[A new study has demonstrated mostly positive effects of using virtual reality to simulate a near death experience. Details are in this story from Texas A&M University (also available from Medical Xpress). See also related ISPR Presence News posts from October 2022 and August 2017. –Matthew] [Image: Top left: Out-of-Body Experience, top right: Lights and Dark Tunnel, bottom left: Peaceful Landscape, bottom right: Encountering Friends and Family. Credit: Frontiers in Virtual Reality (2025). DOI: 10.3389/frvir.2025.1644131. Source: Medical Xpress] Texas A&M University researchers use virtual reality to reduce anxiety about death Pilot study finds immersive VR experience can significantly lower fear of death…

[A new study demonstrates the positive impact of using presence-evoking virtual reality to provide users with the experience of others, in this case providing men with the experience of being a woman subject to verbal harassment. The story below is from Phys.org, where it includes two more images (the story is also available via the University of Bologna’s Unibo Magazine). See a May 2025 ISPR Presence News post for an earlier report on the project and its application in a public information campaign.  –Matthew] [Image: In the first scene, the female avatar was in her bedroom, standing in front of…

[This story and interview from the Kyiv Post describes how Russia’s war on Ukraine motivated a Ukrainian startup company to develop a rehabilitation device that uses presence-evoking virtual reality to treat the many patients suffering with phantom limb pain after amputations. See the original story for four more pictures, and the VRNOW Lab website for more information. –Matthew] [Image: A patient undergoes virtual reality-based rehabilitation using VRNOW Lab’s system to treat phantom limb pain following amputation. Credit: Photo by VRNOW Lab] Ukrainian MedTech Startup Deploys VR System to Treat Phantom Limb Pain Kyiv Post interviews founder of Ukrainian startup VRNOW,…

[The story below describes (and links to more resources about) five ways presence-evoking virtual reality can “help build future-proof farms and safeguard our food supply for a growing population.” It’s an “advertisement feature” published on the BBC Science Focus website with EIT Food, specifically the EIT Food Future Farm Lab. EIT Food is a “knowledge and innovation community dedicated to making our food system more sustainable”; EIT stands for the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, which is a body of the European Union. See the original version of the story for five more images. –Matthew] Virtual reality farming is…

[This story from Social Media Today highlights recent AI bot products from Google, YouTube and Meta that take us one step closer to interacting not with each other but with each other’s artificially intelligent agent. I’d argue that social media platforms (at least how they’re generally used) already degrades “real connection,” but as the author suggests, the worry is that even when it evokes some sense of social presence, “replacing real humans with robots, in a format that simulates that engagement, seems like a step back.” –Matthew] YouTube Introduces AI Chatbots Based on Popular Creators By Andrew HutchinsonDecember 16, 2025…

[Although it highlights only a particular platform, this article from FindArticles provides an interesting perspective on the evolution of communication media and specifically AI companions (note use of the term presence in the first paragraph). See also a story titled “Feeling Lonely? An Attentive Listener Is an AI Prompt Away” from the Harvard Business School. –Matthew] Can AI Companions Redefine How We Connect? By Kathlyn JacobsonDecember 20, 2025 By 2025 the intersection of artificial intelligence and emotion has moved from niche curiosity to cultural phenomenon. What began as simple chatbots responding to commands has evolved into a new market built…

[It’ll be expensive, but a device called Escents that adds smells to the presence experiences provided by virtual and augmented reality is now available for pre-order, with delivery early next year. Details, including some of the applications suggested by the creators. are in the story from Heise below. More context is available in the August 2023 ISPR Presence News post titled “UK startup Scentient will help you smell your way out of the uncanny valley,” the Scentient website, and an 8:12 minute 2024 video report from Great Big Story on YouTube. –Matthew] Smelling for more immersion: “Escents” brings scents into…

[This story from Penn State University provides another example of how presence is being usefully applied across diverse topic areas. See the original story for 11 more pictures, a 40 second video of the VRmirova environment, and a 1:30 minute video report (also on YouTube here and here). –Matthew] Bird researchers use virtual reality to bring fieldwork experience to classroom By Marina NaumovaDecember 16, 2025 UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A flutter of blue and yellow darts through a field in late May. Trees, shrubs and summer flowers fill the landscape. A blue-winged warbler is just within reach, with one swift…

[This story from Dance Magazine describes how “a growing number of dance artists and companies are exploring—and, in some cases, redefining—what [virtual reality] can do.” Note the many indirect references to presence and see the original version of the story for 12 more vivid pictures. For more details, see the Kinetic Light website. –Matthew] [Image: Laurel Lawson and Alice Sheppard during the territory filming process. Credit: Photo by Cherylynn Tsushima, Courtesy Kinetic Light.] The Intersections of Dance and Virtual Reality By Sophie BressNovember 21, 2025 Kinetic Light’s territory, which premiered this summer, uses technology to place each audience member right…

[Note the many indirect references to the nature and benefits of presence experiences in this CBC News story about an immersive VR tool that makes users part of the world of Shakespeare’s plays. See the original version of the story for a second image and 4:43 minute video. For more on Shakespeare and presence, see ISPR Presence News posts from February 4, 2019, February 9, 2021, February 16, 2021, and February 8, 2023. –Matthew] [Image: “Stepping Inside Shakespeare,” won the University of Guelph’s 2025 Innovation of the Year Award for its creative approach to education. Co-designed by Dr.…

[In this guest article in Road to VR, an expert developer and programmer of VR games describes, and provides examples of, some of the many “high-level” ways game designers avoid breaking presence for players. See the original version of the article for eight more images and a video. –Matthew] [Image: In Into The Radius, you manage your inventory by pulling items out of a physical backpack rather than an inventory menu] The Seamless Dream: Killing The VR Loading Screen A guest article by Charlie Cochrane, a solo VR dev running Crooks Peak studio. With a background in robotics, programming, and…

[Two professors at the University of California, Santa Barbara have been studying the potential of presence-evoking virtual reality to reduce the social isolation of older adults; their new grant from the National Institutes of Health “takes the next step the researchers have long envisioned: bringing VR into the homes of older adults who are aging in place, particularly for those with dementia.” Details are in the story below from UCSB (the story also appears in the Santa Barbara Independent). For more context, see the November 2024 ISPR Presence News post, “New report examines the impact of virtual reality in senior…