[The Boston Globe reports on the increased use of several types of presence-evoking technology in the medical sphere, driven in part by the pandemic. The focus is on Proximie’s “only as high-tech as it has to be” system that links surgeons to remote operating rooms and is in use at over 300 hospitals in the U.S. –Matthew] [Image: The virtual hand of a remote doctor was able to guide a surgical procedure thanks to Proximie’s software interface. Credit: Proximie] Telesurgery surges to meet pandemic needs. Think of it as Zoom for surgeons By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff March 23, 2021…

[This essay from ARPost summarizes some of the benefits of using virtual reality to visualize, analyze and present complex data; see the original story for three more images and links to related stories. –Matthew] How Virtual Reality Data Visualization Sets a New Standard for Big Data Virtual reality helps users to process large amounts of data, understand and act on multidimensional relationships, and more. Andy Maggio, Founder and General Manager of D6 VR, a subsidiary of The Glimpse Group focused on data analytics and presentation March 25, 2021 We live in an age of enormous data creation. The amount of…

[This story from Road to VR describes progress by the Swiss company CREAL in developing virtual and augmented reality headset technology with not only “near retina resolution” but the ability to adjust depth of field focus as we do in nonmediated experience. The original version of the story includes two more images and the 1:33 minute demonstration video mentioned (which is also available on YouTube). For more information see the company’s website and YouTube channel. –Matthew] New Video Shows Off CREAL’s Latest Foveated Light-field VR Headset By Ben Lang April 8, 2021 CREAL, a company building light-field display technology for…

[Although it doesn’t uses the terminology of presence, this essay from Inside Higher Ed is all about the evolution of technologies designed to evoke medium-as-social-actor presence and how they can be applied in the context of higher education.  –Matthew] [Image: Cecilia Santiago-González, left, assistant vice president for strategic initiatives for student success, left, and communications specialist Zoe Lance are managers of Billy Chat, an artificial intelligence text messaging bot for students at Cal Poly Pomona. Source: “Artificial intelligence meets real friendship: College students are bonding with robots,” Los Angeles Times. Credit: Irfan Khan] Our New Digital Colleagues and Friends By…

[The new augmented reality app CrimeDoor features augmented reality recreations of crime scenes, as reported in this Yahoo! story. A pre-Easter press release from the company via PR Newswire highlights the recreation of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ (and includes a video demonstration): “With billions of people around the world familiar with the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, AR allows app users to finally experience the moment that shaped history, directly in their own space. The innovation of Augmented Reality places the 3D scene in a user’s room, so they can physically walk into the space with a mobile device and…

[While we’re dealing with the difficult day-to-day realities of the pandemic it’s easy to overlook the speed, magnitude and significance of what will be lasting changes in how we live, many of which involve increases in presence. This essay from Chief Executive by the CEO of a technology company captures some of that big picture and what to expect as the world slowly recovers; as the author’s last line notes, “It’s a strange, but exciting, new (virtual) world.”  –Matthew] Three Lessons CEOs Can Learn From The Boom Of Virtual Experiences Our world likely will remain in a hybrid model well…

[This Meidum OneZero interview with author Kate Darling explores several interesting implications of medium-as-social-actor presence evoked by human-like robots, including insights from the history of our views about interacting with animals. –Matthew] How We Treat Animals Will Inform Our Future With Robots Evan Selinger in conversation with Kate Darling from MIT Media Lab By Evan Selinger April 1, 2021 [This is Open Dialogue, an interview series from OneZero about technology and ethics.] A few years ago, I read a fascinating paper by Kate Darling, a research specialist at the MIT Media Lab, that left a lasting impression. In “Extending Legal…

[It sounds counter-intuitive to have humans make the trip to Mars and not land there, but this story from Aerotech News lays out the convincing arguments for using low-latency telepresence to explore that planet and other space destinations; see the original version of the story for two more pictures. –Matthew] [Image: An artists’ impression of a spacecraft over Deimos. Credit: Lockheed Martin] Exploring the solar system through low-latency telepresence By Peter W. Merlin, special to Aerotech News March 18, 2021 Ever since the Apollo astronauts left their footprints on the lunar surface, humans have focused on Mars as the next…

[This story from The Next Web uses new memory research and vivid hypotheticals to explore the potential psychological manipulations enabled by deepfake videos. –Matthew] How Deepfakes could help implant false memories in our minds It’s startlingly easy By Tristan Greene March 31, 2021 The human brain is a complex, miraculous thing. As best we can tell, it’s the epitome of biological evolution. But it doesn’t come with any security software preinstalled. And that makes it ridiculously easy to hack. We like to imagine the human brain as a giant neural network that speaks its own language. When we talk about…

[While the findings aren’t surprising, this straight-forward description of an ambitious longitudinal in-home audience research study with in depth interviews of a diverse cohort of participants nicely illustrates the potentials – both positive and negative – and the limitations of current virtual reality and the presence responses it evokes. See the original story in Immerse for three more images. –Matthew] [Image: Some of the study participants, photographed at the beginning of the study.] “You feel, in that moment, you are sitting next to them!” Exploring audience responses to virtual reality nonfiction in the home By Mandy Rose & David Green…

[The author of this opinion piece in EdSurge argues for the continuation of larger trends in teaching and learning that emphasize experiential learning. For a related story see “Learning to move to experiential models with tech” in The PIE (Professionals in International Education). Some of these issues will also be the focus of discussion at the panel “Hopefully my students are here: How to build effective presence in virtual classroom settings” at the (virtual) Southern States Communication Association (SSCA) conference on April 8 with our colleagues Stephanie Kelly (North Carolina A&T State University), Jihyun Kim (University of Central Florida), David…

[The idea of reproducing part of a university campus in virtual reality isn’t new, but the one in this story from Berkeley News has some interesting characteristics and its creators intend to use it beyond the pandemic. See the original story for two more images and a 1:50 minute demonstration video (also available on YouTube). –Matthew] [Image: Virtual Bauer Wurster’s digital studio desk space will allow students and instructors in the College of Environmental Design to connect and collaborate on projects. Credit: Courtesy of Luisa Caldas] Missing in-person interaction, Berkeley’s design school launches virtual reality building By Ivan Natividad March…