[Early research suggests that VR and presence can contribute to the success of a campaign to promote HIV awareness and testing. This short story is from Open Society Foundations, where the original includes the trailer for “Live Life Positively” (also available via YouTube). For more information see the Open Society Foundations and UNAIDS websites. –Matthew] Can a Virtual Reality Video Help Fight Anti-HIV Stigma? February 7, 2019 Sydelle Willow Smith, a cofounder of Sunshine Cinema and a partner at Makhulu Media A young woman enters the crowded waiting room of a clinic and takes a seat. Soon, she is beckoned…

[Virtual reality and the sense of presence it evokes is used for a growing set of training applications including in health care; for anyone who has to get regular eye injections and/or knows people who do, this Wall Street Journal story about the use of VR to train surgeons to implant a new small device in the eye that replaces the injections is particularly interesting. –Matthew] [Image: Genentech is training eye surgeons on a procedure treating an eye disease that affects more than 1 million Americans. Credit: Genetech.] Genentech Uses Virtual Reality to Train Eye Surgeons Adopts technology in clinical…

[This story from CNET describes new and intriguing efforts to use the body to control interactions in mediated experiences and thereby increase presence. See the original for videos and more images. –Matthew] Your body is driving a new wave of AR, VR experiences Artists at Sundance are tapping into your own movements to make immersive experiences feel more natural. by Joan E. Solsman February 4, 2019 Inside the softly glowing room, I pace around a table with an iPhone to reveal an augmented-reality mystery. Digital characters on my screen drop breadcrumbs for me to follow back to the scene of…

[Here is a provocative recent report on a subset of medium-as-social-actor (MASA) presence phenomena; it’s from The New York Times, where the original version includes four more images and a video. –Matthew] [Image: Photo Illustration by Tracy Ma/The New York Times; Getty Images (hand)] Do You Take This Robot … Today we fall in love through our phones. Maybe your phone itself could be just as satisfying? By Alex Williams January. 19, 2019 When Akihiko Kondo, a 35-year-old school administrator in Tokyo, strolled down the aisle in a white tuxedo in November, his mother was not among the 40 well-wishers…

[A new production of Hamlet offered the producers and actors new challenges and provides viewers with new presence experiences, as reported in this story from The New York Times. See the original for four more images. –Matthew] [Image: From left, Jack Cutmore-Scott, Brooke Adams and Jay O. Sanders in “Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit,” a virtual reality film produced by Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Google, Graham Sack and Quentin Little. Credi: Sensorium] ‘Hamlet’ in Virtual Reality Casts the Viewer in the Play By Elizabeth A. Harris; Michael Paulson contributed reporting. January. 25, 2019 Hamlet is in a bathtub with water up…

[The new Little Sophia robot extends the potential positive effects of medium-as-social-actor (MASA) presence, as described in this story from VentureBeat. For more information see the press release via GlobeNewswire, the robot’s Kickstarter page (the funding goal has already been met), a 6:30 minute video segment from NBC’s Today via YouTube, and for a broader review of “carebots, home robots and robo-pets” from CES 2019, coverage in TechRadar. –Matthew] Hanson Robotics debuts Little Sophia, a robot companion that teaches kids to code Kyle Wiggers January 30, 2019 Hanson Robotics is the Hong Kong and Los Angeles-based company behind Sophia, the…

[This story from Mother Nature Network describes a new VR-generated presence experience that lets users experience the life, and death, of a tree (compare it to the recent installation We Live in an Ocean of Air from another ISPR Presence News post); the story, which includes a second image, a 1:46 minute video, and a link to an extended interview in Vive, ends with information about how you can visit actress Judi Dench’s private forest in Surrey, England via virtual reality. –Matthew] [Image: Scene from the virtual reality experience ‘Tree’ from the MIT Media Lab. Credit: Screenshot from Vimeo/MIT Media Lab.]…

[Anyone who questions the ability of film to evoke an intense and multi-faceted sense of presence should read this IndieWire review of (and go see) a new NASA documentary called “Apollo 11.” If nothing else read the fifth paragraph (“Honestly, …”) below. I missed seeing “First Man” in an IMAX theater but a group of us here at Temple University saw an extended preview scene that made us viscerally feel like we were there in the capsule during the countdown and take-off. “Apollo 11” uses newly discovered and restored high resolution footage and audio recordings of the event along with…

[This short story from the Orlando Weekly describes (and links to) a new patent application for a combination of form (a tether system) and content (virtual obstructions like gates and fog) to manage the paths of multiple VR and AR users at theme parks. See the original for more images. –Matthew] Universal files patent to put guests on a virtual reality leash By Seth Kubersky January 28, 2019 Virtual reality has taken the location-based gaming industry by storm in recent years, with stand-alone VR attractions popping up all over Orlando. But one fundamental problem has kept the technology out of…

[The images of the Instagram CGI character Imma (roughly, “now”) in this story from Inverse are compellingly realistic and raise intriguing questions about the impacts of the “virtual influencer” trend. For more examples see ITP Live, and for information about a potentially important factor in the impacts see the 2014 story in Motherboard titled “Lonely People Are More Likely to Think Inanimate Objects Are Alive.” –Matthew] The Weirdest Trend on Instagram: Virtual Influencers Who Make Real Content By Danny Paez January 19, 2019 The sun may already be setting on the age of the ambiguously famous social media influencer. After…

[The RealityVirtually Hackathon at MIT sounds like a fascinating, fun and valuable event where people gather to bring creative ideas for presence applications to life. This story from The Boston Globe (where it features a different image) describes many of the projects at this year’s event; for much more information about them see the Winners page on the RealityVirtually website. –Matthew] These developers are trying to make virtual reality more useful By Scott Kirsner, Globe Correspondent January 24, 2019 If you’ve seen a set of virtual reality goggles — in person or otherwise — you may have jumped to a few…

[PoliceOne reports on a new application of VR and presence to help teens learn how to avoid conflicts with gang members in New York City. For more information see NY1’s coverage that includes a 2:07 minute video report and the official press release via PR Newswire. –Matthew] [Image: Source: Officer.com] NYPD virtual-reality program to aid children with tough situations Police are putting teens through computer simulations to help them de-escalate gang confrontations January 23, 2019 Anthony M. Destefano, Newsday NEW YORK — The NYPD is using virtual reality to help teenagers deal with real life on the street.…