[Here’s a positive scenario for the near-future use of a combination of presence-evoking technologies in schools; it’s from The Washington Post. –Matthew] [Image: People look through Samsung Gear VR virtual reality goggles at the Samsung booth during CES International on Jan. 9 in Las Vegas. (John Locher/AP)] The future of education is virtual By Vivek Wadhwa, Distinguished Fellow and professor at Carnegie Mellon University Engineering at Silicon Valley and a director of research at Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. January 23, 2018 Massive open online courses (MOOCs) were supposed to bring a revolution in education.…

[As described in the news release below, new 4-D goggles developed by neuroscientists at the University of California San Diego “deliver immersive multisensory effects near the face and enhance the sense of presence.”—Matthew] [Image: 4-D goggles developed at UC San Diego. Photo by Ching-fu Chen] New ‘4-D Goggles’ Allow Wearers to be ‘Touched’ by Approaching Objects By Kim McDonald February 08, 2018 A team of researchers at UC San Diego and San Diego State University has developed a pair of “4-D goggles” that allows wearers to be physically “touched” by a movie when they see a looming object on the…

[As this story from TechCrunch notes, even the early version of Imverse’s new software that lets users see themselves and other people and objects inside virtual environments can evoke a strong sense of presence – in fact the author says it “unlocks a new level of presence, which every VR experience and gadget aspires to”). See the original story for more photos and the author’s 0:41 minute narrated demo video of the company’s mixed reality engine from Sundance 2018. –Matthew] Imverse’s groundbreaking mixed reality renders you inside VR Posted Jan 30, 2018 by Josh Constine What if you could look…

[This amusing story from The Scottish Sun is an unusual example of medium-as-social-actor presence. See the original for more pictures, and a follow-up story (with the lead “CAT ASTROPHE”) for more reactions including to a Facebook post by the police division. –Matthew] SCAREDY CATS Frantic Peterhead farmer Bruce Grubb and gun cops cower from tiger for an hour — only to discover it is a cuddly toy Bruce had invited pals round for a housewarming after moving into the farm three weeks ago when the drama unfolded By Stuart Patterson Updated: 6th February 2018 Armed cops were called to tackle…

[Most presence experiences occur as a result of using one or a few technologies at one or a few places, but some amusement, and especially theme, parks offer many different presence experiences all in the same place (a few cities, or at least large areas of cities, do this too – e.g., Las Vegas and replica cities). This story from the Independent captures some of the sensations of visitors to these odd but compelling places, in this case the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Japan. See the original story for more photos, and the park’s website for more information.…

[This short story from Forbes describes the clever use of tele-operation via VR to help artificially intelligent robots learn how to move like humans. The original story includes a 1:29 minute video, and for more information see the short interview with Peter Abbeel in Supply Chain Management Review and the November 2017 New York Times story it links to. –Matthew] [Image: Robot performs human movements using VR. Photo Credit: Berkeley Robot Learning Lab.] Robots Learn To Move Like Humans Using Virtual Reality February 1, 2018 Andréa Morris, Contributor – I cover S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math). The historic…

[Can a robot evoke medium-as-social-actor presence and effectively fill the role of TV news anchor? The original version of this story from the Daily Mail includes more pictures and two videos. For more details see a 14:21 minute video from The Guardian via YouTube. More information and a video about the weather robot Xiaoice is available from The Washington Post and Engadget covered the earlier robot news anchors Kodomoroid and Otonaroid. –Matthew] Erica, the creepy robot that is so life-like she appears to ‘have a soul’, will replace a Japanese TV news anchor in April Roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro says she…

[This story from The Register provides a nice overview of the many efforts to incorporate haptic sensation in virtual reality (and thereby increase presence for users); the original story includes videos for four of the technologies. –Matthew] We won’t need to go outside if these haptic tricksters have their way Simulating physical sensations is a growing frontier in VR tech By David Matthews 26 Jan 2018 Haptic controllers are being touted as the next frontier in virtual reality. Having spent years obsessing over headset pixel counts, the VR industry is now playing with exoskeletal gloves, ultrasound waves and even electric…

[Now you can replace your telepresence robot with a human surrogate wearing the ChameleonMask! This story is from Mental Floss, where the original includes a 30 second video; much more information is available from the project website. –Matthew] ‘Human Uber’ Lets a Surrogate Socialize For You By Jay Serafino February 1, 2018 Has the process of interacting with other human beings become too much for you, but you don’t have the heart to ditch your social obligations completely? Then you’ll be very interested in what virtual reality researcher Jun Rekimoto showed off at MIT Tech Review’s EmTech conference in Asia…

[This is an interesting story from IFLScience about medium-as-social-actor presence in a Scotland grocery store. Our colleague David Benyon from Napier University is quoted in coverage from the Sunday Herald and a cultural explanation for how people responded to Fabio the robot is included (along with a short video) in a story in ZDNet. –Matthew] Store Hires Robot To Help Out Customers, Robot Gets Fired For Scaring Customers Away By James Felton 22 January 2018 Every few months there’s a story warning us that robots will take over our jobs within five, 10, or 20 years. You don’t get a lot…

[As this story from Futurism does, all or nearly all the press coverage of this technology advance with implications for presence begin by referring to science fiction portrayals (e.g., in Star Wars, Iron Man, and Avatar). The original Futurism story includes links to coverage in Nature News, the Nature article and the BYU press release as well as a 2:24 minute BYU video. –Matthew] [Image: One of Smalley’s students, wearing a lab coat and posed like Princess Leia. Image Credit: Smalley et al., Nature] Physicists Just Made Star Wars-Style 3D Projections a Reality By Dom Galeon January 26, 2018 IN…

[The new Space 360 spherical theater in Gwangju, South Korea (about 3 hours by train south of Seoul) is designed to evoke a strong sense of spatial presence. The original version of this story from urdesignmag includes 7 more images and a 3 minute video; more information is available from the Front Pictures blog, including this from the (admittedly biased) sponsor: “The feedback from the audience is great. They say that they have never experienced anything like this before. And they feel like they have travelled into another dimension!” –Matthew] Inside South Korea’s First Spherical Projection Theater The Gwangju National…