[Here’s a summary from E – The Environmental Magazine of some of the ways VR and presence can help us preserve our natural environment. See the original version for a different image. –Matthew] [Image: Source: B&T] Virtual Reality Could Have a Positive Impact on the Environment — Here’s Why Kate Harveston September 10, 2019 You’ve probably heard of virtual reality (VR) talked about as a fun and immersive technology, but you may not have considered how it could favorably impact the environment. Here are some reasons why something that everyone’s buzzing about could have planet-protecting advantages.…

[To me a great value of the presence concept is that it raises thought-provoking questions about our lives and even the nature of existence. Regardless of your views about the validity of “simulation theory” (the idea that we’re likely living in a computer simulation), it illustrates the power of simulation and presence as a metaphor for our technology-dominated era. While thinking about how we’d change our perceptions and behavior should we discover that we and/or our world are simulations is intriguing (see Jones, Lombard and Jasak, 2011), this column from The New York Times warns against conducting formal tests. –Matthew]…

[This ZDNet story describes successful heart surgeries performed via robot from 20 miles away, a milestone accomplishment in telemedicine and telesurgery. For more information see the press release via Business Wire and the article in The Lancet’s EClinicalMedicine; for more on the positive impact of telemedicine see “In the coalfields, telemedicine provides antidote to doctor shortages, poor health” in The Roanoke Times. –Matthew] [Image: Figure 1C from the EClinicalMedicine article shows the surgeon controlling the remotely located Corindus robot.] First long-distance heart surgery performed via robot In a feat of networking, engineering, and medicine, a doctor performed a heart procedure…

[This story from Brink describes an innovative use of virtual reality and presence to observe experienced offenders as they commit burglaries to better understand and thereby prevent future real-world crimes. For more information, see the Virtual Burglary Project on ResearchGate. –Matthew] [Image: Source: Semantic Scholar] Virtual Reality to Observe Crimes As They Unfold. Here’s How September 5, 2019 Claire Nee, Director of International Centre for Research in Forensic Psychology Ordinary citizens worry a lot about community safety. In particular, surveys and research suggest that residential burglary is one of the most feared crimes internationally. Until recently, when trying to understand…

[A new 5:50 minute film features Hanson Robotics robot Sophia interacting with actress Evan Rachel Wood, who plays robot Dolores in HBO’s Westworld. I’ll refrain from playing reviewer, but stay tuned for after-the-credits feature “Questioning Reality with Evan and Sophia.” CNET’s coverage includes this: “SophiaWorld manages to plunge us through almost as many layers of existence as an actual Westworld episode. It’s the perfect way to pass the time while waiting for season 3 to arrive in 2020. Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? After you watch SophiaWorld, the answer will be yes.” The story below is…

[It’s not hard to imagine that near-future refined technologies that evoke greater presence among users will create more frequent and more severe versions of the problems discussed in this Refinery29 story. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Eylul Aslan] “I Worried To The Point Of Obsession” – How Virtual Beauty Apps Prey On Insecurities Anna Behrmann 3 September 2019 I can change my lipstick from bright pink to intense red in a fraction of a second. I can try on a ‘Vegas’ look from a virtual makeup artist complete with false lashes, four different shades of perfectly blended eyeshadow, heavily defined eyebrows and…

[The telepresence robot described in this story from Tom’s Hardware is designed to mimic human interaction for parents and children. The original story includes two more pictures and some of the robot’s technical specifications; see the Indiegogo page for much more information. –Matthew] Hug Your Kid When You’re Out of Town With the Cushybot One Telepresence Robot by Brittany Vincent August 27, 2019 For children with long-distance parents, things can get a little lonely. Home robotics company Cushybots wants to change this with a new telepresence robot, the Cushybot One, launching today on Indiegogo. The Cushybot One is an adorable…

[Several types of presence feature prominently in the ‘mega themes’ identified in this story from Forbes. As usual, the potential roles of presence represent both promise and peril. –Matthew] The Twelve Mega Themes That Will Drive Our Future World Sarwant Singh, Contributor August 28, 2019 The blurring of the human-machine divide, the ability to immerse ourselves in new augmented/virtual/mixed reality worlds, the prospect of being able to recycle everything in our homes, the joys of having an intelligent assistant take over our chores at home and work, the dilemma over the double-edged sword that is data, the thrill of having…

[This VentureBeat story uses vivid examples to explain the potential of mixed reality and presence to enhance the psychological impact and the financial health of journalism. –Matthew] [Image: The New York Times in augmented reality] Journalism needs help — and mixed reality is coming to the rescue Kenny Kline August 26, 2019 Traditional print journalism is dying, fast. According to statistics published by Pew Research, hundreds of daily newspapers have been scratched off the national roster since the 1970s, and about a third of the United States’ largest papers have suffered layoffs since 2017. The industry is struggling to stay…

[IEEE Spectrum reports on the latest advances in telepresence robots; see the original story for two other pictures and a 0:53 minute video. –Matthew] New Double 3 Robot Makes Telepresence Easier than Ever With mapping and semi-autonomous navigation, even you can drive a Double 3 By Evan Ackerman August 27, 2019 Today, Double Robotics is announcing Double 3, the latest major upgrade to its line of consumer(ish) telepresence robots. We had a (mostly) fantastic time testing out Double 2 back in 2016. One of the things that we found out back then was that it takes a lot of practice…

[The story below from Propmodo compares the under-valued impact of Google Glass to the potential impact of a new virtual reality design platform for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. The 1:40 minute  promo video includes multiple forms of presence and a compelling ‘life size’ (1:1) scale collaborative display. –Matthew] New Virtual Reality Design Platform May Transform How the AEC Industry Collaborates Logan Nagel August 20, 2019 The story of Google Glass, the augmented reality spectacles that were once hailed as game-changing, is a fascinating one that once seemed like a failure. Not too long ago, Glass was perhaps…

[This link-filled story from Truthout highlights the potential of presence (though it doesn’t use the term) for propaganda and other unethical persuasion: “[T]he novelty of VR lies in how it induces physiological and psychological effects in us comparable to those produced by lived experience, irrespective of any background consciousness of artificiality. … It’s because of this power that VR is likely to be used increasingly for propagandistic purposes, and as anyone familiar with the modern history of propaganda could expect, it won’t only be governmental agencies using it to propagate partial and potentially misleading information.” –Matthew] [Image: A man uses…