[Mozilla is releasing a new cross-platform, open source, privacy-friendly browser specifically for presence experiences. This story is from The Verge, and there’s a 0:48 minute video available from Mozilla’s Mixed Reality blog. See also the September 2017 ISPR Presence News post “VR Web Browsing Needs Revolution More Than Evolution.” –Matthew] There’s a new version of Firefox for virtual reality By Adi Robertson Apr 3, 2018 Mozilla has announced a new version of its Firefox browser for standalone virtual and augmented reality headsets. It’s called Firefox Reality, and Mozilla describes it as a cross-platform, open source, and privacy-friendly browser whose interface…

[Those of us who will be in Prague in May for PRESENCE 2018 will be able to visit a new VR exhibit designed to let the blind, and everyone else, experience three iconic sculptures via haptic gloves. This story is from KnowTechie and features a 2:14 minute video. Visit the Touching Masterpieces website for more information. –Matthew] This VR exhibit enables the blind to ‘see’ art with haptic gloves Please do touch the exhibits. By Joe Rice-Jones April 2, 2018 Any museum-goer knows the ubiquitous “Do not touch” signs. What if you could though, with the aid of VR technology?…

[A designer has imagined how augmented reality and the sense of spatial presence it evokes could improve the process of using assembly instructions for IKEA products (and of course the ideas could be extended to all kinds of manuals). This short story is from Co.Design, where it includes a gif and a 1:06 minute video, which is also available along with more information from Adam Pickard’s website. –Matthew] The Ikea Manual Of The Future Looks Amazing Mark Wilson March 22, 2018 We’ve all been there. Blood pumping. Face red. Body exhausted. It’s 15 minutes into building a piece of Ikea…

[Two recent examples vividly illustrate the increasing use of technology to manipulate our perceptions of reality. Business Insider introduces the first example this way: “’Question everything’ is the Instagram influencer and blogger Carolyn Stritch’s latest message to her followers. And to encourage people to do just that, she conducted an experiment to show people just how easy it is to fake ‘perfection’ on the photo-sharing platform. Stritch, who is from the UK, is the 32-year-old lifestyle blogger and freelance photographer behind The Slow Traveler. She has amassed 190,000 followers on her Instagram account @theslowtraveler through sharing perfectly poised photos of…

[Reading this story made me feel good. It’s from the Boise Weekly (in the Rocky Mountain state of Idaho) and it’s about the real work and real benefits of bringing VR and presence to diverse members of the public. –Matthew] [Image: By Adam Rosenlund] Virtual Reality for All “We have helped people with all ranges of body limitations, stress or anxiety, autism, social skills, and even if you are fully paralyzed, we have found relaxing VR videos or music experiences to be effective.” By Harrison Berry March 21, 2018 Ted, a resident of the assisted living center The Terraces, was…

[A new industry study suggests that presence-evoking media are effective venues for advertising. This story is from Retail Dive, and see the short OmniVirt report for more information. –Matthew] 360-degree VR ads have 300% higher click-through rates Dan Alaimo March 13, 2018 Dive Brief: A recent study from OmniVirt revealed that 360-degree virtual reality ads perform appreciably better than regular advertising across metrics such as click-through rates, viewability, and video completion. The data was derived from over 700 million ads served. In click-through rates, OmniVirt found that VR photos performed 300% better than regular two-dimensional photos, and 14% better than…

[Epic Games is leading a group of companies in making significant strides in “crossing the uncanny valley” to create more convincing, less creepy presence illusions of people. The short story below from Slashgear summarizes one of the developments demonstrated at the recent Game Developers Conference; more details follow in a story from VentureBeat. The original versions of both contain more images and videos, and more information is available in coverage by The Verge and the Unreal Engine blog. Note especially this prediction in the VentureBeat story: “By 2024, we may all be interacting with digital humans in some way or…

[Artist Peder Norrby has created a free app that produces impressive optical illusions, as briefly described in this story from DesignTAXI. For a detailed explanation of the illusions, see the artist’s blog. For more interesting examples of presence, see the (free, public) ISPR Presence Community Facebook group. –Matthew] 3-D Optical Illusion Uses iPhone X’s Face ID To Imagine The Gadget’s Interior By Mikelle Leow, 22 Mar 2018 Face ID is to the iPhone X as ‘Snake’ is to the Nokia 3310—both are catalysts to keeping you entertained. Apart from Animoji, the iPhone X’s front-facing camera sensors allow for the making…

[This story from The Conversation effectively makes the unsettling point that the potential of presence-evoking technologies like VR to be used to learn about and manipulate us far surpasses the current concerns about Facebook, and that we better start facing these dangers. –Matthew] Think Facebook can manipulate you? Look out for virtual reality March 21, 2018 By Elissa Redmiles, Ph.D. Dtudent in Computer Science, University of Maryland (Elissa Redmiles receives research funding from a variety of sources including the National Science Foundation, National Center for Women in Technology, and Facebook.) As Facebook users around the world are coming to understand,…

[It’s certainly not the first use of presence-evoking technologies for medical, even surgical, training but this story from the University of Virginia emphasizes the ease of use, low cost, soon-to-be wide availability and important benefits of VR recordings of surgeries for a variety of audiences. The linked video clip mentioned near the end of the story is only 30 seconds long, but for more information and a 9 minute video see the PR Newswire press release. –Matthew] [Image: Dr. Ziv Haskal has created a virtual procedure that puts the viewer right in the operating room with him. Credit: Josh Barney,…

[Facebook has patented a design for a two or three legged robot that would likely have telepresence capabilities; since it’s Facebook, much of the coverage raises privacy concerns. This story is from CNN, where the original includes a second image. –Matthew] Facebook robots may one day follow you around at home by Matt McFarland March 6, 2018 Your future Instagram pictures could be taken by a Facebook-branded robot that follows you around the house. That is, if a newly awarded Facebook patent ever becomes a reality. The company received a patent on Tuesday for a self-balancing robot that’s capable of…

[Presence may be a powerful force for addressing the timely and much too common problem of sexual harassment. This story is from Los Angeles Magazine, where the original includes three other pictures; more information is available on the Vantage Point Indiegogo page and in coverage available via the Press page on the company’s website. –Matthew] Can Virtual Reality Help Stop Sexual Harassment in the Workplace? An L.A.-based entrepreneur and sexual violence-survivor is bringing a fresh solution to life March 19, 2018 Liz Ohanesian I’m a silent presence inside a tidy office, observing as one woman and two men work into…