[This story from Digital Trends is an entertaining look at a new way to simulate smells to enhance presence for virtual reality users as well as in other contexts. See the original story for a second image and a video, and for more information about this and other presence-related work from the Human-Computer Integration Lab at the University of Chicago see the Lab’s website. –Matthew]

Smell-O-Vision: This nose-zapping wearable simulates smell using electricity

By Luke Dormehl
June 6, 2021

Jas Brooks, a long-haired engineer who looks as if they might moonlight as the roadie for a hair metal band, sat blindfolded in a room with electrodes up their nose and let people over the internet crank up the smells.

“It definitely looks … horrifying,” they told Digital Trends, likening the experimental setup to the Milgram experiment, a controversial series of 1960s experiments, conducted by a Yale psychologist, in which people were tested on their willingness to dish out electric shocks to participants.… read more. “This nose-zapping wearable simulates smell using electricity”

[This is an interesting press release from UCLA via MedicalXpress about new neurophysics research that compares responses to virtual reality and the real world; it raises many questions about how we can measure and manipulate presence and its impacts. For more information see Maynak Mehta‘s website. –Matthew]

Virtual reality boosts brain rhythms crucial for neuroplasticity, learning and memory

by University of California, Los Angeles
June 28, 2021

A new discovery in rats shows that the brain responds differently in immersive virtual reality environments versus the real world. The finding could help scientists understand how the brain brings together sensory information from different sources to create a cohesive picture of the world around us. It could also pave the way for “virtual reality therapy” for learning and memory-related disorders ranging including ADHD, Autism, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy and depression.… read more. “Virtual reality boosts brain rhythms crucial for neuroplasticity, learning and memory”

[This story from Road to VR evaluates a new presence-evoking technology announced by the company Varjo, which is promoting its Reality Cloud platform as “allowing the ultimate science fiction dream, photorealistic virtual teleportation, to come true.” Here’s a little of what Varjo says in a blog post announcement:

“With Varjo Reality Cloud and Varjo XR-3, anybody will be able to capture their surroundings in 3D and then invite somebody else to join that same exact reality, see and hear others, and share their experience in absolute immersion. Instead of jumping on a plane, you will be able to teleport to any location and back instantly, making your actual physical location completely irrelevant. It won’t just be a simple hologram of an object or a static reality capture; we’re talking about a fully immersive, photorealistic real-time 3D stream, all the way down to the last pixel.… read more. “Hands-on: Varjo’s Reality Cloud platform captures and shares physical spaces in real-time”

[The Guardian recently published a “Readers Reply” discussion about the ultimate form of presence, the idea that our entire universe is a sophisticated simulation. Here’s a slightly abridged version with a few of my favorite comments highlighted (with [*]). –Matthew]

Readers reply: how do we know we’re not living in a simulation like the Matrix?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

13 June 2021

Isn’t this just the kind of article our biomechanical overlords would simulate in order to keep us compliant in our pods? kingsize

Not ruling it out, but if we were living in software, it is the most reliable software ever because there never seem to be any disruptive updates. Liam Collins

The idea that we may be living in a matrix-like universe is called the simulation theory, and was first proposed by Nick Bostrom.… read more. “Readers reply: How do we know we’re not living in a simulation like the Matrix?”

[Although it may seem surprising that reliving a person’s traumatic experience via virtual reality can help them recover from the event, this story from The New York Times explains how this positive application of presence works using personal examples. See the original story for three short videos, and for more about Chris Merkle’s experience see a 2017 Rolling Stone article. As the story below and a related Business Insider story note, VR is likely to also be helpful in addressing mental health issues caused by the pandemic. –Matthew]

Virtual Reality Therapy Plunges Patients Back Into Trauma. Here Is Why Some Swear by It.

An experimental treatment seems poised to address a dire mental health crisis.

By Dani Blum
June 3, 2021

When a Veterans Affairs therapist first suggested that Chris Merkle try a virtual reality simulation that would mimic his days in combat, he was horrified.… read more. “VR therapy: Why it works and is poised to address COVID-related mental health crisis”