Watch the 1:04 minute demonstration video via the link in this short press release from Extend Robotics Ltd. via PR Newswire to see R:O:B:, a new teleoperated bartender robot that features “real-time, immersive and intuitive control using the latest VR technologies, highly realistic human-like dexterity and reachability to six degrees of freedom (DoF).” –Matthew] [Image: Source: Extend Robotics on Twitter] British firm, Extend Robotics Ltd., launches “R:O:B:” – a Virtual Reality-controlled ‘robotically optimised bartender’ Extend Robotics announces successful trial of VR remote-controlled robot with application in services, healthcare, utilities and energy November 25, 2020 READING, England, Nov. 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/…

[Using measures of physiological and behavioral responses to a series of experiences inside virtual reality, researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne (EPFL) have developed an objective measure that predicts people’s susceptibility to the damaging impacts of stress. This story from EPFL describes the project; the original version includes three different images and a 2:47 minute video (also available via YouTube). See the article in Nature Communications for more details. –Matthew] [Image: Elevated alley VR scenario. Source: EPFL via Newswise] Virtual reality helps measure vulnerability to stress Behavioral scientists at EPFL have developed a virtual reality test that assesses a…

[The Tribune report below describes an effect of the limitations in presence provided by video conferencing systems including Zoom. Coverage in health24 adds these details: “Dr Benjamin Marcus, an author of another study that investigated self-observation, self-criticism and narcissism commented on the results of the study: ‘The Covid-19 pandemic has radically changed the frequency with which we are confronted with our own image. The shift to online work, learning, and even socialising has dramatically increased the time we have to observe ourselves.’ […] The phenomenon of Zoom Dysmorphia has been developing for a while. In an Allure article, which looked…

[This essay from American City & County by the CEO and founder of a company that makes them, describes how presence-evoking simulators are evolving to better prepare law enforcement for the challenges of their job, including the insidious role of biases regarding members of the public. –Matthew] How virtual reality simulators are changing law enforcement training By Bob Ferris, VirTra 28th October 2020 There’s a pressing need for improvements in effective police training. Officers need to hone their skills for managing crisis situations and de-escalating dangerous encounters. Repeatable and accurate training is required to build their resiliency to stress and…

[As reported by Pain News Network (PNN), a treatment that uses virtual reality (and apparently presence) to treat chronic pain has received “Breakthrough Device Designation” from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The beginning of the PNN report below is followed by an earlier first-person review of the AppliedVR device. For more information see a press release about the FDA designation via Business Wire, a three-minute video in the original PNN review (and YouTube), and the AppliedVR website. –Matthew] [Image: Screenshot of AppliedVR Pain Care virtual reality content that visualizes the user’s breath. Source: “Self-Administered Skills-Based Virtual Reality Intervention…

[This thoughtful, link-filled essay from Forbes considers the complicated swirl of issues surrounding the use and effects of virtual influencers and fictional digital characters more generally. See the original version for four more images. –Matthew] [Image: She’s in on it. Credit: Lil Miquela via Instagram] The Problematic Fakery Of Lil Miquela Explained—An Exploration Of Virtual Influencers and Realness Matt Klein, Contributor, “Studying culture and the interplay of our technology and psychology” November 17, 2020 Just as robots replaced the factory workers, and the drive-through workers were outsourced to India, those employed to yacht the world, drink fat-burning smoothies and just…

[The press release below from Toyohashi University of Technology via EurekAlert! describes an interesting new study of human behavior while sharing control of an avatar. The original version includes a second image and a 32 second video; the full paper is available from iScience and includes a 1:40 minute version of the same video. –Matthew] [Image: Movements of two participants were averaged into a shared avatar. The participants observed the shard avatar in a head-mounted display as their own body. When they reached for a target using the avatar’s hand, the avatar’s movement was observed as straighter and less jerky…

[An NSF funded interdisciplinary project is using presence to help people better understand the impacts of climate change by simulating the experience of walking through a forest at different points in time. See the original story from Penn State University for two short videos (also available from YouTube here and here). Science Times adds this: “Aside from forests, which are Earth’s natural carbon sinks, the model can also be used to create other global-warming related events such as bushfires, floods, droughts, melting glaciers, and loss of biodiversity. Another goal would be to communicate how the Earth has evolved not only…

[Cornell University reports on a new method of adding haptics to presence experiences, both in virtual and augmented reality and for teleoperated robots. See the original story for a second picture and a one-minute video (also available via YouTube). For a different approach to haptics involving “wrist-worn hammers” by Microsoft Research see a recent story from Gizmodo. –Matthew] [Image: Cornell researchers in the Organic Robotics Lab designed a 3D-printed glove lined with stretchable fiber-optic sensors that use light to detect a range of deformations in real time.] Stretchable sensor gives robots and VR a human touch By David Nutt November…

[The project described in this story from the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California is designed to evoke presence and accomplish timely broader goals; note especially the last four paragraphs. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Courtesy of Sabina Zonno] Virtual reality takes users back to a 15th-century community of religious women USC Dornsife’s Sabina Zonno and Lynn Dodd receive a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to develop an immersive experience around a Renaissance-era manuscript. By Meredith McGroarty November 10, 2020 When you first pick up the 15th-century book of hours, it may feel heavy.…

[Much of this report from VRScout uses text from media artist Elyne Legarnisson to describe her award-winning work (un)Balanced, which apparently produces a very vivid and thought-provoking presence experience. The original story includes several more pictures and a 2:02 minute “teaser” video; for more about the artist and this work you can watch the 2020 Lumen XR Award Programme at the Lumen Prize website (go to 22:13 for a description of the award and 24:43 for the presentation). There’s even more information including a 4:47 minute “making of” video and many more images on Elyne Legarnisson’s website and a detailed…

[The Guardian reports on the advancing ability of technology to create deepfake simulations of ‘original’ music from particular genres and by particular artists, technology that has reached the eeriness of the uncanny valley. The story considers some of the implications and larger questions raised by the technology. The original version includes a second picture and an audio example; more information and many more examples are available on the OpenAI Jukebox website. –Matthew] [Image: A ghost in the machine? … Frank Sinatra. Credit: Guardian Design/Getty Images] ‘It’s the screams of the damned!’ The eerie AI world of deepfake music Artificial intelligence…