[Here’s a nice summary from WebMD of different ways virtual reality and the presence it evokes are being used in medicine; for more on the study of VR for women in labor see MedPage Today and Good Morning America. –Matthew] [Image: Erin Martucci, of New York, used virtual reality while in labor with her daughter Elizabeth. Source: Good Morning America.] Virtual Reality Brings New Vision to Health Care By Jennifer Clopton February 10, 2020 Linda Larrimore has been getting chemotherapy every other week for 6 years to treat and manage colon cancer. The chemotherapy is keeping her health stable, so…

[It may sound like an episode of Black Mirror (to name the specific one would constitute a spoiler), but the author of this piece from Wired presents the benefits and risks of virtual prisons, where presence has a prominent role. –Matthew] Forget prisons, the future of punishment will be virtual Physical jails don’t work. Will virtual punishment succeed in replacing them – or will it just create more risks? By Tom Gash, honorary senior lecturer at University College London’s Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science 10 February 2020 Prisons have become the dominant symbol of punishment in modern democracies. But…

[A compelling example of the desire and potential benefits of using technology to simulate loved ones who have died is reported in this story from Road to VR. The original version includes more images and the 9:38 minute documentary segment referenced; for more details about the documentary and viewer reactions see coverage in Koreaboo, and for more on the uses of technology to transcend death and the ethical questions this latest effort raises, see coverage in Virtual Reality Times. –Matthew] Mother Meets Recreation of Her Deceased Child in VR By Scott Hayden February 7, 2020 South Korean TV broadcaster MBC…

[This story explains how one company developed and is implementing the use of VR and presence to train drivers of trucks that carry hazardous and other materials to prepare them to deal with dangerous but rare situations. It’s from CCJ (Commercial Carrier Journal), where it includes a second image; Forbes has a related story. –Matthew] Innovators: Trimac Transportation removes real-world dangers through virtual reality training Jason Cannon January 15, 2020 CCJ Innovators profiles carriers and fleets that have found innovative ways to overcome trucking’s challenges. The difficulty in learning how to deal with dangerous situations is fairly clear. It’s hard…

[This Gizmodo story describes how using artificial intelligence to enhance a famous “actuality” film from the dawn of cinema said to have evoked intense presence responses at the time makes it look “like it could have been shot just yesterday on a smartphone or a GoPro” and alters the viewing experience. The original story includes both version of the film. Coverage in The Next Web adds that “The video’s also had sound added, which makes it all the more eerily… normal,” and references an article in The Moving Image (via ResearchGate) about reactions to the original film. A commenter on…

[This interview with an award-winning visual effects and virtual production supervisor doesn’t mention the term itself but describes several ways presence is being, and could be, used by filmmakers to “unite the digital and physical worlds so we can tell any story we can imagine”; note the democratizing scenario in his answer to the last question. The original story in Forbes features four additional images. –Matthew] [Image: “I first met Ben at Unite Vision back in 2017, where we discussed the future of immersive.” Credit: Unity.] Virtual Production And The Future Of Filmmaking—An Interview with Ben Grossmann, Magnopus Sol Rogers,…