[This Associated Press story describes some of the ways people around the world have been using technology and presence to experience religious sites and rituals, including during the pandemic. See the original version of the story for six more pictures and a video. –Matthew] [Image: This July 22, 2019 photo taken from video gives a 360-degree view of Ramadan prayers on the plateau of the Dome of the Rock, which can be seen in The Holy City, a virtual reality experience in the metaverse. Credit: The Holy City VR via AP] From Mecca to the Vatican, exploring sacred sites with…

[A project and publication from University of York researchers focuses on how to design audio experiences in virtual reality to create more effective presence experiences. See the original version of the story for a 1:46 minute gameplay demonstration (also available on YouTube) and find more videos in the article’s supplementary material. –Matthew] [Image: Figure 3 from Constantin Popp et al., Creating Audio Object-Focused Acoustic Environments for Room-Scale Virtual Reality, Applied Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.3390/app12147306. Screenshot showing an area in Planet Xerilia. The collision-based system is implemented in the “water” droplets, here visible as randomly rotated white small squares, which fall…

[A new app for Quest headsets uses passthrough augmented reality as well as virtual reality, along with hand tracking, to teach people how to play the piano, as reported in this story from Classic FM. See the original version for the mentioned 9:29 minute video review (also available on YouTube) as well as a shorter demonstration video. For more details, see coverage from UploadVR. –Matthew] [Image: Source: UploadVR] Music in the Metaverse – learn to play the piano in this new augmented reality app This new VR game is the piano’s answer to Guitar Hero, but the controller is your…

[Here’s a fascinating story about new evidence demonstrating that virtual reality can evoke “self-transcendence” – a “sense of deep connectedness and ego attenuation” (which sounds like a rich form of social as well as spatial presence) that is also created by “LSD or psilocybin (the main psychoactive component of ‘magic’ mushrooms).” See the original story in MIT Technology Review for a 1:13 minute video (also available via Vimeo). –Matthew] [Image: Credit: MS TECH | SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY (CT/MRI IMAGE)] VR is as good as psychedelics at helping people reach transcendence On key metrics, a VR experience elicited a response indistinguishable…

[Presence scholars usually focus on illusions created by digital technologies, but physical tools and materials can be used to evoke presence too (as in paintings, drawings, and sculptures). Today’s post is about buildings designed and built or remodeled to create a presence illusion. The February 2022 story below from New York City’s Gothamist describes what appears to be “a pretty typical residential townhouse” in Brooklyn Heights but is actually a subway fan plant and emergency exit (the story also describes a videogame based on the unusual ‘house.’ A 2010 story from Curbed New York includes a familiar term in a…

[Without using the terms telepresence or teleoperation, this story from Stanford University includes vivid descriptions of the experience of remotely operating a new sophisticated underwater humanoid robot as it explores ocean depths. See the original story for two more images and two four-minute videos. –Matthew] [Image: OceanOneK with its boom camera in hand near a Beechcraft Baron F-GDPV aircraft that was 67 m down (over 200 ft). Credit: Frederic Osada/DRASSM/Stanford] Stanford’s OceanOneK connects human’s sight and touch to the deep sea The diving robot explored sunken planes, ships, and a submarine, and descended nearly 1 km. Special features of OceanOneK…