[This short story from Adweek describes a clever new use of augmented reality to evoke presence; see the original for the 1:04 minute video, and coverage in designboom for more information, the video and several more images. –Matthew]

W+K Amsterdam’s AR App Can Turn a Vinyl Record Into a Mind-Bending Lava Lamp

Agency launches LAVA platform with 11-track album

By David Griner
August 2, 2018

One of the most fascinating tech demos I saw at this year’s Cannes Lions was unfortunately also one I wasn’t allowed to talk about—until today. Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam has launched an augmented-reality platform that blends art and music, creating 3-D animations that hover over a vinyl record and correspond with the specific track that’s playing.

To roll out the platform, the agency partnered with Amsterdam musician Necessary Explosion on his 11-track debut album, SOS. Listeners who download the Necessary Explosion iOS app can watch what W+K describes as “psychedelic AR sculptures that accompany the soulful, ’70s vibe of each song.”

No vinyl record? No problem, you can still watch the animations while listening to the album on Spotify or Apple Music.

You can watch a sample of the AR experience [in the original story or on Vimeo].

What’s hard to convey in such footage is the ability, when used in real life, to move around the player and view the animations from multiple angles. I even pressed the phone into the 3-D creations to see what’s inside, revealing layers of the animation you won’t see from a distance.

LAVA was created by W+K Amsterdam’s Department of New Realities innovation hub in partnership with W+K Portland’s Lodge creative technology group.

The Wieden team worked closely with the musical artist to create animations based on his creative interpretation of each song, and they note that future projects will be stylistically unique to each musician who uses the platform. Read more on AR app platform LAVA turns vinyl records into 3D ‘music you can see’…

[This is an encouraging story about people using technology to create presence experiences that bring people together. It’s from Crosscut, where the original includes a second image and a 2:17 minute video. –Matthew]

[Image: The “Machine to be Another” virtual reality environment creates experiences in which you can embody someone else. On the left, a participant is immersed in the first-person story being told in the video as a facilitator gently mimics the motions happening on screen. On the right, the video as seen through a VR headset. Credit: Still image from video by Aileen Imperial/KCTS 9)]

Can virtual reality transform your reality?

A new experience goes beyond the headset to bridge connections and build empathy.

by Brangien Davis
August 16, 2018
Video by Aileen Imperial

Standing in the busy railway station in Utrecht, Netherlands, I feel a billow of air whoosh across my face with each arriving train. I see people pour off the platform and into the corridor; they make quick eye contact with me and walk past. All around, I hear the cacophony of mass transportation. And inside my head, a voice: “I work here in Amsterdam with two other trans guys — we’re called the transketeers.” Two young men walk up to me, smiling warmly. One gives my arm a gentle squeeze and the physical sensation makes me feel grounded, among friends.

Except this isn’t me and I’m not here. I’m in someone else’s body.

This body- and border-crossing moment comes courtesy of The Machine to Be Another, a sci-fi sounding virtual reality (VR) experience developed by an international collective called the Be Another Lab. The group’s focus is on creating empathy-driven experiences that “bridge cultures and promote mutual understanding.”

By combining high-tech VR with low-tech physical interactions (in the above example, a facilitator waved a clipboard back and forth to create the “air” from the trains, and clasped my arm at the same moment as the transketeer in the headset video), the Be Another Lab creates so called “embodied narratives” — academic lingo for stories you feel in your body.

The Lab is compiling first-person day-in-the-life stories from all over the world, and transforming them into embodied narratives for a project called the Library of Ourselves. The idea is that by using The Machine to Be Another, people will be able to “check out” stories and get a full-body, tangible sense of another way of life. Read more on Be Another Lab uses VR and presence to bridge cultures and promote mutual understanding…

[In this story from Brit + Co the author reports on her experience using an Oculus Go meditation program; as you’d expect, spatial presence and presence as transportation and immersion play important roles. –Matthew]

Why Virtual Reality Is a Game-Changer for My Meditation Practice

Sarah Garone
Aug 15, 2018

Virtual reality is cropping up everywhere, so it only makes sense that this immersive technology would eventually make a foray into meditation. But what’s it like to meditate with more than just your own consciousness to help you along? Is VR-assisted meditation distracting? Strange? Peaceful? When the folks at Oculus Go offered to let me try out the Guided Meditation app on their VR headset, I had the chance to find out.

