[Our colleague Andrea Stevenson Won is quoted in this story from Scientific American about a new study of how people come to perceive and control simulated extra limbs. The story says that “the results suggest participants felt like they had acquired whole new body parts—not just like they had extended their existing feet by adding a new tool [which] potentially opens up a world of virtual and real possibilities.” See the supplementary information at the end of the Scientific Reports article for a 1:36 minute video that demonstrates the experimental procedures. –Matthew]

[Image: Figure 1c from the new study: “The first- and third-person perspectives of a ball touching task are shown. When the participant touches the ball, it vibrates to the location corresponding to the position of the innate foot.” Source: “Embodiment of supernumerary robotic limbs in virtual reality“ in Scientific Reports.]… read more. “New VR experiments show how people can acquire, perceive and control extra limbs”

[Virtual reality and the transcontinental spatial and social presence it enables played a key role in making possible the recent separation of three-year-old conjoined twins, as reported in this story from Futurism. You can watch a three minute interview withs surgeon Noor ul Owase Jeelani from BBC News on  YouTube (the role of VR is discussed at the end), and for more on the use of the “digital twin” concept in medicine see the February 2022 Screenshot story, “New project creates digital clones of human brains to help treat neurological disorders.” –Matthew]

[Image: Source: BBC News]

Surgeons Use VR Headsets To Separate Conjoined Twins

It Was “Just Really Man-On-Mars Stuff.”

By Maggie Harrison
August 2, 2022

Surgeons just successfully completed one of the most complicated conjoined twin separations ever recorded — with the help of virtual reality.

“In some ways these operations are considered the hardest of our time, and to do it in virtual reality was just really man-on-Mars stuff,” Noor ul Owase Jeelani, one of the surgeons who led the procedure and the founder of the charity Gemini Untwined, told British news agency PA Media.… read more. “Surgeons use VR headsets to separate conjoined twins”

[This CNN story makes clear that users, in this case in South Korea, are often unsure about the status of or actually perceive virtual influencers as real rather than digital humans, raising significant ethical issues regarding their potential influence (see the original story for several more pictures). An article produced by the Chinese company Baidu and published in MIT Technology Review describes some of the ways in which digital humans are becoming more sophisticated and taking on more roles in our lives. –Matthew]

[Image: Credit: Sidus Studio X]

Forever young, beautiful and scandal-free: The rise of South Korea’s virtual influencers

By Jessie Yeung and Gawon Bae, CNNSeoul, South Korea
July 30, 2022

She’s got more than 130,000 followers on Instagram, where she posts photos of her globetrotting adventures. Her makeup is always impeccable, her clothes look straight off the runway.… read more. “How South Korea’s virtual influencers evoke illusion of being human, raise ethical issues”