people in VR,” says Greenlight Insights, which ran the survey. “Playing games, watching videos and video communications ranked highest as social VR activities of interest.”… read more. “Survey: 77% of VR users want more social engagement”

[As a rail fan I find this review of a new model train simulator for virtual reality particularly interesting; the more inclusive term “Trainset VR” is also an intriguing presence concept. The review is from UploadVR, where it includes different images and a video trailer; more information including images and a video is available in coverage by Stuff.co.nz. –Matthew]

Rolling Line Review: A Delightful Model Railway Simulator

By Jamie Feltham
May 4th, 2018

Platforms: Rift (Reviewed), Vive

Trainset VR is a term I’ve used to describe some of my favorite VR titles. By that, I’m referring to experiences that make you a giant, towering over miniature dioramas that are a delight to explore from your god-like perspective. Apps like Google Earth, Wayward Sky and Giant Cop all carry an undying sense of fascination as you lean down into their model worlds.… read more. “Rolling Line brings train sets into world of virtual reality”

[This opinion column from Aeon is from late 2016 but it’s still extremely relevant to a key debate about the effects and ethics of presence. –Matthew]

[Image: Credit: PhotoAlto/Ale Ventura/Getty]

Murder in virtual reality should be illegal

Angela Buckingham is a writer living in Berlin. She writes about power, moral choice, self-deception, bravery and cowardice. Her most recent work, The Colonel, is a play inspired by the events surrounding the Dreyfus Affair in 1890s France.

November 2016

You start by picking up the knife, or reaching for the neck of a broken-off bottle. Then comes the lunge and wrestle, the physical strain as your victim fights back, the desire to overpower him. You feel the density of his body against yours, the warmth of his blood. Now the victim is looking up at you, making eye contact in his final moments.… read more. “Murder in virtual reality should be illegal”

[A new Facebook feature will create navigable 3D virtual reproductions of places where our memorable experiences occurred. Interestingly, the limitations of the reproductions (a “pointillism effect”) apparently create both the “sense of presence in a place… [and] a sense of memory.” This first-person report on Facebook’s demo at the F8 conference is from Engadget, where it includes more images. See CNET for a 2:14 minute video. –Matthew]

Facebook’s AI-created virtual memories are magically haunting

Wandering through pointillistic art felt like being in a dream.

Nicole Lee
May 1, 2018

Ever since Facebook bought Oculus, it’s been investing in virtual reality in a big way. Beyond just hardware like the Rift and the Go, it’s also putting a lot of money and research into software. It delved into the realm of social last year with Oculus Rooms and Facebook Spaces, but that’s not where Facebook’s VR ambitions stop.… read more. “Facebook’s AI-created virtual memories are magically haunting”

[This story from Nature describes the nascent use of virtual and augmented reality, and the presence experiences they produce, for scientific research. See the last paragraph for a succinct summary. –Matthew]

[Image: Credit: The Project Twins]

Virtual-reality applications give science a new dimension

Virtual- and augmented-reality tools allow researchers to view and share data as never before. But so far, they remain largely the tools of early adopters.

David Matthews
30 April 2018

As I put on a virtual-reality (VR) headset, the outside world disappears. A cell fills my visual field, and as I crane my neck, I can see it from several angles. I stick my head inside to explore its internal structure. Using hand controllers, I dissect the cell layer by layer, excavating with a flick of the wrist to uncover tiny, specialized structures buried beneath the surface.

Looking at a cell in VR is “as close as you can get to touching” such a minuscule structure, says Sebastian Konrad, product manager for VR at Arivis, a life-sciences software company in Munich, Germany, that developed this particular VR visualization tool, called InViewR, and who helped to arrange my demonstration of it.… read more. “VR-AR tools and presence beginning to provide scientific researchers with new insights”