[Virtual reality and the sense of spatial and especially social presence that it can create is ideal for immersive language learning, as explored in this story from the Los Angeles Times; see the original version for two more pictures. –Matthew] [Image: Immerse is a virtual reality language-learning tutoring platform that launched in February. It currently focuses on helping companies in Taiwan teach Mandarin-speaking employees English but has plans to expand. Credit: Photo courtesy of Immerse.] Believing virtual reality is a promising tool for learning languages, companies, colleges invest By Ada Tseng April 3, 2019 When Quinn Taber was growing up…

[Digital Bodies reports on an amazing facility for studying presence and raises interesting questions about the future of large-scale VR and MR. See the original version of this story for a second image and a 7:13 minute video.–Matthew] Elbedome: Europe’s Largest VR Lab By Emory Craig April 3, 2019 If you like virtual reality or 3D experiences, then Europe’s largest VR lab is definitely where you want to be. It would be a storyteller’s or gamer’s paradise, except that the facility is designed for use with industrial models. Developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation, Elbedome is…

[This short story from Science Magazine reports on a new use of VR for human-robot swarm interaction; see the original version for a 1:30 minute video, follow the link in the story to read the abstract and full paper in arXiv, and watch a 3:54 minute video via YouTube. –Matthew] Ever dream of controlling robot swarms? This new virtual reality headset could help By Edd Gent March 29, 2019 Robot swarms could revolutionize everything from search and rescue missions to mining, but figuring out how to oversee so many moving parts is tough. A new approach lets people control tiny,…

[As with most stories about presence and sexuality, this one from VentureBeat raises a variety of psychological, sociological, technological and ethical issues. See the original version for a second image, and Vimeo for a 0:21 minute video. Note the related developments mentioned in the last paragraph; for more about Cardi-Bot see CamSoda’s website and coverage in The Next Web; and for more on VIRP, see CamSoda and The Verge. For an unusual story about inverse presence related to sexuality see a separate new story in Yahoo! Entertainment. –Matthew] CamSoda’s Camoji lets cam models hide behind animated avatars Dean Takahashi March…

[The lead author of the study reported in this story from Healthcare IT News says a new use of VR for radiologists “will allow physicians to travel inside a patient’s body instead of relying solely on 2D, black and white images”; for more information on the research, see the press release via EurekAlert! –Matthew] Virtual reality helps radiologists speed procedures A new study found that clinicians using VR tech could reach targeted vessels faster than today’s standard approach. By Nathan Eddy March 26, 2019 Interactive virtual reality (VR) could help improve the efficiency of interventional radiology treatments, as well as…

[This story from ZDNet describes the potential of presence-evoking technologies to enhance the value and impact of data visualization. Visit the original version for 5 more images and a 9:13 minute video. –Matthew] Data visualization via VR and AR: How we’ll interact with tomorrow’s data Augmented reality and virtual reality could fundamentally change the way we interact with and interpret data. By Greg Nichols March 26, 2019 Imagine tapping into a raw data feed from a distributed network of IoT devices in a logistics center. The center is full of robots, employee work stations, and shipping and receiving docks. The…

[In an era when intolerance and closed-mindedness is on the rise, this is a positive story about how even relatively simple and low-bandwidth technology can evoke presence and (hopefully) foster “curiosity, critical thinking, and, yes, empathy at an age when kids are starting to form impressions of people unlike themselves.” The story is from the Philadelphia Inquirer, where it includes two more images. For much more information including a video and blog, see the Empatico website. –Matthew] [Image: Second-grade students at Bells Elementary School in Blackwood, N.J., are talking to the Ibime School students in Mexico City, using Empatico. Credit:…

[The most sweeping and provocative ideas related to presence involve the possibility that everything we experience is not as it seems but some sort of perceptual illusion, as in the “simulation argument.” In this provocative essay in Scientific American, Bernardo Kastrup describes and argues against “information realism” (“Only the mathematical apparatus used to describe the behavior of matter is supposedly real, not matter itself”) and instead argues that reality is a product of perception: “the universe is a mental construct displayed on the screen of perception. … The mental universe… is a transpersonal field of mentation that presents itself to…

[Without using the terms telepresence or presence, this story from The New York Times provides several important insights about it. The vivid example of Care.Coach central to the story demonstrates that even relatively simple and unrealistic stimuli can create valuable presence experiences. It also makes the larger point that as these mediated experiences are becoming more common, nonmediated ones are becoming more valued and precious, a luxury only available to those who can afford them. A logical question then is what will happen to this new kind of “digital divide” as the technologies that create presence experiences become more sophisticated…

[This story from Apple Must describes a new use of augmented reality to add social presence to receiving parcels. The original version includes a second image and a 0:37 minute video, and for more information including other examples of companies using AR in packaging, see coverage in Mobile Marketer. –Matthew] Hermes shows how AR is the future of home delivery By Jonny Evans February 26, 2019 A lot of people order gifts online. The problem when doing so is that the experience becomes a little less personal, now Hermes has come up with a way to make online shopping a…

[I was thinking of the VHS vs. Betamax videotape format “war” before I got to the quote at the end of this Ars Technica story about a new open standard for VR and AR developers to use to ensure compatibility across the rapidly expanding hardware market for these presence-evoking technologies. See the original story for two more images, and for a short primer on format wars see a story on the BT website.  –Matthew] [Image: OpenXR is like a girl reaching for a moon, or something…] How OpenXR could glue virtual reality’s fragmenting market together This week’s provisional release could…

[This story from MediaPost is a first-person report that illustrates the encouraging potential of presence-evoking technology to create empathy, understanding and maybe even change. An excerpt from the Forbes story mentioned within it follows below (that story includes another picture and a 0:41 minute trailer, also available via YouTube). –Matthew] COMMENTARY A Time Machine Documentary by Steven Rosenbaum, Featured Contributor March 19, 2019 As I headed over to the West Side of Manhattan, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. I’d been promised a time machine. I’d been told to use the password “arcade” at the door. The building was…