[An industry expert asks why voice assistants haven’t become more popular and used for more significant tasks, and provides two key answers, in this short commentary from MediaPost. See also “A Siri-ous guide to the world of voice assistants: AI virtual assistants explained for 2021” from UneeQ. –Matthew] [Image: Source: “This is how people are using voice assistants during Coronavirus” in Voice] COMMENTARY Where Are All The Voice Assistants? By Cory Treffiletti, Featured Contributor July 28, 2021 A few years back I was involved in helping launch and build a voice assistant business. I loved it. The company was Voicea,…

[Many aspects of presence phenomena, including the sense of freedom and exploration many creator-users fear will be lost as corporations take over as they did the early versions of the internet, are explored in this interesting story from Input; see the original story for more images, tweets and videos. –Matthew] ANTHROPOMORPHISM How furries are making virtual reality actually worth visiting The community is at the vanguard of VR — from world design to teledildonic orgies. Matt Baume July 27, 2021 Here I am, standing in the basement of a sprawling house full of stolen merchandise in Louisville, Kentucky, and I…

[This short story from Wallpaper, and supplementary excerpts from V Magazine that follow, describe a new coffee table book that uses augmented reality integration with vivid images to create a sense of presence as transportation (though that term isn’t used). See the original stories for more images from the book; the authors’ Instagram for more samples of their work; and the publishers’ page for the book to read the “journey”-themed description, see dynamic illustrations of the “experiential” effect and order a copy (for $120). –Matthew] Go on a dream holiday with this virtual reality book Kiss & Fly is a…

[Here’s a good primer on the past, present and possible futures of immersive, presence-evoking technology. The original version from Big Think includes an additional image and two videos. –Matthew] [Image: Man using VR device seen with glitch effect. Credit: nuclear_lily via Adobe Stock] Immersive technology will revolutionize everything from theme parks to daily life Virtual reality continues to blur the line between the physical and the digital, and it will change our lives forever. By Stephen Johnson 22 July, 2021 Immersive technology aims to overlay a digital layer of experience atop everyday reality, changing how we interact with everything from…

[I’ve pieced together parts of recent stories from different sources to tell the story of how Samsung’s latest huge, modular television will be used as the foundation of a new virtual production studio in Korea (I join the author of the last excerpt in disappointment that “for those of us still hoping to one day live in a home with virtual walls that can change their decor at-will, pricing for The Wall still puts it well out of reach for most domestic installations.”). For more information see the link in this sentence from the Engadget story: “virtual production is expected…

[ScienceAlert reports on how a visual effects artist extracted a new subjective point-of-view image from an iconic photo taken on the moon over a half-century ago, creating a presence-evoking image and even a second, immersive 360 degree version of what Buzz Aldrin saw as the photo was taken. See the original story and especially the artist’s Reddit post and its links, for more details. DesignTAXI’s coverage adds this: “This point of view has left social media users astounded, if not a little spooked. ‘It’s kind of eerie… It’s literally people 52 years in the future using modern technology to catch…