[The WindowSwap project lets users visit a website and “voyeuristically travel by looking out of somebody else’s window for a while.” This story from Smithsonian Magazine, where the original version includes seven more example images, also highlights other virtual travel experiences available online. The Kottke.org blog post “Let’s Go for a Stroll Outside” covers, and provides video examples of, another. –Matthew] [Image: The view from WindowSwap user Ula’s window in Doha, Qatar. Credit: Courtesy of Sonali Ranjit and Vaishnav Balasubramaniam / Coded by Maryam Touimi Benjelloun)] This Website Highlights Views Outside Windows Across The World The WindowSwap project provides a…

[Lucas Rizzotto recorded his life in first-person 3D for all of 2019 and created a VR interface that allows him to re-experience any part of it. The short description below is from PetaPixel, where the story includes his 28:11 minute video (also available via YouTube) and some interesting quotes taken from it. For information on an award-winning and thought-provoking earlier social VR project by the artist-inventor, “Where Thoughts Go,” see coverage in VRScout. –Matthew] This Guy Wore a Face Camera for a Year and Built a VR Time Machine By Michael Zhang July 11, 2020 San Francisco-based inventor Lucas Rizzotto…

[A new company is using virtual reality and the presence it evokes to give people in the workplace first-person experiences to help them understand and counter “bias, inequity, and incivility.” This story is from IEEE Spectrum, where it includes a second image. For more information see the company’s website and for related stories see these previous ISPR Presence News posts: Presence for good: “Traveling While Black” VR documentary creates impactful experience Presence for good: Changing your race in virtual reality U. of Illinois students crowdfunding VR films to increase understanding about police-minority relations Can VR and presence help stop sexual…

[This is a thoughtful survey of some fascinating and important issues and questions raised by incorporating artificial intelligence in human-like machines, creating medium-as-social-actor presence. It’s from USC Dornsife and draws on the expertise of researchers affiliated with the USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; see the original version for a second image. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Mathieu Persan] Do Humans Dream of Androids Dreaming? From the species that brought you the moon landing and the hot dog eating contest, artificial intelligence is here to change the world. By Stephen Koenig July 7, 2020 The first question…

[The pandemic has accelerated the use of presence-evoking technologies in many contexts including psychological therapy, the subject of this story from The New York Times (where the original includes a second image). Even with the current limitations of presence via videoconferencing covered here, wider use of remote therapy is said to be likely to continue after the pandemic. The potential of emerging media such as virtual and augmented reality (as well as artificial intelligence) is not considered in the story but seems likely to even further enhance the effectiveness and success of teletherapy. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Kim Ryu] Teletherapy, Popular…

[The study described in this short story from Massive Science is interesting both as a clever use of virtual reality and presence in psychology research and for the implications of its results for how we choose to structure our work activities in actual and virtual environments. –Matthew] [Image: Figure 2 from “Studying the effects of visual movement on creativity”: “Three screenshots from the participants’ point of view in the moving condition, with the lights moving from front to back.”] Moving – even in virtual reality – can increase our creativity and problem-solving Feeling low on ideas? Trick yourself into thinking…