Upon first learning about this app, I was a bit skeptical about how I would like it. In my previous experiences with virtual reality, I’ve basically been the person you see in embarrassing YouTube videos groping the air in front of them blindly and screaming in terror on imaginary roller coasters. Plus, I’m more than a little bit claustrophobic, so I harbored some concerns that I might want to rip the device off my head before I even got started.

But I did it anyway, fueled by the belief that new experiences are good for me. Perhaps this app could serve as an interesting avenue for stress relief, I thought, or a helpful tool for overcoming some of the challenges I face in meditation. Here’s what happened… Read more on First-person report: Why VR is a game-changer for my meditation practice…

[In a very positive application of presence, virtual reality is being used to provide caregivers and family members a first-person experience of what it’s like to have Alzheimer’s disease, as reported in this story from the Chicago Tribune. See also the 2013 ISPR Presence News post “Virtual dementia experience for aged care workers.” –Matthew]

[Image: Ann Brennan, director of volunteer services for Chicago Methodist Senior Services, puts a virtual reality headset on Amber Davis at Hartwell Place in Andersonville, as she prepares to go through a lab designed to help caregivers understand how it feels to live with dementia. Credit: Kristan Lieb / For the Chicago Tribune.]

What does it feel like to have Alzheimer’s? Virtual reality programs may help you find out

Lisa Schencker, Chicago Tribune
August 14, 2018

After experiencing the world as a woman with Alzheimer’s disease, Ana Lebron took off her virtual reality headset and began to cry.

She couldn’t pinpoint which part of the experience left her in tears. After all, she works with Alzheimer’s patients every day as an activities coordinator at assisted living facility Hartwell Place in Andersonville.

But when she put on that headset and tried to navigate a virtual grocery store, the lights were overpowering, and the food labels were fuzzy. When people spoke to her, their words were distorted. Her virtual family members shot her frustrated glances before they understood why she kept forgetting holidays, faces and how to cook.

“This brings it home even more,” Lebron, said of the experience.

With 5.7 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s, care facilities and schools are continuously searching for ways to better train caregivers. In recent years, some schools and facilities have turned to a new approach: virtual reality. By putting on a headset, caregivers and others can experience life through the eyes and ears of an individual with Alzheimer’s, even hearing that person’s thoughts. Read more on VR and presence help caregivers, family members understand what it’s like to have Alzheimer’s…

[This story from the University of Auckland describes a variety of innovative uses of virtual reality and presence in teaching students about property and construction. –Matthew]

VR takes property students new places

13 August 2018

Virtual reality (VR) field trips are now being used to teach students about construction and leaky homes at the University of Auckland Business School, as the technology revolutionizes imaging in the property industry.

From this month, Bachelor of Property students in the stage one course “Introduction to Property” are being given Google Cardboard headsets – a low-cost virtual reality headset that resembles a cardboard Viewfinder from the 1980s, with a place to insert a smartphone. When photos and videos are captured on a special 360 degree camera and played on a smartphone, they appear in 3D, creating an immersive experience.

As part of their coursework, students will take a virtual tour of the construction site at Parnell Terraces, a former leaky building in Auckland which is being remediated. Through VR, students will also explore the hidden working organs of the home of the Business School, the Sir Owen G Glenn Building, including the heating and cooling equipment on the roof and plant rooms in the basement.

Senior Lecturer Dr Michael Rehm, who drove the VR initiative, says: “VR will enable students to virtually experience field trips to active construction sites and other high-risk, complex environments that would be impractical to visit in-person. VR is the next best thing to being there. And they can do it from wherever – their home, a café.” Read more on VR takes University of Auckland property students new places…

[When virtual objects and characters are seamlessly overlaid on ‘reality’ a presence illusion is (or at least can be) created. This story from Next Reality describes a new indoor AR system developed by Blippa that has a variety of interesting applications; see the original version of the story, or the Blippar announcement, for more information, pictures and a 2:33 minute demonstration video. Following the story below is an excerpt of coverage by TechCrunch that suggests additional, potentially worrisome, applications of the new system including advertising and monitoring of user movements. –Matthew]

Blippar Brings Its AR Navigation Capabilities Indoors

By Tommy Palladino
August 9, 2018

Computer vision company Blippar has already dabbled with outdoor AR navigation, but now it wants to make it easier for people to make their way through indoor spaces with augmented reality.

On Thursday, the company introduced its Indoor Visual Positioning platform for AR navigation. Using visual landmarks, Indoor Visual Positioning orients users’ locations and guides them to specific destinations or draws their attention to other points of interest.

