[This story from The Salt Lake Tribune illustrates one of the most important applications of presence, helping people who need to be understood and those who need to understand others. See also a (very positive) review in The Utah Review and for more on “Hi, my name is Savannah” see coverage in Medium. –Matthew] [Image: Savannah, a 15-year-old LGBTQ activist, delivers the coming-out testimony she wasn’t allowed to give at her church meeting in Eagle Mountain in 2017, in the VR short film “Savannah,” which is being shown at the Damn These Heels LGBTQ Film Festival in Salt Lake City,…

[Here’s a clever way to evoke social presence with a houseplant; the short story is from Curbed, where it includes three different images. The Mu Design press kit notes that “Lua also includes a motion sensor that allows its eyes to follow the movements in front of them: it’s like Lua’s looking at you! Give a spark of life to your plants and evolve them into full-fledged pets with Lua!” See the Indiegogo page for more information including pictures and a 1:00 minute video (also available via Vimeo). See the Mu-Design website for information on the company’s first product: “Ulo…

[Discover reports on a new advance in haptic VR gloves that should enhance presence; coverage in Science includes an 8 second video and follow the link to the paper in Scientific Reports for much more information. For coverage of a related project, see an October 2018 post in ISPR Presence News. –Matthew] This New Virtual Reality Glove Lets You Grab Digital Objects By Bill Andrews July 18, 2019 Our squishy human brains are notoriously easy to fool. Whether it’s optical illusions or more advanced trickery, it doesn’t take much to exploit our mind’s weaknesses. But, that’s also what enables virtual…

[From privacy to mental health, a new (free) report examines the dangers of “extended reality” technologies. There’s a link at the end of this story from Forbes to a summary of the report and the full downloadable pdf version. The original story includes a 5:48 minute video, and the report summary includes several graphics, a different video and a 13-slide presentation. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Adobe Stock] The Important Risks And Dangers Of Virtual And Augmented Reality July 17, 2019 Bernard Marr, Contributor A recent report by Accenture highlighted the growing number of companies taking advantage of “extended reality” (XR) technology,…

[The U.S. military is considering how to use presence-evoking technologies to help prepare for difficult to imagine challenges, as reported in this story from Popular Mechanics; see coverage in Nextgov for additional details. –Matthew] The Pentagon Wants VR To Train for Nuclear War The tech would allow troops to train to counter nuclear and radiological weapons, including dirty bombs. By Kyle Mizokami July 9, 2019 The U.S. Department of Defense is considering using virtual reality technology to train military personnel who might someday come up against dirty bombs and other radioactive weapons. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which typically concerns…

[If you’ll be in London in August consider booking a ticket for the presence experience described in this story from Forbes (see the original version for two more images). For information about how British Air is using virtual reality for customers at check-in desks, see a story in World Airline News. –Matthew] [Image: How we travel, aircraft design and our relationship with air travel are the focus of a new exhibition at Saatchi’s Gallery. Credit: BA] What Is The Future Of Aviation? Bright, Young Minds Explore The Next 100 Years July 4, 2019 Nargess Banks, Contributor Our desire to explore…