[This story from EdTech: Focus on K-12 reports on the use of VR and presence at SUNY Buffalo to train teachers for the classroom; coverage from UBNow includes more information and a 2:10 minute video and more details from a presentation by Richard Lamb and his colleagues are available from SlideShare. Presence is being used elsewhere too: A story in University Business highlights the use of TeachLive at the University of Wyoming and Penn State University’s First Class. –Matthew] VR Gives Student-Teachers a Taste of the Classroom A University at Buffalo virtual reality training program lets educators deepen their pre-service…

[Presence has long been used to ease our longing for those who have died (see Lombard and Selverian, 2008); the project described in this first-person report from The Next Web uses it to ease our anxieties about what will happen when we die, and to prompt a discussion about what we should do for people at the end of life. The use of a tapping hammer to simulate the user’s heartbeat mentioned here has now been refined and added to the experience, as reported in new coverage from De Zeen. Both stories include many images and the De Zeen story…

[As noted at the end of this press release from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the finding that presence-evoking technologies can modify our evaluations of foods just as our non-mediated eating environment can, raises potentially important prospects for the promotion of healthy (and unhealthy) foods. See the original for more photos and a video. –Matthew] [Image: Source: VTT] VTT: Virtual and augmented reality technologies influence consumers’ eating experiences November 22, 2017 Could health-promoting foods be made more appealing by using digital tools to enhance consumers’ eating experiences? VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has used Virtual Reality (VR) to…

[This long story from Forbes is a useful review of industry efforts to create effective and practical social presence illusions (it uses a technology-based definition of telepresence vs. the psychological sense of “virtual presence”). Read the original version of the story to see many images and videos that illustrate the different technologies. The author also has an upcoming book about AR and VR. –Matthew] [Image: Author Charlie Fink apparently in same room with a DVE hologram] The Trillion Dollar 3D Telepresence Gold Mine Charlie Fink, I’m a former tech executive covering VR, AR and new media for Forbes. November 20,…

[The new HaptX Glove apparently provides impressive haptic illusions if not fully “immersive VR,” but as this story from IEEE Spectrum notes, the creators are still working toward enabling “virtual reality experiences [that] are indistinguishable from real life”; see the original story for four more images and the HaptX website for much more information. –Matthew] HaptX Inc Reveals New Haptic Glove for Virtual Reality By Amy Nordrum Posted 20 Nov 2017 In early October, I showed up at an old firehouse on Staten Island for a glimpse into the future of virtual reality. That future depends largely on haptics. Now…

[This story from Phys.org via AFP describes a promising therapeutic use of VR and presence that creates a double-meaning for immersion and has the added advantage of not requiring the use of captive animals. For more information, including images and standard and interactive videos, see The Dolphin Swim Club’s website. –Matthew] Swimming with dolphins in virtual reality to aid disabled November 19, 2017 by Jo Biddle Swimming with wild dolphins is something most can only dream of, and jumping into pools with captive animals has become increasingly controversial with environmentalists condemning it as cruel. But a Dutch non-profit believes it…