[An innovative new effort to bring static, black and white comics to VR is more evidence that presence does not require photorealism. This story from The Verge provides a quick summary and evaluation of the project. For more details see coverage in Rolling Stone; VR Scout, where the story notes that the creators “wanted to create that sense of presence that’s unique to VR”); and Road to VR, where the story features an 8:03 minute video. –Matthew] Square Enix shows off its vision for the future of comics with virtual reality And you can try it at NYCC by Michael…

[Note how the author of this story from The Verge about a new, promising effort to popularize virtual reality describes the strong sense of presence he experienced in a recent demo without actually using the term presence. The original version includes another image and a 1:46 minute video.  –Matthew] Hollywood and AMC theaters are betting on VR with Dreamscape Immersive Steven Spielberg, Hans Zimmer, and director Gore Verbinski get into the game by Bryan Bishop September 26, 2017 The notion that virtual reality is going to be the next great storytelling medium has run into some bumps along the way.…

[This press release from The Guardian announces a new virtual experience designed to help increase empathy and understanding of autism; for other similar efforts, see articles in the Times of Malta and Lovin Malta, and the UK’s National Autistic Society. –Matthew] Guardian launches The Party – A virtual experience of autism 9 October 2017 The Guardian is pleased to announce the launch of The Party – A virtual experience of autism, the publisher’s latest virtual reality (VR) project. The Party places viewers in the shoes of newly-diagnosed Layla, a 15-year old, autistic girl at her mother’s surprise birthday party. Through…

[It’s encouraging to see the potential impacts of new presence-evoking technologies lead to discussions about ethical guidelines for designing presence experiences. This story about the ethics of presence in the context of journalism is from Undark. –Matthew] Virtual Reality and Journalistic Ethics: Where Are the Lines? VR can transport viewers directly into news stories. But questions linger about how the stories are produced, and how audiences remember them. 09.27.2017 / By Dan Robitzski Imagine if you could spend a morning climbing a skyscraper, running with the bulls in Spain, or even walking on Pluto. As news outlets experiment with immersive…

[A new system developed at MIT will make it possible to communicate more naturally with robots, in many different contexts, via medium-as-social-actor presence. The story is from MIT News, and a 2:25 minute video is available in coverage by Design News and on YouTube. –Matthew] Robot learns to follow orders like Alexa ComText, from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, allows robots to understand contextual commands. Adam Conner-Simons | Rachel Gordon | CSAIL August 30, 2017 Despite what you might see in movies, today’s robots are still very limited in what they can do. They can be great for…

[As this story from Forbes notes, we’re living in an era that “used to be science fiction” – the ‘Brainternet’ project raises a variety of interesting and potentially scary prospects for forms of presence enabled by networked brain-computer interfaces. For more details see the press release from University of the Witwatersrand and coverage in Motherboard, both of which include a 2:45 minute video. –Matthew] Are You Ready To Have Your Brain Connected To The Internet? September 24, 2017 David DiSalvo, Contributor (Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own) By now we’re all familiar with the “Internet of Things” and have…