[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…

[This story from King5 TV in Seattle describes a new system that may be a glimpse of how we’ll experience a greater sense of presence in future sports broadcasts. See the original version of the story for a 2:04 minute video report. Coverage in ZDNet includes additional information and this assessment: “While still in an early development stage, the results are compelling enough to suggest there could be a real future in this kind of system for home sports viewing — and it could come sooner rather than later. … Unlike most newfangled 3D entertainment, this is something I can…

[Virtual reality offers advantages over traditional physical mock-up flight simulators, but until now also the important disadvantage of minimal haptic feedback. This (lightly edited) Wired story explains how that’s being addressed. See the original story for two more images, and for more information see the Go Touch VR website. –Matthew] VR Pilot Training Now Comes With A Sense Of Touch Ric Adams June 26, 2018 Aviation simulators—the most valuable training tool pilots have—have to get things right. The instrument panel. The wind and the rain. The response of the aircraft when you flip a switch or pull on the yoke.…

[As the story below from Motherboard notes, the evolution of technology raises important ethical and legal questions about how “sex dolls, robots, and artificial intelligence will be regulated in the future, and whether legislators are ready to consider the nuances of sex with humanoids.” For two recent related stories see “We Have No Idea What Having Sex With Robots Might Do to Us” in Futurism and “One of the World’s Most Famous Sex Robots Can Now Revoke Her Consent” in Dazed. All of these stories emphasize the need for more research. Here’s an excerpt from the Futurism article: “Several companies are…

[The Weather Channel’s new use of mixed reality to engage viewers and educate them about how to stay safe during tornadoes is pretty compelling. This story about it is from AR Post, where the original version includes more images and the full 7:45 minute video segment. –Matthew] The Weather Channel Launches Mixed Reality Broadcasts The Weather Channel incorporates immersive mixed reality into their broadcast to demonstrate the power of a tornado. Gergana Mileva June 22, 2018 This week The Weather Channel was hit by a tornado—a virtual cataclysm brought forth through immersive mixed reality technology. It was meteorologist Jim Cantore…

[The latest Jurassic World movie just had a successful opening weekend (as reported by CNN); the story below from CNET reviews a new VR-based attraction tied to the film that’s available at over 100 Dave & Buster’s entertainment centers. Both as an experience and from a marketing the standpoint, the verdict is positive. See the original story for a second image and a 1:49 minute video, and for more information see the press release via PR Newswire. –Matthew] Dave & Buster’s Jurassic World VR ride goes for safe thrills Mini theme park attraction or massive arcade game? By Scott Stein…

[Because it can evoke presence, virtual reality represents a powerful venue for researchers if we have the tools to measure user responses during the experience; this story from Forbes describes one such tool and its potential. See the original story for a second image and follow the link to Tobii Pro for more information. –Matthew] Looking Through Your User’s Eyes With Virtual Reality Gaze Tracking Alice Bonasio, CONTRIBUTOR – I cover the intersection between business and immersive technologies June 21, 2018 Eye-tracking technology is nothing new in itself, but it is gaining rapidly both in scope and popularity as immersive virtual…

[This story from Wired describes how biochemists are using virtual reality and the sense of presence it creates to better understand and manipulate the structure of molecules and improve the process of discovering effective drugs. See the original story for a 1:29 minute video. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: C4X Discovery] Virtual reality is helping chemists discover new life-enhancing drugs What one thing do scientists really need to help them discover new life-saving drugs? Virtual reality By Phoebe Braithwaite 13 June 2018 Blue skies, streaked with clouds – an unending expanse of grid to stand on – and one massive molecule: in…