[From Interesting Engineering, where the story includes many more images] CoeLux brings sunlight to rooms without windows June 14th, 2014 by Allison Blackburn Everyone knows that if experienced responsibly, sunlight is good for you, but in some cases people don’t get enough. For instance, this could be those who work in rooms that are windowless or people who live in the north during winter. A lack of sunlight has been attributed to a condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder. One way of overcoming the winter blues as it is more commonly known is through light therapy. However the lamps on the…

[From CNBC, where the story includes more pictures and two videos; the press release is available from Lowe’s] Lowe’s 3-D room makes remodeling a (virtual) reality Krystina Gustafson Wednesday, 11 Jun 2014 It’s a question retailers everywhere are grappling with—how do they get shoppers to turn off their computers and step back into the store? Lowe’s thinks it may have found the answer: Give them something they can’t get online. The second-largest home improvement store announced on Wednesday that it will transform the in-store experience by building a 30-by-30 virtual reality room that enables customers to view a 3-D representation…

[Here are three examples of presence, not by name of course, in popular culture: First, a demonstration of Sony’s Project Morpheus on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon from Road to VR, where you can watch the 4:34 minute video.] News Bits: Sony’s Project Morpheus Goes Prime Time with Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show June 8, 2014 by Paul James The mainstream media are slowly warning up to the advent of virtual reality, or at the very least that demonstrating new and exciting ways to play games pulls viewers of the demographics they’re interested in. Now Sony’s Project Morpheus,…

[From CBS News; a 4:13 minute video report is available here] Is “digital cloning” the future of movie making? CBS News – June 2, 2014 “Maleficent,” the story of a winged fairy turning into a wicked sorceress, brought in $70 million this weekend. The film’s special effects are state of the art. When the tiny fairies fly, you see “pixie-perfect” human faces on them. What was once filmed on a sound stage, is now shot on a “light stage,” reports CBS News’ Carter Evans. The surreal laboratory is the brainchild of Paul Debevec who heads up the University of Southern…

[From The Verge, where the story includes two images and a 9:17 minute video] Control VR gloves warp your fingers into virtual worlds $350 device tracks your arms and hands with military-designed sensors By Rich McCormick on June 5, 2014 New technologies such as Google Glass and Oculus’ Rift headset are making it easier than ever for us to get our heads into augmented and virtual realities. But while we get our heads into these alternate worlds and use our eyes to check our emails, surf the internet, even destroy enemy starfighters with a spiral of missiles, our hands are…

[From The Creators Project, where the post includes several more pictures and two videos] Enter An Alternate Sensory Reality With Max Cooper’s 4D Sound Show By DJ Pangburn — Jun 5 2014 When people talk about alternate reality, the typically describes a psychedelic experience or a science fictional world—an experience that produces something outside normal reality. The conceptualization is usually visual, perhaps because humans process visual cues much more quickly and accurately than sounds. But, a new 4D sound system is letting electronic music producer Max Cooper bring the concept of alternate reality to the world of audio, which for…

[From PC World, where the story includes other pictures; much more information is available from SoftBank; a 0:46 minute video is available on YouTube] Meet Pepper, the ‘love-powered’ humanoid robot that knows how you’re feeling Tim Hornyak Jun 5, 2014 If the thought of a humanoid robot in your home makes your skin crawl, meet the friendly Pepper. Pepper is a cute, wisecracking personal robot designed to bring joy to everyone, and Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank wants people to start buying it next year for the price of a high-end PC. The phone giant unveiled the autonomous, sophisticated machine on…