[In the story below Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reports on the use of AI speakers, and the medium-as-social-actor presence they evoke, to relieve the loneliness of seniors; see the original for a second image. Forbes recently reported on a related project in the UK: “Looking to address the challenges of elderly loneliness, Accenture has developed a solution that uses conversational AI to let people capture memorable stories for future generations while providing companionship. Powered by Google Voice Assistant, Memory Lane initiates conversations by asking someone who is lonely to tell their life story. This is then turned into a physical…

[The creators of Nukemap VR “hope to take [the limited] public comprehension [of nuclear weapons] to the next level by enabling people to immerse themselves in a realistic first-person experience].” This well written report on what it’s like to use the simulation and the background of the project is from Business Insider, where it includes 5 more pictures and a 0:42 minute video. –Matthew] [Image: Nukemap VR simulates a nuclear bomb explosion in New York City to educate people about atomic weapons. Credit: Christopher Manzione; Reinventing Civil Defense/Stevens Institute of Technology] I just nuked Manhattan in a realistic new VR…

[This CNBC story describes a new set of presence experiences offered by Apple stores in six cities; see the original version for more pictures. For more information see the Apple press release and a 0:55 minute video via YouTube. –Matthew] Apple took us on a surreal walk through San Francisco, looking at digital art on an iPhone August 13, 2019 Kif Leswing San Francisco looks different through an iPhone XS Max — it’s still a city, but now there are floating balls of fabric, speech bubbles, and words popping out from the trees and buildings. For more than two hours…

[As if the political systems around the world didn’t have enough to worry about, the US Democratic Party recently highlighted the dangers of deepfake videos by creating one and presenting it as if it were a live appearance by their leader. See the original CNN version of the story below for a 2:26 minute video – start at 0:51 for a brief excerpt of the deepfake video itself. –Matthew] The Democratic Party deepfaked its own chairman to highlight 2020 concerns By Donie O’Sullivan August 10, 2019 Las Vegas (CNN Business) – The Democratic National Committee wanted to demonstrate the potential…

[This review of an immersive installation that recreates the experience of a World War I battle describes an intense and emotional presence experience. See the original review in Patch for a different picture, a 1:03 minute trailer and a 7:37 minute ‘making of’ video. For more information see earlier coverage in Variety and Engadget and the War Remains website. –Matthew] Austin-Exclusive ‘War Remains’ Immersive Exhibit Packs A Wallop Dramatic narration by Dan Carlin of popular ‘Hardcore History’ podcast gives voice to emotionally powerful experience. By Tony Cantu, Patch Staff August 10, 2019 AUSTIN, TX — Unless you’ve experienced combat, you’ll…

[An August 9, 2019 report in MIT Technology Review begins, “Meet Barry: his sole purpose in life is to listen patiently, and then protest or sob a little as you fire him from an imaginary job in virtual reality. … He was created by Talespin, a company that offers virtual reality workplace training. Barry and other VR characters were developed to help teach people ‘soft’ management skills—such as how to let someone go without causing a scene. If you are too blunt with Barry, he’ll put his head in his hands; other missteps will cause him to shout and yell.”…

[USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering reports on an interdisciplinary project to use haptic-enabled VR to help Parkinson’s patients retain mobility and avoid falls. See the original story for three more images and the Overcome website for much more information, including a 1:49 minute trailer (also available via YouTube). –Matthew] [Image: This picture shows the experiment setup, which includes (1) a clinical treadmill with (2) body weight support for safety of player, (3) HTC VIVE headset, (4) controllers that are attached to the railings, and (5) the tracker along with the haptic feedback setup. See the original on the Overcome website…

[To really understand the advance in presence-evoking technology described in this short story from Stanford Engineering, watch and listen to the 0:29 second video demonstration in the original story (ideally while wearing headphones) and the two longer videos on the project‘s web page. –Matthew] A new algorithm enables more realistic sound effects in VR If a character in a virtual environment drops a plate, software can generate that sound at just the right time. July 30, 2019 By Tom Abate When we watch movies or play video games, the right sound effects can help make scenes more realistic: When a…

[The new device described in this story from the University of Houston is another step toward effective presence illusions in teleoperation and other human-machine interactions. See the original version for a different picture and a 1:11 minute video. For more information see the paper in Science Advances. –Matthew] [Image: Source: IEEE Spectrum] A Wearable Device So Thin and Soft You Won’t Even Notice It Device Also Can Serve as Robotic Skin, Relaying Information Back to the User By Jeannie Kever August 2, 2019 Wearable human-machine interfaces – devices that can collect and store important health information about the wearer, among…

[Our colleagues Skip Rizzo and Jim Blascovich are quoted in this interesting story from Pacific Standard about the potential of VR to simulate the experiences generated by psychedelic drugs; in the process there are some insights about how it’s possible to “be there” but know that you’re not there during a presence experience. For more information and a video about the Ayahuasca (Kosmik Journey) VR experience, see the a-BAHN website and for a first-person report on the experience see The Cut. –Matthew] [Image: A man tries out a virtual reality game inside a Fulldome.pro 360-degree projection dome on opening day…

[This opinion column from The Next Web highlights some of the many ethical, factual and financial problems with a new presence service offered by a pornography company. Despite these issues, it’s interesting to note the evolution of technologies used to record our sexual and other activities for re-experiencing later move beyond still photography and audio to film and video to virtual reality. For more information including images and videos find the company’s website. –Matthew] [Image: Source: VR Bangers] Porn company wants $10K to shoot you screwing in VR before you’re too old to be attractive By Tristan Greene July 25,…

[TechCrunch reports on a different type of out-of-home VR-based presence experience in New York; see the original version for three different pictures, and for more details and another first-person report on the experience see coverage in Bloomberg. –Matthew] [Image: Source: Bloomberg] The Museum of Future Experiences offers a spooky, surreal take on VR It’s definitely not a normal VR arcade July 30, 2019 Anthony Ha Here’s what I knew when I visited the Museum of Future Experiences: The startup is part of the current batch of companies at Y Combinator, and it’s doing work with virtual reality.…