[This story from TechRadar reviews the variety of ways virtual reality and the spatial and social presence they evoke may protect and enhance the mental health of astronauts on future long-term space missions. The original version includes additional images. –Matthew] The tech that could keep astronauts happy on their missions to the stars How virtual reality technology could positively impact mental health in space By Becca Caddy July 9, 2018 NASA has a bold plan to send astronauts to Mars by 2030 (or thereabouts). In preparation for this monumental Martian mission, the space agency needs to make sure everything’s in…

[This story from Quartz raises many important and (to me at least) fascinating issues regarding medium-as-social-actor presence. The original version includes more images and for more details see coverage in New Statesman and a plus. Mashable has a 3:07 minute video. –Matthew] I’m building a robot boyfriend—and you can, too Written by Fei Liu April 24, 2018 Gabriel2052’s library of motor movements will know what I’m turned on by, his fingertips ghosting across the back of my neck with the right force-per-unit area. His motorized parts will know how to spread goosebumps across my skin, and his sensors will detect…

[Amazon’s new VR Kiosks in 10 malls in India are getting positive reviews, including in this short story from VentureBeat; see the original story for a second image and a 1:34 minute video, and see coverage in India Today for more details. –Matthew] [Image: Amazon’s new VR store dispenses with the trappings of a shop in favor of fun — a city full of products to explore in themed rooms. Credit: Amazon.] Watch Amazon’s VR kiosks transform the future of shopping Jeremy Horwitz July 12, 2018 Earlier this week, Amazon announced that it has opened virtual reality kiosks in 10 shopping…

[This story from JSTOR Daily describes how a recently published study expands our understanding of how the brain interprets, and can be led to misinterpret, the physical world. Aside from being interesting on their own, the story notes near the end how the conclusions have implications for the design of virtual environments. The original version of the story includes a different image; the press release mentioned is available from the Association for Psychological Science. –Matthew] [Image: Source: Association for Psychological Science] How Ventriloquism Tricks the Brain New research shows our brains place more weight on vision than hearing in identifying the…

[Can virtual reality and presence help prepare members of the public to treat someone in an overdose emergency? WESA-FM, Pittsburgh’s NPR News Station, reports on a collaborative effort led by the University of Pittsburgh; a 2:44 minute video of the simulation is available on YouTube and more simulations are on WyzLink’s YouTube channel. For comparison, see Ohio University’s April 2018 coverage of an acted out and video recorded simulation; the story includes a link at the end to videos and detailed information. –Matthew] [Image: Screenshot from “Opioid Rescue” a virtual reality simulation that teaches people to administer naloxone during an overdose…

[A new paper reviews the varied uses of presence-evoking technologies in cardiology; this story from Healthcare Analytics News provides a summary and links to the (free) article in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). For related stories see the ISPR Presence News posts “Virtual reality reveals the human heart in three dimensions“ and “Tufts Medical Center to use VR to let patients preview experience.” –Matthew] [Image: Mixed reality cardiac electrophysiology workflow graphic from Silva et al. article] How Extended Reality Is Changing Cardiology C. Gourarie July 09, 2018 Doctors can now manipulate holographic hearts and see our…

[Virtual and mixed reality and the presence they evoke are being used to help people explore and train for career opportunities in new, more effective and cost-efficient ways, as reported in this story from E-learning Inside News. –Matthew] Mixed Reality Workplace Training in Norway By Cait Etherington July 05, 2018 In the past, mixed reality, which combines both virtual reality and real-life contexts, has primarily been used to train workers in fields where simulations have long been a key element of training (e.g., the training of pilots). But can mixed reality also be used to train workers in other contexts?…

[This short story from CinemaBlend explains, and includes a 2:05 minute video clip of Steven Spielberg explaining, how the director used virtual reality to bring the virtual reality described in the novel Ready Player One to life in his recent film. Here’s a quote from the clip, which explains the screenshot below: “My avatar had a virtual camera and so if I pressed a button I could either start a video recorder and do actual shots by walking through the virtual set or I could do frame grabs.” I agree with the author’s endorsement: A group of us here at…

[Our friend, colleague and ISPR co-founder Jonathan Freeman and his firm i2 media research led the production of a new free report for those creating VR/AR content, based on many years of research on presence and presence-evoking technologies. See the bottom of this short story about it from Goldsmiths, University of London for the link to download the report.  –Matthew] Catapulting immersive industry into the spotlight Bodies, Minds, Society, Psychology By Pete Wilton Published on 28 Jun 2018 A Goldsmiths, University of London spin-off firm has produced a new report, working with Nesta and the Digital Catapult, aimed at those…

[As if the political currents around the world, and specifically in the U.S. as it celebrates Independence Day today, aren’t disturbing enough, presence scholars, policy makers and everyone else should be deeply concerned about how presence-evoking technologies are enabling increasingly dangerous and harmful deceptions. The story below from The Associated Press (AP) describes some of the threats in the realm of politics, and there is much more press coverage on this topic: IEEE Spectrum reports on a wager among experts on whether there will be a successful deepfake video scandal during the upcoming 2018 U.S. midterm elections – even those…

[Presence can play a key role in preserving cultural heritage, and not just when sites are under threat. This story from Smithsonian.com describes a new free app designed to “bring the value of Armenian cultural heritage out of the abstract and into the lives of millions.” See the original story for more images. –Matthew] [Image: Khachkars are prominently visible in front of the Noravank monastery. Credit: Sossi Madzounian, My Armenia Program.] This Free Virtual Reality App Drops Users in the Heart of Historic Armenia Painstaking imaging of cultural heritage sites worldwide has the potential to usher in a new era…

[Recent events have me thinking again about the argument, offered even before the 2016 U.S. elections (see this ISPR Presence News post), that the rise of Donald Trump is evidence that we’re living in a computer simulation. It’s either a cruel experiment or prank by our digital overlords or some kind of glitch. The column below from The Conversation makes the counterargument to the first possibility by noting that any society that survives long enough to develop the capability to create such a sophisticated simulation would have had to develop a moral code that would prevent such cruelty. Of course…