[This new product adds the “4D” element of wind to VR to enhance the sense of presence, and the ZephVR website says “Beyond wind, our technology will enable all sorts of peripherals and physical effects—temperature, vibration, rain, or anything else people can think up—so that they work with all VR content, automatically.” The story is from BGR, where it includes an additional image. For more information see the ZephVR website and press kit. –Matthew] Meet the new accessory that lets you actually feel virtual reality Andy Meek October 30th, 2017 The team behind a new accessory for virtual reality headsets…

[As those who know me know, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, I’m sure in part because the whole thing is about presence illusions (and very delicious pumpkin flavored foods). Here are a few Halloween Presence links – for more, see the (public) ISPR Presence Community Facebook group. Happy Halloween to all! –Matthew] Tiffany Blaze creates scary make-up illusions 18-year-old Tiffany Blaze cultivates a disturbing mastery of gory SFX makeup looks, all of which she creates using common household items. Though the ingredients she uses (like instant espresso for road rash and banana for fatty tissue) aren’t pricey, the looks…

[This new all-virtual art museum, an apparent milestone, has the potential to provide a high presence experience that eventually will be available to more people than a brick-and-mortar museum. The story is from Bloomberg, where it includes a second image and a 1:19 minute video. –Matthew] Virtual Reality Museum Puts Rembrandt in High-Def Visitors can don a headset, enter an architect-designed VR gallery and view the Kremer Collection’s 70 Old Masters. By Molly Schuetz October 26, 2017 The Kremer Collection has spent the past two decades loaning out its collection of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish art to museums and galleries…

[This interview with Kathleen Richardson, Professor of Ethics and Culture of Robots and AI and co-founder of The Campaign Against Sex Robots, raises important and disturbing ethical implications of medium-as-social-actor presence. It’s from Conatus News, where the original includes five additional images. I’ve included two of the four comments from readers (as of this writing) that make thoughtful contributions to the discussion. –Matthew] Kathleen Richardson, professor of ethics at De Montfort University, speaks in depth about the ethical problems with sex robots. Terri Murray October 25, 2017 Kathleen Richardson is Professor of Ethics and Culture of Robots and AI at…

[The technology is closer than ever to being ready, but creators and designers need to employ it carefully to evoke presence and retain users; this story from Venture Beat explains (see the original for more images and a video). –Matthew] 3 keys to improving user retention in virtual reality Michael Park October 23, 2017 5 Virtual reality’s failure to live up to its hype is well documented. Poor user retention plays a significant role in this matter, as it does with any other technology product. However, disappointing retention is often mainly a function of a poorly designed product and user…

[Can, and should, presence-evoking technologies replace nonmediated field trips for learning about and appreciating nature? How can the technologies supplement direct exposure to the natural world? These questions are addressed in the story below from Science. –Matthew] [Image: Digital simulations are the latest stage in the evolution of human attempts to interpret biodiversity. Credits: (Illustration) V. Altounian/Science; (Photo) Jeff Pachoud/Staff/Getty Images] Digital nature: Are field trips a thing of the past? Douglas J. McCauley, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology and Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. Science  20 Oct 2017: Vol. 358, Issue…

[NASA and Google have launched a new presence experience; here’s a key quote from the NASA news release below: “More than anything, Access Mars offers a visceral impression of what it would be like to walk alongside [the rover] Curiosity, wandering through the lonely, red desert.” The original release includes more images and a 1:11 minute video; see related coverage at GeekWire. –Matthew] Take a Walk on Mars — in Your Own Living Room Oct. 19, 2017 When NASA scientists want to follow the path of the Curiosity rover on Mars, they can don a mixed-reality headset and virtually explore…

[This story from KQED highlights some of the challenges of establishing and telling stories with presence (even though it never uses the term). See the original version for 5 images and 3 videos. –Matthew] [Image: Lily Baldwin directing Amari Cheatom, Marni Wood on set of Through You, photo by Cameron Bertron. Source: San Francisco Dance Film Festival.] Is Virtual Reality the Future of Dance? By Carla Escoda October 16, 2017 Those who think virtual reality (VR) is solely the province of gamers, adventure-seekers, and simulation builders may be startled to see how dance-makers are employing the technology on screen. For…

[The new technology described in this story from PetaPixel represents another expansion of presence illusions in our lives (and toward traversing the uncanny valley) – note the predicted applications for Facebook near the end. To watch many examples of the technology in action see the Supplementary Materials page of the project’s website. –Matthew] This Tech Can Turn Portraits Into Photo-Realistic Videos of Facial Expressions Will Nicholls October 10, 2017 Researchers at Facebook and Tel Aviv University in Israel have teamed up to bring your selfies to “life.” Using a single still photo of a person’s face, their new technology is…

[Two interesting presence-related videos are highlighted in recent entries in Jason Kottke‘s excellent kottke.org blog. The details are below… –Matthew] Goodbye Uncanny Valley Oct 17, 2017 [Also see the comments posted with the video on Vimeo. –Matthew] For years, the idea of the uncanny valley has dominated computer graphics. Computers were powerful enough to produce real-ish looking people, places, or things but not quite powerful enough to make audiences believe they were actually real…to the point where they’re actually kind of creepy. In this excellent video essay, Alan Warburton argues that the uncanny valley is behind us and previews where…

[This story from Forbes describes how a technology created to evoke spatial presence is being used to train artificial intelligence and thereby make agents and robots more competent and able to more effectively evoke social and medium-as-social-actor presence. –Matthew] Virtual Reality is the Next Training Ground for Artificial Intelligence Simon Solotko , Contributor October 11, 2017 Virtual reality was imagined as a human simulation technology long before the most recent wave of innovation that brought us the Oculus RIFT and the wave of innovation that followed. Now, rendering high framerate graphics using multiple, stereoscopic points in virtual reality is matching…

[The Virtuali-Tee looks like a clever use of technology to evoke presence for education and enjoyment. The story below is from Wired, where it features a different image. See the Curiscope website for more information including a video, and the company’s blog for information about Operation Apex; the book “All About Virtual Reality” is available from Amazon UK (not the US site as of this writing). –Matthew] Take a peek inside your own body with this virtual reality app Curiscope’s Virtuali-Tee blends augmented and virtual reality to let people explore a human chest cavity through a T-shirt By Eleanor Peake…