The platform works similarly to the company’s Visual Positioning System, which is used for outdoor navigation, as showcased in its AR City app.

“Since launching AR City, which is in part powered by our urban visual positioning system, we received a lot of interest in applying this technology indoors,” said Ambarish Mitra, co-founder and CEO of Blippar, in a statement. “I am very proud of what the team has achieved with our indoor visual positioning system. It is another step towards realizing the transformational potential of augmented reality and computer vision and showcases more useful ways these technologies will improve our day-to-day lives.” Read more on Blippar brings its AR navigation capabilities (and presence) indoors…

[Brian Stelter, senior media correspondent and host of CNN’s weekly “Reliable Sources” program, has written what I think is an excellent analysis of how Donald Trump continues to upend politics (I would argue dangerously). Note the allusions to elements of presence phenomena in these quotes from his story below:

Read more on Trump and presence: Transmedia story-telling that lets supporters participate in alternative reality…

[Many of the features of a newly revealed Apple patent filing use augmented reality in interesting ways to evoke presence in vehicles. This story is from WTOC, followed below by excerpts from coverage by Mashable and The Drive.  –Matthew]

[Image: Source: Patently Apple]

Apple patent raises possibility of a future with iWindshields

August 8th 2018
By Jonathan Raymond

(RNN) – Could the next great Apple innovation be the iWindshield?

The World Intellectual Property Organization, a patent agency for the United Nations, published an application last week that was submitted by Apple in 2016 for an “augmented reality display system” for vehicles.

The system would essentially be an interface layered over a windshield, displaying things such as speed or a route. The patent filing also describes the system being able to identify or interact with “environmental objects” such as a sign or other cars.

Such a windshield interface is typically called a “heads up display.” Some rudimentary versions that project information onto a windshield have already been produced.

Apple’s patent, however, describes a fully integrated “smart” windshield, which could even “enable video communication with a remotely-located user.” FaceTime on your windshield, in plain speak.

(Most likely while a future self-driving car allows you to safely be distracted in such a way.)

The patent was first reported on by the website Patently Apple. Read more on Apple patent would add augmented reality to car windshields…

[A glass-bottom plane might provide too intense an experience for many, but the “VR Moving Map” feature described in this story from #GNTECH (where the original includes a 2:14 minute video) might be a viable substitute. For much more information see a 2017 report in ClickZ (or VRrOOm), which includes another image and two more videos. –Matthew]

Lufthansa passengers experience VR on the way to Dubai

By Daanesh Kalyaniwalla
August 5, 2018

Lufthansa passengers flying from Frankfurt to Dubai on flight LH630 were in for a surprise on their way here. They were the first to experience the airline’s new prototype “VR Moving Map”, while on board the Airbus A330.

Lufthansa VR – What is it?

Passengers wearing special Lufthansa VR glasses were able to view the moving landscape below them as a 3D map and even take part in 360° virtual excursions.

For example, as the aircraft flew over Vienna, some passengers virtually rode the Prater Ferris Wheel or even had the chance to virtually attend one of the city’s famous classical concerts.

Lufthansa VR – Development

The prototype was developed by Lufthansa in cooperation with 3spin, Lufthansa’s lead agency for virtual and augmented reality. Read more on Lufthansa tests “VR Moving Map” experience on the way to Dubai…

[This widely published AP story is important for many reasons, including its illustration of how both the creation and experience of presence can be valuable. This copy is from The Independent, where it includes a 1:18 minute video; the image is one of eight available from AP. –Matthew]

Japanese students produce virtual reality experience of Hiroshima

By transporting users back in time to moment when city was turned into wasteland, group hopes to ensure something similar never happens again

Haruka Nuga
August 6, 2018

FUKUYAMA, Japan (AP) — It’s a sunny summer morning in the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Cicadas chirp in the trees. A lone plane flies high overhead. Then a flash of light, followed by a loud blast. Buildings are flattened and smoke rises from crackling fires under a darkened sky.

Over two years, a group of Japanese high school students has been painstakingly producing a five-minute virtual reality experience that recreates the sights and sounds of Hiroshima before, during and after the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city 73 years ago Monday.

By transporting users back in time to the moment when a city was turned into a wasteland, the students and their teacher hope to ensure that something similar never happens again. Read more on Japanese students produce virtual reality experience of Hiroshima…