[Two stories on advertising and virtual reality: First, Adweek describes a new Facebook ad campaign for the Oculus Go (Variety also notes the emphasis on media consumption rather than games) and the importance of engagement by current users vs. the number of headsets sold; the story includes four of the ads, which are also available on YouTube (1, 2, 3, 4). Then, 360i reports on the first programmatic advertising (targeted, algorithm-based placements) inside virtual reality experiences, in this case to promote the second season of National Geographic’s television series Mars. See The Drum for more coverage.…

[I know from personal experience the potential value of a new program at the University of Pennsylvania that uses virtual reality and presence to reduce stress in hospital waiting rooms. This story from The Daily Pennsylvanian describes the program and plans for expanding it. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Fern Nibauer-Cohen] Virtual reality program lets cancer patients at Penn Med watch the sunrise from their waiting room By Katharine Shao November 11, 2018 Few people look forward to spending time in a hospital waiting room. There is typically bright, fluorescent lighting, a selection of sterile furniture and, if you’re lucky, a smattering…

[Presence-evoking technology is impacting the delivery of news, raising important ethical questions. This story is from Mashable, where it includes a 0:31 minute video of an “AI anchor”; for more information and a longer video, see coverage in The Verge. –Matthew] [Image: Source: Press From] China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency debuts ‘AI anchor’ to read the news By Matt Binder November 8, 2018 The state-run press agency in China, Xinhua, will now deliver news using “AI anchors” made of digital composites that use synthesized voices to “read” the news. These anchors look realistic, but are actually digital composites that are…

[This story from Variety describes a promising augmented reality app that lets students experience and interact with stories, and goes on to explore the status, challenges and potential of mobile-based AR. See the original version for four additional images. –Matthew] A Sense of Wonder: How Within Is Evolving Storytelling in Augmented Reality By Janko Roettgers November 6, 2018 The future of storytelling is happening all around us — we just have to look through the right lens to see it. That’s the idea behind “Wonderscope,” an augmented reality app for children that Los Angeles-based immersive media start-up Within is set…

[This press release from the Electronic Frontier Foundation describes and provides links to a novel, timely educational application of presence-evoking technology. –Matthew] EFF Unveils Virtual Reality Tool To Help People Spot Surveillance Devices in Their Communities Law Enforcement’s Deployment of High-Tech Spying Tools On the Rise November 5, 2018 San Francisco—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) launched a virtual reality (VR) experience on its website today that teaches people how to spot and understand the surveillance technologies police are increasingly using to spy on communities. “We are living in an age of surveillance, where hard-to-spot cameras capture our faces and our…

[Today’s midterm elections in the U.S. are the latest context for the use of augmented reality on television, as reported in the ABC News story below. See the original for more images and a 1:48 minute interactive 360 degree video of the set. Much more important: If you’re in the US please vote for reality, science, honesty, dignity, and tolerance, respect and kindness for all.  –Matthew] Behind the scenes on Election Day: 360-degree video of the ABC News election set and AR experience By Lindsey Jacobson November 5, 2018 ABC News will be covering the 2018 midterms election using a…

[The Imperial College London Business School demonstrated a new presence-evoking technology in a transatlantic discussion panel last week. Details about the technology and plans for its wider use are in the story below from BBC News, where it includes other images and a video. Coverage by Imperial College London News includes a 0:45 minute video of the event (also available via YouTube). A short interview with David Lefevre, director of Imperial’s Edtech Lab, is available from Sputnik News. –Matthew] ‘Hologram’ lecturers to teach students at Imperial College London University classes are set to be given a futuristic spin by letting lecturers…

[Sexuality remains a fascinating context for exploring presence. It creates a variety of complex challenges to replicate deeply human, embodied experiences using technology, challenges that while rarely met successfully can teach us a lot about the many factors that evoke and limit different forms of presence. And it highlights a variety of ethical questions and controversies for designers, researchers, consumers and others. The story below from Metro UK is a good example; it’s the only coverage of the Autoblow A.I. product that I found that didn’t include explicit or crass language and/or juvenile puns. A story in Motherboard describes the…

[The ultimate presence technology that many of us grew up watching dramatized in Star Trek is apparently one step closer, as reported in this story from VentureBeat (where the original includes three more images). For more details see the Light Field Lab website, including the press release on the News page. –Matthew] Light Field Lab and Otoy team up to make Star Trek’s Holodeck a reality Dean Takahashi October 22, 2018 Holographic display maker Light Field Lab and graphics software firm Otoy have teamed up to turn the Star Trek Holodeck into a reality. The Holodeck, which Star Trek movies…

[The good work of David Parker and Wishplay includes a mediated presence experience of Halloween for children too ill to participate directly. This story is from Digital Trends and for more on the individual experiences of the children see coverage in The Globe and Mail; for details on the prerecorded and livestream trick-or-treating available tonight (Halloween 2018), see the Wishplay website. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Jeremy Thompson] Wishplay’s virtual Halloween delivers a treat to terminally ill children Simon Cohen October 30, 2018 If you or someone you love has ever spent any time as a patient in a hospital, you know how…

[The new app described in this story from Forbes is called Spatial but what makes it compelling is the combination of spatial and social presence. The original story includes more images and a 2:15 minute video. For first person reports on a recent demonstration of the product see coverage in Fast Company and Engadget, and for information about how it was inspired by fictional user interfaces in Minority Report and other films see coverage in Variety. –Matthew] Spatial Bursts Out Of Stealth With Cash And XR Telepresence Charlie Fink, Contributor October 24, 2018 After two years in stealth, Spatial is…

[More potential Halloween presence is planned for this week’s holiday, as detailed in this story from Business Insider, where the original includes more images. The 2:17 minute trailer for the project is available on the project’s Twitter page. –Matthew] [Image: A scene from the trailer for “BeeMe,” an MIT Media Lab social experiment. Credit: BeeMe/MIT Media Lab.] MIT is giving you control of a real person on Halloween in a dystopian game that sounds like an episode of ‘Black Mirror’ Dave Mosher Oct. 27, 2018 This Halloween, the creepiest event to attend might be a mass online social experiment hosted…