[The Verge reports on an important development in the history of presence-evoking technologies, the failure of smartphone-based virtual reality (the good news is that more compelling, convenient and cost-effective VR is supplanting the phone-based headsets). –Matthew]

Phone-based VR is officially over

By Adi Robertson
October 16, 2019

Mobile virtual reality headsets helped millions of people try out VR, but as of yesterday, they’re all but officially a thing of the past. Oculus CTO John Carmack offered a “eulogy” last month for the phone-powered Gear VR mobile headset, saying that the headset’s days were numbered. And Google just revealed that it’s discontinuing the similar Daydream View mobile headset, in addition to omitting Daydream support from the new Pixel 4 phone. The app will still work on older phones, but Google has now given up on a platform it once portrayed as an integral part of Android.… read more. “Phone-based VR is officially over”

[Road to VR reports on a new, very large lab for presence experiences at Colorado State University. See the original version for two more pictures and for more information see a CSU story from April 2019 and the University’s Virtual Reality Initiative webpages. –Matthew]

Colorado State University Has Deployed a 100 Headset VR Lab for Biomedical Education

By Ben Lang
October 10, 2019

Colorado State University has deployed a new VR lab; designed to accommodate up to 100 students simultaneously, the lab’s headsets run custom software which allow students to visualize life-sized virtual cadavers and medical imagery in a shared virtual space.

The so-called Immersive Reality Training Lab is part of a new CSU facility called the Health Education Outreach Center, says Jordan Nelson, a member the school’s Dept. of Biomedical Sciences and one of the lab’s operators.

Nelson tells Road to VR that the lab houses 100 headsets, in clusters of four, allowing students and instructors to simultaneously visualize complex 3D anatomical imagery in a shared virtual space.… read more. “Colorado State University has deployed a 100 headset VR lab for biomedical education”

[SlashGear is among those reporting on the latest vision for the future of ‘travel’ via telepresence by Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA). See the original story for three images. A three-part video from the CEATEC 2019 demonstrations is available from The Japan Times via YouTube here, here and here. And see ANA websites for a press release and vivid descriptions of Avatar-in, ANA-Avatar and the $10 million Avatar XPRIZE. –Matthew]

[Image: A diagram shows how ANA’s concept envisions connecting an avatar and its operator. Credit: ANA Holdings Inc. Source: GeekWire]

ANA Avatar-in lets you “teleport” to places using robots

JC Torres
October 14, 2019

As one of Japan’s major airlines, All Nippon Airways or ANA knows just how many people wish they could go places easily. It also knows just how much that travel is beyond the reach of most people, even when it is necessary to reach out to or help a loved one.… read more. “Japan airline ANA’s Avatar-in lets you ‘teleport’ to places using robots”

[Having grown up in Los Angeles, I can relate to this short story from the Daily Titan about a mobile earthquake simulator used to increase public awareness and safety. For more information see coverage (including a 1:17 minute video) from Seattle’s KING5 TV, the Big Shaker website and the Great Shakeout Earthquake Drills website (October 17 is International ShakeOut Day). For two different approaches to earthquake simulators, see ReleifWeb for information on international “VR-based disaster resilience training simulations” and the University of California, San Diego for information on the world’s largest outdoor earthquake simulator. –Matthew]

Big Shaker event simulates Ridgecrest earthquake at CSUF

Diana Tran
October 13, 2019

The world’s largest mobile earthquake simulator shook Cal State Fullerton, north of Titan Shops, last week during the Big Shaker event.

The simulator recreated the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that shook Ridgecrest, California in July 2019.… read more. “Big Shaker mobile earthquake simulator used to increase awareness and safety”

[This thoughtful piece from Quartz provides several vivid examples of possible future applications of presence-evoking augmented reality and highlights not just their benefits but the dangers they represent for individuals and society. –Matthew]

[Image: Seeing the world through a whole new type of rose-tinted glasses. Credit: Chris-McRobbie]

SEEING ISN’T BELIEVING

We’ll soon be able to experience reality as we want it. But is that a good thing?

By David Rose, Founder, supersight.org
October 1, 2019

The human eye is an extraordinary organ. Packed with over 120 million photoreceptor cells, it can discern 10 million different colors and is the body’s fastest muscle—the average blink lasts just 100 milliseconds.

For all of its wonders, however, the human eye hasn’t significantly evolved in millennia. Although we’ve invented glasses and telescopes to improve our vision and cameras to record it, our ancestors perceived the everyday world much as we do.… read more. “The promise and peril of augmented reality”