[As the first, short story below from UploadVR reports, four VR experiences are nominated for Emmy Awards (from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences) this year. One is the particularly timely “The Messy Truth VR,” the focus of the second story, from Yahoo Entertainment. Note the comments of actor/producer Brie Larson about VR as “a step further” beyond film’s ability to create what sounds like presence. The original Yahoo story includes a 2:58 minute trailer and a 5:09 minute interview, and for more information see USA Today for a different short video and Deadline for another interview (which includes…

[This summary of how the pandemic has accelerated the “virtual experience economy,” which relies in great part on presence, comes from CNBC. Note: I’ve corrected a few typos and added some of the links. –Matthew] Op-ed: The “Experience Economy” is dead, driving a boom in virtual reality August 27, 2020 By Vikas Gupta, co-founder and CEO of the augmented reality company AVARA Media and a member of YPO It wasn’t long ago that many companies were doubling down on the “Experience Economy.” There was plenty of money to be made helping people check off items on their bucket list. Seventy-six…

[A new program based on virtual reality (and presence) is being launched to help women during their third trimester and the first two months after their baby is born. This story about it is from MobiHealthNews; the press release (“statement”) it refers to is available from Business Wire, and more information including a 1:19 minute video (also available via Vimeo) is available from the BehaVR website. –Matthew] Hoag Memorial Hospital and BehaVR launch VR program for expecting mothers NurtureVR was designed to be used at home as future moms enter their third trimesters to receive prenatal education, pain and stress…

[The US Army is developing technology to create robot-soldier teams for the battlefield; this story from the Army describes research on how an autonomous robot can detect changes in the environment and communicate them to a soldier via augmented reality. SyFy’s coverage summarizes it this way: “In a move that could’ve been cribbed straight from Hideo Kojima ‘s Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, the U.S. Army is exploring a human-robot buddy system that, like Snake’s setup in MGS4, will let soldiers voyeuristically spy from afar the more immediate dangers that lurk around their robot sidekick’s next corner.”…

[This Global News story explains why designer and engineer Ross Atkin created a new, inexpensive, build-it-yourself telepresence robot; the original story includes a second image and a 2:17 minute news report. Tom’s Hardware adds these details about the robot: “Smartipresence is a cardboard chassis robot that uses rubber bands and screws for a simple yet robust construction. Place your smartphone into the articulated holder and then connect it to the Smartibot NRF 52 series ARM Cortex-M4F control board via Bluetooth. Remote control is achieved by sending a ‘pilot link’ to another device and then we can stream video from the…

[Most of the coverage of Amelia, IPsoft’s AI-based digital employee, is about the benefits for businesses who hire ‘her’ services, but this interview with the CEO provides an introduction to the impressive capabilities of the technology and the likelihood of social presence experienced by those who interact with it. The story is from PC Magazine, where it includes a second image and two videos (one a 40 minute interview with the same person); see also a short video featuring IPsoft’s “chief cognitive officer” from CRN, and the IPsoft website. –Matthew] Meet Your Post-Pandemic Coworker: An AI Bot Ready to swap…