[As the fall semester begins it’s a good time to read about how The University of North Carolina System is using VR and presence to “promote and facilitate college access” across all of its campuses. It notes their plans for the use of chatbots and expansion to all colleges in the state. Most of the press coverage is drawn from this more detailed press release from UNC. –Matthew] [Image: This still shot from a new virtual reality video compiled by the UNC System shows a class at N.C. State University. Source: News & Record.] UNC SYSTEM LAUNCHES FIRST-IN-NATION VIRTUAL REALITY…

[This case study report from the Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC) at the University of Liverpool describes a unique and potentially valuable application of presence-evoking technology to help people learn the warning signs that a dog is likely to bite them. The link at the end leads to a 1:19 minute video of a first-person interaction with a virtual dog. –Matthew] CASE STUDY: THE DOGS TRUST The Virtual Engineering Centre, in collaboration with Dogs Trust,  the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Infection and Global Health and Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, have created an immersive 3D environment to demonstrate the…

[Arizona State University is using virtual reality to teach biology lab courses, and considering expanding the use of the presence-evoking technology to other fields and eventually incorporating AI for individualized teaching. This story from azcentral has the details and highlights some of the advantages; more information is available in ASU Now and the Google AR & VR blog. –Matthew] [Image: Biological sciences student Victoria Quintana tries out a headset for a virtual-reality biology lab class during a trial run with Labster on the Tempe campus in June. Credit: Photo by Charlie Leight; Source:  ASU Now.] ASU online biology course allows…

[Presence field trip alert! The story from The Verge below provides a detailed description of Two Bit Circus, a new “micro-amusement park” opening in Los Angeles that uses a variety of technologies to evoke presence in “a tech-infused entertainment utopia wrapped in a circus-meets-Ready Player One aesthetic.” See the original story for lots of pictures and videos. –Matthew] HOW TWO BIT CIRCUS IS TURNING ITS 21ST CENTURY CARNIVAL INTO ONE GIANT GAME The ‘micro-amusement park’ combines VR, escape rooms, and carnival games to create a grand, playable adventure By Bryan Bishop August 22, 2018 Photography by Amelia Holowaty Krales Throw…

[Much of the coverage (and many of the company and product names) include terrible puns, but the expiration of “the teledildonics patent” has serious implications for the phenomena, design and study of presence experiences related to sexuality. This story is from Motherboard, where the original includes additional images. Gizmodo has more information about the effects of the patent expiring on innovation, Wired covers security and privacy concerns (including “attackers manipulating partner match ups, [so that] people might be controlling devices that they don’t have the consent to control”), and Engadget has a first-person report on the experience of using teledildonic…

[I wish Cliff Nass could weigh in on the latest tests of the Computers Are Social Actors (CASA) paradigm; this story from The Washington Post summarizes and provides links for intriguing recent work that explores how children and adults respond to robots. More information about the replication of the Asch conformity studies is available in the University of Plymouth press release and in coverage from The Verge and Gizmodo (which both specifically discuss CASA) and a critique is presented in The Next Web. –Matthew] Children can be swayed by robot peer pressure, study says By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Reporter August…