[An interesting new way to use augmented reality, and then social media, to enhance both spatial and social presence is described in this story from Rolling Stone (see the original version for a different image). For more information and images see coverage in Loudwire and the Jadu website, where you can download the app and read a press kit statement that includes this: “’We want Jadu to enable a new sense of presence,’ said Asad J. Malik, creator of Jadu and founder and CEO of 1RIC. ‘There is something special about allowing artists to share this new sense of presence…

[This story from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (also available via Phys.Org) describes how the knowledge that animals, in this case adult zebrafish, can experience an illusion of nonmediation can be used to study how their – and by extension, our – brains interpret and respond to the world. See the original story for a second figure and for more details see the article in Nature Methods. –Matthew] [Image: The Virtual Reality arena. The fish is positioned between the posts under the microscope objective, where it can swim as it is shown the VR projection. The illumination by…

[This story from WKYC reports on efforts to use virtual reality and presence in the training of classroom teachers; the original version includes a 1:52 minute video news report. For more information see the Kent State website, which features a 2:44 minute video about the Extended Reality Initiative. Kent State also has a story about an NEH-funded project that will use augmented reality to commemorate the tragic events of May 4, 1970. –Matthew] Training future teachers with virtual reality The National Science Foundation has awarded Kent State’s team of researchers a three-year grant for $1.48 million. By Amani Abraham February…

[The loss of life is the biggest tragedy of course, but this story from Smithsonian Magazine describes an important application of presence-evoking technologies to bring awareness to the loss of monuments and other cultural heritage structures in ancient cities destroyed in “political and military upheaval.” See the original story for seven more images and a wider version of the image below. –Matthew] [Image: The exhibition presents the possibility that 3-D models (above: a digital rendering of Aleppo following the 2012 civil war in Syria), and the information extracted from them can be used for future restoration projects. Credit: Arab World…