[Researchers have advanced our understanding of how to effectively produce phantom sensations – i.e., illusions of being touched in the absence of actual physical contact – with possible applications in various presence contexts including virtual reality. The details from a University of Malaga press release (via EurekAlert!) and a study published in Displays are summarized in this story from The Debrief. The press release includes more images and a 39 second video (also available on YouTube). –Matthew] [Image: The setup for the researcher’s experiment in a screenshot from YouTube. Credit: University of Malaga] Artificial “Phantom Sensations” Without Physical Contact Could…

[This story from Healio describes current efforts to use presence-evoking virtual reality to help relieve the hot flashes that women experience during menopause. Though not mentioned here, the Mayo Clinic notes that “other potential causes include medication side effects, problems with your thyroid, certain cancers and side effects of cancer treatment.” –Matthew] [Image: Announcement of Dr. Brennan Spiegel’s presentation at the 2024 Meeting of The Menopause Society. Source: The Menopause Society on X] ‘The mind is medicine’: How virtual reality can cool bothersome hot flashes By Regina SchafferFact checked by Richard SmithSeptember 18, 2024 CHICAGO — For menopausal women experiencing…

[As the specific computing operations of artificial intelligence become less accessible even to its creators, and the interface with it becomes more conversational, and its output is presented via more human-sounding voice simulations, unexpected responses are being perceived as increasingly eerie indications of possible sentience – in other words, the technology is evoking medium-as-social-actor presence. This short summary of some recent examples from Futurism illustrates the phenomenon; follow the various links for additional vivid examples. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Getty Images] It Turns Out ChatGPT’s Voice Mode Can Scream, and It’s an Upsetting Sound This is beyond uncanny. By Noor Al-SibaiSeptember…

[As the film and television media have evolved, it’s become increasingly difficult for viewers to determine or even detect the roles of technology in their experience. In early television, a camera captured live action on a set and the images were transmitted in real time into people’s homes. Then editors were able to combine recorded segments; “special effect” techniques including makeup, miniature models, and rear projection were developed, followed by more sophisticated “green screen” illusions, computer-generated imagery (CGI), and recently “virtual production” that merges the physical and digital (see Medium and Unreal Engine). With the arrival of generative artificial intelligence…

[At least in its current form it seems to be generating mixed reactions at best, but a company is using AI hosts to present news for local newspapers, starting with The Garden Island in Hawaii. A journalist who used to work at the paper provides the details in this story from Wired. In coverage by Hawaii News Now (which features a 3:11 minute video report), Aaron Kotarek, Senior Vice President of Audience and Operations at the paper’s owner, says “AI is here, and you can either embrace it or you can be scared of it. Frankly, I’m a little of…

[Mixed reality flight simulators are a critical tool in Ukraine’s efforts to repel Russian attacks, as reported in this short story from UploadVR (where the original includes a looping video with more views of a simulator). Note also the mention of and link to a story about the recent first approval by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of a VR-based flight simulator for credit toward official pilot qualification ratings; that story includes two images and a 2:34 minute video. –Matthew] A Varjo Headset Is Being Used To Help Train Ukrainian Pilots To Fly F-16s By David HeaneySeptember 11, 2024…

[In this abridged version of an essay from The New York Times, historian Yuval Noah Harari explains why conversational artificial intelligence technology that “pretends to be human” (i.e., that evokes medium-as-social-actor presence) is a profound danger to democracies and should be banned. See the original version of the essay for more context and many reader comments, and watch a 9:12 minute interview with the author on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Miki Kim] Yuval Noah Harari: What Happens When the Bots Compete for Your Love? By Yuval Noah Harari, a historian and the author of the forthcoming book…

[An interdisciplinary group is using presence-evoking virtual reality to design, implement, educate and fund-raise for a restoration project of 40 Memorial Groves of trees at the solemn site honoring the passengers and crew of Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. This story about the effort is from the College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) at the State University of New York (SUNY)). –Matthew] [Image: VR depiction of Memorial Grove created by landscape architecture senior Max Stamberger.] ESF Utilizes Virtual Reality to Assist Flight 93 National Memorial in Tree Revitalization September 10, 2024 SYRACUSE, N.Y. –– The SUNY College of…

[Franz Kafka’s 1915 novel The Metamorphosis has been adapted in many media, including (according to CNBC-TV18) “a Manga comic book, two operas, ten movies, one graphic novel and two video games.” The latest is a virtual reality game, as reported in the brief story below from Video Games on SI.com, which includes a video trailer (also available on YouTube). An earlier VR adaptation is described in the story that follows below from the website of The Goethe-Institut Bangladesh; the CNBC-TV18 story goes into even more detail about that world-touring exhibit. And see a December 2010 post in ISPR Presence News…

[This report from GeekWire describes how a group of neuroscientists, inventors, and video game developers are producing therapeutic games for virtual reality that create a “simulation of a stressful situation that [players] nonetheless fully control” and which evoke a both presence and flow as “the player’s subconscious mind theoretically recognizes parallels between [the game] and the real world.” See the original version for two more images. –Matthew] This virtual reality game encourages rhythmic breathing to help with mental health by Thomas WildeAugust 24, 2024 At first glance, Deepwell DTX’s Zengence (pronounced like “vengeance”) is what video game fans might call…

[This CNN story provides vivid examples of, and some explanations from psychiatric experts about, our tendency to ascribe human attributes to everything from household objects to robots and AI chatbots (i.e., anthropomorphism phenomena many of which we’d identify as medium-as-social-actor presence). The story also considers individual differences in these perceptions and associated behaviors. See the original version for a second image and reader comments. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Rawf8/iStockphoto/Getty Images] Why do some people give human feelings to inanimate objects? What experts say By Taylor Nicioli, CNNSeptember 7, 2024 (CNN) — When she goes to the grocery store, Lilianna Wilde will…

[Despite their improved ability to evoke compelling presence illusions, there are still many significant barriers to providing consumers with sustained presence experiences that lead to adoption and continued use of virtual reality headsets. In this essay from Make Use Of (MUO), a tech enthusiast describes five of these barriers (I’d add the lack of effective, inexpensive accommodation for those of us who wear corrective eyeglasses, and too-often overly complex operation and glitchy performance). –Matthew] VR Simply Doesn’t Interest Me: Here’s Why It Fails to Capture My Attention By Oluwademilade AfolabiSeptember 2, 2024 I really lucked out in scoring a Meta…