[An easy-to-use app that creates realistic-looking 3D models of objects with just a smartphone camera seems like another step toward commonly available personalized presence experiences. The story below is from Digital Camera World, where it features three different images and the 47 second video mentioned (also available on YouTube). See the Epic Games news release for more information, along with a nine minute video demonstration from Kams1 on YouTube. Coverage in DesignTAXI adds one of multiple potential cautions: “Creators will be able to sell the asset for use in games and other projects, on top of keeping them for personal use.…

[In this story from Tech Radar veteran technology journalist Lance Ulanoff reports on his experience of using ARHT Media’s Holopresence technology, in the process describing several interesting aspects of current telepresence technologies and businesses. See the original story for three more images (including an animated gif of the ‘Star Trek’-like “beam in” described at the end). –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Future] Holopresence means never having to say, ‘Sorry, I can’t be there’ This is how I beamed in like ‘Star Trek’ By Lance Ulanoff April 11, 2022 In Holopresence land you can be two places at once. One is sitting on…

[This message from Anthropology professor Tom Boellstorff at the University of California Irvine appeared on air-l, the listserv of the Association of Internet Researchers. –Matthew] Date: Sat, 9 April 2022 From: Tom Boellstorff <tboellst@uci.edu> Subject: Virtual Cultures in Pandemic Times Dear all: the documentary Virtual Cultures in Pandemic Times is now freely available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wgJKr744hY. This film, by the wonderful filmmaker Bernhard Drax, is about research I conducted with three colleagues about how people were using Animal Crossing and Second Life during the early days of the pandemic. Bernhard really is a remarkable filmmaker, who also directed Our…

[This story in Stuff (sponsored by Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington) summarizes important concerns about bias in the creation of digital humans raised by writer, visual effects designer, and researcher Raqi Syed. For more about her work, including a 3:13 minute video (also available on YouTube), follow the link in the story and visit her website. –Matthew] Finding virtue in the virtual: Who gets to be a digital human? “The story our most enduring myths tell us is that a great white man will fall from the sky and save us,” says senior lecturer Raqi Syed of Te Herenga…

[Researchers at the University of Cambridge and Disney have created a new way to evoke compelling presence illusions. An excerpt from coverage by New Atlas summarizes the key points: “Holograms are one of sci-fi’s longest promised technologies, and one of real science’s longest-running disappointments. Scientists at Cambridge and Disney Research may be a step closer to making them less disappointing, creating new ‘holobricks’ that can stack and tile together to produce large 3D images that can be viewed from multiple angles. … Each holobrick is made up of a spatial light modulator, a scanner, and coarse integrated optics. Altogether, this…

[A new study described in coverage by The Guardian demonstrates the effectiveness of using virtual reality in the treatment of (especially more severe) agoraphobia. Materials from The University of Oxford in Medical Xpress identify the study as “the largest ever clinical trial of VR for mental health,” and provide more details about the gameChange VR program used, two short informational videos (on YouTube here and here), and a link to the paper in The Lancet. The researchers here and in the paper note that the knowledge that though realistic the simulation isn’t real is a major contributor to the therapy’s…

[This story from Sky News describes a new project in Ireland that uses augmented reality to create 3D images of pioneering female scientists to inspire schoolchildren and encourage more young women to pursue careers in STEM fields. See the original story for three more images and the Learnovate website for more details about the project, and see the Volograms website for more on that company’s mobile app that lets users create volumetric holograms of themselves. Volograms has also posted a 2:37 minute Sky News report on YouTube. For information about related campaigns, see It’s Nice That and the Nexus Studios…