[Many of the features of a newly revealed Apple patent filing use augmented reality in interesting ways to evoke presence in vehicles. This story is from WTOC, followed below by excerpts from coverage by Mashable and The Drive.  –Matthew] [Image: Source: Patently Apple] Apple patent raises possibility of a future with iWindshields August 8th 2018 By Jonathan Raymond (RNN) – Could the next great Apple innovation be the iWindshield? The World Intellectual Property Organization, a patent agency for the United Nations, published an application last week that was submitted by Apple in 2016 for an “augmented reality display system” for…

[A glass-bottom plane might provide too intense an experience for many, but the “VR Moving Map” feature described in this story from #GNTECH (where the original includes a 2:14 minute video) might be a viable substitute. For much more information see a 2017 report in ClickZ (or VRrOOm), which includes another image and two more videos. –Matthew] Lufthansa passengers experience VR on the way to Dubai By Daanesh Kalyaniwalla August 5, 2018 Lufthansa passengers flying from Frankfurt to Dubai on flight LH630 were in for a surprise on their way here. They were the first to experience the airline’s new…

[This widely published AP story is important for many reasons, including its illustration of how both the creation and experience of presence can be valuable. This copy is from The Independent, where it includes a 1:18 minute video; the image is one of eight available from AP. –Matthew] Japanese students produce virtual reality experience of Hiroshima By transporting users back in time to moment when city was turned into wasteland, group hopes to ensure something similar never happens again Haruka Nuga August 6, 2018 FUKUYAMA, Japan (AP) — It’s a sunny summer morning in the city of Hiroshima, Japan.…

[Microsoft has a new way for VR users to see their nonmediated environment without leaving the virtual world one they’re in, raising the long discussed question of whether we can be present in two places at once (see point 6 in “Presence defined”). This story is from Road to VR, where it includes the 1:09 video demonstration of the new feature (the video is also available via YouTube). –Matthew] Microsoft is Adding Pass-through Video to Windows VR Headsets By Ben Lang July 27, 2018 A beta version of Windows 10 now includes support for a pass-through video mode for Windows…

[Professor Paul MacNeilage is doing interesting work for NASA on underwater VR and Facebook on VR sickness sensitivity. This story from the University of Nevada, Reno provides an overview (and the original includes more images and a 0:36 minute video). See the website of the UNR Self-motion Lab for more information. If you know of or find profiles of people (including you!) doing presence-related research, please let me know (at lombard@temple.edu). –Matthew] [Image: Paul MacNeilage, assistant professor of psychology tests the first version of the underwater VR mask in a pool. Virtual reality will soon be able to go underwater…

[Microsoft researcher Bill Buxton has been collecting “interactive gadgets,” including many designed to evoke presence, for over four decades and he has interesting things to say about what we should learn from the history they represent. The short story below from CRN includes a 1:49 minute video report and much more information is available from Bill Buxton‘s website, a 2:16 hour lecture from TorCHI from April and a 14:48 minute interview from CHI 2011 from TEK.GADG on YouTube. –Matthew] Watch: Microsoft’s Bill Buxton Shows Off Virtual Reality Gadgets From 1838 By Diana Blass August 1, 2018 CRNtv recently had the…

[Augmented reality hasn’t gotten that much attention from presence scholars but that’s likely to change as the technology improves and the public begins to encounter it more often. This short story from ZDNet is about one of the ways restaurants are using AR to create an illusion within and linked to the otherwise nonmediated world. See the original story (or YouTube) for a one minute video and the Kabaq website for more information on this and related uses of AR. –Matthew] Augmented Reality is coming to a restaurant near you Food porn is going 3D as the restaurant industry explores…

[Andrew Thaler’s DIY headset lets users experience and navigate the world at least in part as a dolphin would. This short story is from The Verge; Dr. Thaler’s post in Southern Fried Science has much more information and NowThis Future has a 1:53 minute video summary. –Matthew] The DolphinView headset lets you ‘see’ like your favorite sea creature But you’ll have to build it yourself By Angela Chen July 24, 2018 The good news: a headset exists that helps you “see” like a dolphin. The bad news: you’ll have to build this “DolphinView” headset yourself. The other good news: it’s…

[In most presence experiences technology creates the illusion of reality, while inverse presence experiences produce the illusion that reality is mediated by technology (see “When ‘real’ seems mediated: Inverse presence”). Recent art installations by German duo Quintessenz provide a vivid example, as described in this short story from Fast Company about the 2017 work Paradis Perdus. The original story includes more images and a 0:33 minute video; for more details and photos see the Quintessenz website. And for coverage of the duo’s latest work see This is Colossal. –Matthew] This beautiful art installation looks like Photoshop. It’s not.…

[This personal story from VentureBeat is a reminder that despite the current limitations of technology, presence experiences have great potential to improve individual lives. See the original version for a second image. –Matthew] How I discovered the therapeutic power of VR — by accident David Waltenbaugh July 26, 2018 Ask anyone that has experienced a true, high-production virtual reality experience and nearly all can remember our “first time.” The immersive nature of the technology tends to evoke such a visceral response that it often remains with us long after our dive into the virtual realm. Most people I’ve spoken with…

[The press release below from davidbowie.com previews new AR- and VR-based versions of the “David Bowie Is” touring exhibit. They’ll follow several other applications of technology to create presence experiences related to Bowie, including the “Augmented Reality: David Bowie in Three Dimensions” feature by The New York Times, a “2.5-minute train journey through the world of David Bowie” from NS and the Groninger Museum, the “Heroes” dance sequence for 360-degree Gear VR and Microsoft HoloLens from Sundance 2017, and a VR version of the Bowie musical “Lazarus” (see more material by searching for “Bowie” on the V&A Museum website. –Matthew] David…

[As a cyclist with poor vision even with corrective glasses, I’m particularly interested in this post about using presence to reduce accidents by increasing driver-cyclist empathy. A report in Australia’s Nyngan Observer about how the government there is using VR to reduce accidents with quad bikes on farms led me to the short story below from Campaign that describes a Ford program that uses VR to give motorists the experience of bicyclists and vice versa. For much more information including videos, see Ford’s Share the Road website and the Ford Europe blog. For a recent published study on this topic,…