[This story from Road to VR describes progress by the Swiss company CREAL in developing virtual and augmented reality headset technology with not only “near retina resolution” but the ability to adjust depth of field focus as we do in nonmediated experience. The original version of the story includes two more images and the 1:33 minute demonstration video mentioned (which is also available on YouTube). For more information see the company’s website and YouTube channel. –Matthew]

New Video Shows Off CREAL’s Latest Foveated Light-field VR Headset

By Ben Lang
April 8, 2021

CREAL, a company building light-field display technology for AR and VR headsets, has revealed a new through-the-lens video showing off the performance of its latest VR headset prototype. The new video clearly demonstrates the ability to focus at arbitrary distances, as well as the high resolution of the foveated region.… read more. “CREAL light-field VR and AR prototype HMDs take leap forward in focus and resolution”

[Although it doesn’t uses the terminology of presence, this essay from Inside Higher Ed is all about the evolution of technologies designed to evoke medium-as-social-actor presence and how they can be applied in the context of higher education.  –Matthew]

[Image: Cecilia Santiago-González, left, assistant vice president for strategic initiatives for student success, left, and communications specialist Zoe Lance are managers of Billy Chat, an artificial intelligence text messaging bot for students at Cal Poly Pomona. Source: “Artificial intelligence meets real friendship: College students are bonding with robots,” Los Angeles Times. Credit: Irfan Khan]

Our New Digital Colleagues and Friends

By Ray Schroeder
March 25, 2021

There is an intriguing anthropomorphic trend underway to apply human attributes and attitudes to artificial intelligence-driven chat bots and assorted personal assistant tools.

This is not unique in the history of humans. We tend to assign human attributes and names to tools and conveyances.… read more. “Presence in higher education: Our new digital colleagues and friends”

[The new augmented reality app CrimeDoor features augmented reality recreations of crime scenes, as reported in this Yahoo! story. A pre-Easter press release from the company via PR Newswire highlights the recreation of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ (and includes a video demonstration):

“With billions of people around the world familiar with the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, AR allows app users to finally experience the moment that shaped history, directly in their own space. The innovation of Augmented Reality places the 3D scene in a user’s room, so they can physically walk into the space with a mobile device and stand next to Jesus at the moment of this solemn, influential event, portrayed as it was over 2,000 years ago. Users can gain a new, firsthand perspective of what it would have been like to be there.”

Mystery Wire’s coverage via KRON4 includes a four minute video with more information and demonstrations.… read more. “How CrimeDoor uses AR to recreate crime scenes including the Crucifixion of Jesus”

[While we’re dealing with the difficult day-to-day realities of the pandemic it’s easy to overlook the speed, magnitude and significance of what will be lasting changes in how we live, many of which involve increases in presence. This essay from Chief Executive by the CEO of a technology company captures some of that big picture and what to expect as the world slowly recovers; as the author’s last line notes, “It’s a strange, but exciting, new (virtual) world.”  –Matthew]

Three Lessons CEOs Can Learn From The Boom Of Virtual Experiences

Our world likely will remain in a hybrid model well beyond the end of this pandemic, which means we must be providing products and services that allow customers to choose between the real-world or virtual-world version of the same experience.

By Todd Greene
April 1, 2021

Conducting facets of our lives online was a trend that started years before the pandemic.… read more. “Presence after the pandemic: Three lessons CEOs can learn from the boom of virtual experiences”

[This Meidum OneZero interview with author Kate Darling explores several interesting implications of medium-as-social-actor presence evoked by human-like robots, including insights from the history of our views about interacting with animals. –Matthew]

How We Treat Animals Will Inform Our Future With Robots

Evan Selinger in conversation with Kate Darling from MIT Media Lab

By Evan Selinger
April 1, 2021

[This is Open Dialogue, an interview series from OneZero about technology and ethics.]

A few years ago, I read a fascinating paper by Kate Darling, a research specialist at the MIT Media Lab, that left a lasting impression. In “Extending Legal Protection to Social Robots: The Effects of Anthropomorphism, Empathy, and Violent Behavior Towards Robotic Objects.” Kate clarifies how easy it is, given the way the human mind works, for us to become emotionally attached to all kinds of robots — robots that have humanlike, animal-like, or even basic lifelike features.… read more. “How we treat animals will inform our future with robots”