[In a recent (February 2020) post here about virtual reality and accessibility I was struck by this comment:

“[A] woman I interviewed told me that after struggling for years with gender dysphoria, the experience of putting on a headset and inhabiting not just another place, but another body of a sort, led instead to a sense of ‘gender euphoria.’ It was, paradoxically, the first time she said she had really felt like herself. Toward the end of our conversation, she mentioned that a lot of her peers seemed to choose different genders and races for their virtual avatars, surmising that many found comfort in adding another layer of separation between their ‘real world body’ and their virtual one, whatever their identity. As we chatted about how much the technology has evolved, she sounded a note of disappointment: that a family member with muscular dystrophy still couldn’t use VR.”… read more. “Using VR and presence to question and explore gender”

[This post from IEEE Spectrum describes a major initiative to conduct research to understand the dynamics of, and develop sophisticated media technology that evokes, both remote telepresence and medium-as-social-actor presence. See the original version for five more pictures and two videos. –Matthew]

[Image: Some of Haru’s unique features distinguish it from other social robots and suggest new opportunities for human-robot interaction. Credit: Evan Ackerman/IEEE Spectrum]

Meet Haru, the Unassuming Big-Eyed Robot Helping Researchers Study Social Robotics

Honda Research Institute roboticists are experimenting with social robots as a new kind of trustful companion

By Dr. Randy Gomez, a senior scientist at Honda Research Institute Japan. He oversees the embodied communication research group, which explores the synergy between communication and interaction in order to create meaningful experiences with social robots.
12 February 2020

This is a guest post. The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not represent positions of IEEE Spectrum or the IEEE.… read more. “Meet Haru, the unassuming big-eyed robot helping researchers study social robotics”

[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’s well worth it to the mother and grandmother to regularly get the treatment. Usually, she spends the 4½ hours every other week reading, watching TV, or chatting.

But sometimes, during her infusions, she chooses to go to the beach.… read more. “Reducing mothers’ labor pains and more: How VR and presence are changing health care”

[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 they are expensive and fundamentally don’t work. In 2020 we will be exploring ways to use technology to create virtual prisons that could eventually replace the bricks-and-mortar type. The opportunities, both for prisoners and the state, are huge. But so are the risks.… read more. “Forget prisons, the future of punishment will be virtual”

[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 recently aired a Korean language documentary that centers on a family’s loss of their young daughter, seven-year-old Nayeon. Using the power of photogrammetry, motion capture, and virtual reality, the team recreated Nayeon for one last goodbye with the family’s mother, Ji-sung.… read more. “Mother meets recreation of her deceased child in VR”