[As this story from Road to VR notes, the makers of the new four-part “Sense of Presence” video series take an optimistic view on VR and presence so it’s not the complete picture, but the short segments (only the final one is over 5 minutes) feature interesting “commentary from the leadership of Oculus, NVIDIA, Weta Digital, Oculus Story Studio, Three One Zero, Magnopus and MatterVR, to name a few”; watch all four parts on Epic’s Unreal Engine blog. -Matthew] 4th Part of Epic’s ‘Sense of Presence’ VR Doc Focuses on the ‘Future of VR’ By Paul James – Oct 28,…

[As Matt Jones and I have argued, the topic of presence and sexuality raises complex but important issues; this story is from TechRepublic. –Matthew] Academic conference on ‘Love and Sex with Robots’ abruptly cancelled after being declared illegal Malaysian authorities deemed the second annual Love and Sex with Robots Conference, slated for November, illegal. TechRepublic talked to co-founder, Adrian David Cheok, for the story. By Hope Reese | October 21, 2015 TechRepublic has written a lot about the introduction of robots and artificial intelligence in the workplace. But while many of these issues revolve around whether or not robots will…

[Another provocative set of predictions about the future of presence and sexuality; the story is from The Daily Dot and includes two other images. See the related second post today. –Matthew] [Image: Yahoo! News] By 2050, we’ll all be having sex with robots By Dylan Love Oct 2, 2015 If you’re not having sex with a robot by 2050, you might be the minority. With VR porn and connected sex on the rise, theorists and ethicists are weighing in on the near-future implications of high-tech human sexuality. A paper titled “The Rise of the Robosexuals,” co-created by futurist Ian Pearson…

[This is an inspiring story from People about the ability of new 3D printing technology to create presence experiences for the blind (see the quote in the second paragraph); the story includes more images and a 4:27 minute video, and see the 3D Photoworks website for more information and a series of videos. And see the website for Sonic Paintings for a complimentary technology. –Matthew] 3D Creations Allow the Blind to Experience the World’s Greatest Artworks in a New Way By Cathy Free 10/26/2015 As he traced his fingers across a copy of the painting, “George Washington Crossing the Delaware,”…

[This invention produces presence as transportation into a social actor; the story from MIT Technology Review includes another picture and a 30 second video (the last image of which reads “Telepresence – Bear; Coming Soon”). -Matthew] [Image: You take control of this bear by donning a virtual reality headset to see through its eyes and control its head.] Inhabit This Teddy Bear’s Body Using Virtual Reality Japanese startup Adawarp thinks teleporting inside the body of a robotic stuffed animal could be a good way to keep in touch with loved ones. By Signe Brewster on October 26, 2015 Companies inventing…

[Presence experiences don’t have to involve experiencing the world as yourself or even another human; check out the 1:57 minute video and the other screenshots in this story from The Creators Project blog. –Matthew] Finally, Virtual Reality Lets You Become a Mystical Forest Creature By Kevin Holmes Sep 22 2015 In previous eras if you wanted to experience the world through the eyes of an animal you’d have to be some kind of next level shaman, but now we have virtual reality. In the Eyes of the Animal, the latest project from Marshmallow Laser Feast—Robin McNicholas, Barney Steel, and Adam…

[Here’s another interesting application of VR and presence; as so often happens, this story from The Los Angeles Times includes many descriptions of presence but not the term itself. -Matthew] [Image: Neal Taylor watches and listens a Los Angeles Philharmonic performance via a virtual reality headset in the orchestra’s Van Beethoven. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)] L.A. Philharmonic’s Van Beethoven takes virtual reality for a classical spin September 24, 2015 David Ng Can the technology that set the video gaming world abuzz create classical music fanboys and girls? The Los Angeles Philharmonic has launched a virtual reality project in…