[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 to get hands-on real-world experience without exposing your mortality.

That’s why in 2018, Calgary, Alberta-based Trimac Transportation (CCJ Top 250, No. 66), a bulk carrier operating throughout the United States and Canada, left the real world for the virtual world in an effort to train its drivers on real problems without the threat of real ramifications.… read more. “Trucking company removes real-world dangers by training drivers with VR and presence”

[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 an Ars Technica story notes that the new version is based on an already “highly processed digital restoration” and provides a link to the unrestored version. Scroll.In has the latest enhanced version at this writing, a colorized “DeOldified” version.… read more. “Neural networks upscale 1896 Lumiere train arrival film to 4K, altering presence it evokes”

[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, Contributor
January 29, 2020

The Visual Effects Oscar nominations for 2020 have been announced. Five films are competing to take home the prestigious award in film, with the winner revealed live on Sunday, February 9 on ABC. The nominees for Visual Effects are Avengers: Endgame, The Irishman, The Lion King, 1917, and Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker.… read more. “Virtual production and the future of (presence in) filmmaking”

[The story below from IndieWire describes three examples of how storytelling artists are using virtual reality to create body-centered presence experiences. For more on “Spaced Out” see coverage in /Film and CNET; for more on “Hypha” see VRScout; and for more on VR trends at Sundance 2020 see Forbes. –Matthew]

[A still from “Spaced Out” by Pierre Friquet, an official selection of the New Frontier Exhibitions program at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Credit: Courtesy of Sundance Institute.]

Sundance VR Programming Showcased Much More Than Movies in a Headset

The potential for VR to immerse users in new bodily experiences was especially prevalent in this year’s Sundance lineup.

Andrea S. Kim
February 3, 2020

Each year, IndieWire partners with MIT’s Open Documentary Lab to offer a deeper look at Sundance’s New Frontiers section. Here, Master’s Candidate Andrea S.… read more. “Body-centered VR storytelling at Sundance 2020”

[Last week Stephen Colbert, the host of The Late Show on CBS (in the US), used a clever iPad-based invention he calls the “Ask-O-Matic” to interview voters and a presidential candidate in advance of today’s Iowa caucuses; the funny 7:46 minute video segment is available via YouTube. But this technology isn’t new: Colbert introduced it on the September 20, 2012 episode of his previous TV program, The Colbert Report, when he interviewed documentarian Errol Morris. See a brief discussion on the New Territory Media blog and watch that earlier segment (start at 3:46) as well as the episode’s sign-off on the Comedy Central website. –Matthew]

Ask-O-Matic technology allows Stephen Colbert to visit Iowa voters without leaving his couch

With the help of Late Show’s revolutionary Ask-O-Matic technology, Stephen Colbert visits Iowa voters in a Des Moines diner and chats with Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren live from Washington, D.C.… read more. “Ask-O-Matic technology allows Stephen Colbert to visit Iowa voters without leaving his couch”

[This post from Scientific American’s Voices blog makes a strong argument that creators of presence experiences need to work hard to make them accessible to all of us. –Matthew]

[Image: Credit: Getty Images]

Virtual Reality Has an Accessibility Problem

It’s been touted as an “empathy machine” that lets users see what it’s like to have a disability—but people with disabilities often can’t use it

By Kaitlin Ugolik Phillips
January 29, 2020

Virtual reality has come a long way since the 1960s-era Sensorama, which looked like a vintage arcade game and required the user to walk up and stick one’s head into a box to get the effect of being part of the film that played inside. The once-clunky hardware for VR has gotten much smaller and cheaper over the past several decades, and the content has gotten more varied and accessible, opening up the experience to people outside the realms of wacky invention and cutting-edge gaming.… read more. “Virtual reality has an accessibility problem”