[I’ve often thought it’s amazing that we feel empathy for animated characters and stories; here’s a post from the (excellent) Kottke.org blog about the invention 80 years ago of the multiplane camera and how it helped enable this element of social presence. The original post includes a 7:20 minute video. –Matthew] [Image: Walt Disney, center, with Bob Gibeaut, left, head of the camera department, and Bob Broughton, in front of multiplane camera. Source: Los Angeles Times.] Disney’s multiplane camera, an innovation in illusion posted by Jason Kottke   Jan 05, 2017 In a short film shot in 1957, Walt Disney described…

[According to a recent Parks Associates marketing study, “more than 60% of U.S. broadband households claim to know little or nothing about virtual reality,” but “50% of consumers who try a VR headset enjoy it and make plans to purchase one, while 15% who try one enjoy the experience and then buy a headset.” So the Facebook pop-up ‘stores’ described in the story below from USA Today make sense. The original story includes a 0:27 minute video and more pictures, and coverage in The Denver Post has a list of the cities that are hosting the demos. –Matthew] [Image: Facebook’s…

[This post from The Economist’s Gulliver blog considers the potential isolating effects of telepresence in the context of air travel; for more information about Skylights see the company’s website and coverage in Apex that includes a 4:07 minute video. –Matthew] Flying solo together Virtual-reality headsets on planes mean we can isolate ourselves from irritating cabin-mates Flying is becoming less communal Gulliver Jan 4th 2017 by A.W. In the early days of commercial flight, people would dress up to take to the air and marvel at the fact that they, members of a heretofore land-bound species, were flying through the sky.…

[A next key step in the evolution of VR may be the development of episodic storytelling; this is from CNBC, where the original story includes two related videos. See the PhoenIX VR website for more information and a 2:31 minute teaser video. –Matthew] [Image: The PhoenIX, an animated science-fiction virtual reality series developed by Warrior9.] Episodic virtual reality content could transform consumer entertainment Nyshka Chandran Thursday, 29 Dec 2016 What was television like before episodic narratives? The development of serialized content transformed traditional entertainment media and virtual reality (VR) startups are now hoping it will do the same for their…

[Microsoft has created a fully mobile version of its holoportation technology, vastly reducing the bandwidth necessary to create the social and spatial presence illusion. The original version of this story from NextReality includes videos about Mobile Holoportation and the original incarnation of the technology as well as a 26:50 minute video of a presentation about the project from October’s User Interface and Software Technology (JIST) Symposium; more information and images are also available from Microsoft Research. –Matthew]   Microsoft Research Shows Off Mobile Holoportation Jason Odom November 28, 2016 In recent years, wave after wave of technological advancement has led…

[Aside from the important role of (spatial) presence in this story from USA Today (which includes a 3:04 minute video news report), note the solicitor general’s comment that jury members develop their knowledge and expectations about real-life law and order from their mediated entertainment experiences. –Matthew] Virtual reality could take jurors inside crimes Rebecca Lindstrom, WXIA-TV, Atlanta December 29, 2016 ATLANTA — A Georgia company wants to use body cameras to help jurors experience a crime scene for themselves. Utility Associates, of Decatur, Ga., is a software company that helps public safety, utilities and transit enterprises stay connected. Simon Araya,…