[This story from WKYC reports on efforts to use virtual reality and presence in the training of classroom teachers; the original version includes a 1:52 minute video news report. For more information see the Kent State website, which features a 2:44 minute video about the Extended Reality Initiative. Kent State also has a story about an NEH-funded project that will use augmented reality to commemorate the tragic events of May 4, 1970. –Matthew] Training future teachers with virtual reality The National Science Foundation has awarded Kent State’s team of researchers a three-year grant for $1.48 million. By Amani Abraham February…

[The loss of life is the biggest tragedy of course, but this story from Smithsonian Magazine describes an important application of presence-evoking technologies to bring awareness to the loss of monuments and other cultural heritage structures in ancient cities destroyed in “political and military upheaval.” See the original story for seven more images and a wider version of the image below. –Matthew] [Image: The exhibition presents the possibility that 3-D models (above: a digital rendering of Aleppo following the 2012 civil war in Syria), and the information extracted from them can be used for future restoration projects. Credit: Arab World…

[I’m always looking for interesting new applications of presence to share here, and this one definitely qualifies (plus it involves my undergraduate alma mater). The story is from the University of California, Riverside’s Inside UCR and is followed by more details from the website of Groove Jones, the creator of the Virtual TasteTrek Citrus experience. The Givaudan website includes even more information and features a 2:31 minute promotional video and a 3:47 minute 360 degree interactive video (also available via YouTube here and here). –Matthew] Givaudan brings its Virtual Taste Trek to Riverside Virtual reality goggles and scent tubes recreate…

[The story below from The New York Times explores how some of today’s technologies provide a strong sense of social connection for people in quarantine due to the Coronovirus; see the original version for more images and a sidebar about the virus. For more on the value of presence-evoking technologies as the virus spreads, see these stories: Chinese property firms bank on virtual reality as virus fears hit market (Reuters) How to protect hospital assistants from coronavirus? Use robots (ThePrint) The Coronavirus Has Bigger Implications Than [now-cancelled Mobile World Congress] (Forbes) 4 Pragmatic Ways Immersive Healthcare Can Help Alleviate The…

[This short piece from TimeOut Tokyo provides information about a touring exhibition that uses floor-to-ceiling projections and corresponding sounds to immerse visitors in the paintings of Claude Monet and other Impressionists. See the original version for four different images. For more information see the website for the Florence version of the exhibition and the 3:15 minute Monet Experience Official Trailer via YouTube, and the website for the current version of the exhibition in Brussels and a 4:15 minute video visit. A 2018 post in ISPR Presence News describes an immersive VR exploration of Monet’s ‘Water Lilies.’ –Matthew] [Image: Screenshot graphic…

[Raising questions about the nature (and potentially the ethics) of children’s presence experiences, a new product for young children utilizes Alexa in the ‘pretend’ play, as reported in this story from CNET. See the original version for a second image, a 0:40 minute promotional video and a 6:03 minute first-look video from the New York Toy Fair. –Matthew] [Image: KidKraft makes the Alexa 2-in-1 Kitchen and Market, a $300 play set that interacts with the Amazon Alexa voice assistant (Echo not included). Credit: KidKraft.] The first Alexa toy is a $300 kitchen for kids, packed with dad jokes We check…

[mHealthIntelligence reports on a new effort to expand the use of virtual reality and presence to medical treatment at home. For more information see coverage in VRWorldTech Magazine: Issue 2, XRHealth videos on YouTube, and a related second mHealthIntelligence story. –Matthew] [Image: Graphic screenshot from XRHealth – Smarter Tools for Smarter Recoveries video via YouTube.] New Clinics Use Telehealth to Bring VR Treatments to the Patient’s Home This March, payers and care providers in eight states and the District of Columbia will be able to prescribe VR therapy through a telehealth clinic, giving patients the chance to receive treatment at…

[Wired reports on Projekt Melody, a new multi-platform interactive cartoon character designed to evoke social presence and at least partially succeeding (with echoes of the film Her in the second-to-last paragraph). For other features regarding presence and sexuality, see a different Wired story about Henry, a new AI-enabled male sex doll from RealBotix; a 23:37 minute Think About This podcast discussion titled “Is Sex With A Robot Cheating?”; a 7:28 minute discussion about sex robots from WSAU Wisconsin Morning News; and a humorous but thought-provoking 6:14 minute video segment about “Robosexuals” from HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher via YouTube.…

[An interdisciplinary application of presence in a program at County College of Morris in New Jersey is described in this story from the College. The original includes a second picture and a February 19, 2020 3:10 minute video news report is available from NJTV News. –Matthew] CCM Virtual Reality Program Provides Students with Real-World Training Developing Forensic Science Investigation Skills in Simulated Settings December 13, 2019 Students enrolled in a Forensic Science or Investigative Function class at County College of Morris (CCM) recently were engaged in a crime scene as close to real-world as they could get through a capstone…

[This story from 9to5Google provides a quick summary of a major step in the evolution of chatbots and their ability to evoke presence. See the original version, or the more detailed Google AI blog post it reports on, for more details; for two evaluations of what the development means see coverage in ZDNet and VentureBeat. –Matthew] Google working on human-like chatbots that contextually respond to anything Abner Li January 28, 2020 Chatbots were all the craze last decade, and they’re now commonly found when interacting with support lines. Today, conversational agents are a bit limited, and Google is working towards…

[This story from TechCrunch describes a new media format that puts users’ personalized avatars into short animated stories. See the original version of the story for five different pictures and a 1:32 minute video. For more information, see an interview with the Bitmoji co-founder and CEO in Women Love Tech, which includes this presence-related quote: “While this began with a very specific focus on comics, over time the way people were communicating – and even existing – via their phones was evolving. More and more we were talking in text, more and more we were seeing our friends through our…

[In a recent (February 2020) post here about virtual reality and accessibility I was struck by this comment: “[A] woman I interviewed told me that after struggling for years with gender dysphoria, the experience of putting on a headset and inhabiting not just another place, but another body of a sort, led instead to a sense of ‘gender euphoria.’ It was, paradoxically, the first time she said she had really felt like herself. Toward the end of our conversation, she mentioned that a lot of her peers seemed to choose different genders and races for their virtual avatars, surmising that…