[This story from the University of Auckland describes a variety of innovative uses of virtual reality and presence in teaching students about property and construction. –Matthew] VR takes property students new places 13 August 2018 Virtual reality (VR) field trips are now being used to teach students about construction and leaky homes at the University of Auckland Business School, as the technology revolutionizes imaging in the property industry. From this month, Bachelor of Property students in the stage one course “Introduction to Property” are being given Google Cardboard headsets – a low-cost virtual reality headset that resembles a cardboard Viewfinder…

[When virtual objects and characters are seamlessly overlaid on ‘reality’ a presence illusion is (or at least can be) created. This story from Next Reality describes a new indoor AR system developed by Blippa that has a variety of interesting applications; see the original version of the story, or the Blippar announcement, for more information, pictures and a 2:33 minute demonstration video. Following the story below is an excerpt of coverage by TechCrunch that suggests additional, potentially worrisome, applications of the new system including advertising and monitoring of user movements. –Matthew] Blippar Brings Its AR Navigation Capabilities Indoors By Tommy…

[Brian Stelter, senior media correspondent and host of CNN’s weekly “Reliable Sources” program, has written what I think is an excellent analysis of how Donald Trump continues to upend politics (I would argue dangerously). Note the allusions to elements of presence phenomena in these quotes from his story below: “Trump’s stories are often more fiction than fact. But the thing about a story, like a novel or a drama, is that it’s not really meant to be fact-checked. The narrative is meant to make you feel.” “The pro-Trump media act as his co-producers. In Hollywood terms, it’s as if Trump…

[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 [email protected]). –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.…