[This follow-up story about the Mr. Robot VR experience (the original post is here), includes a detailed description and review (starting in the fourth paragraph) and the good news that those who missed the viewing window last week will get another chance after July 25 (see the last paragraph). The story is from The Verge, where it includes many more pictures. –Matthew] The Mr. Robot VR experience isn’t a gimmick — it’s true storytelling By Bryan Bishop on July 22, 2016 Mr. Robot mastermind Sam Esmail has made a point of taking on nearly every creative role possible on his…

[Another example of using VR and presence for the public good; this story (which reads like a press release) is from The Hemming Fire website; the VF4 website identifies the four main causes of deaths of young drivers addresses in the road safety VR project as “using a mobile phone, not wearing a seatbelt, being under the influence of drink or drugs, [and] speeding.” A 1:22 minute video report is available on YouTube. –Matthew] [Image: Source: The Hinckley Times] Leicestershire FRS adopts VR headsets to provide young drivers with a car crash experience Published:  22 July, 2016 Samsung Electronics has…

[More accurate 3D motion capture without a bodysuit, and real-time rendering – presence technology continues to evolve. The original short story from Motherboard includes a 5:46 minute video. –Matthew] Microsoft’s Experimental Tech Captures 3D Scenes in Unprecedented Detail Written by Daniel Oberhaus, Contributor July 16, 2016 The ability to capture and render scenes in 3D has been around for a while now, but for the most part this technology has been limited to non-moving objects. The reason for this limitation is obvious: as soon as you incorporate motion into the picture, there are way more parameters the algorithm rendering the…

[Among other interesting items, there are echoes and extensions of Minky’s predictions about telepresence in this story from Inverse, which features the full 90 minute VR session, a Magic Leap demo video and more images. –Matthew] Leap Motion’s David Holz Divulges Secrets About Future of AR, VR, Humanity How would you like to become a cyborg wizard? Joe Carmichael July 20, 2016 Leap Motion co-founder and Chief Technology Officer David Holz recently offered his vision of our weird future, and how augmented reality and virtual reality will forever change what it means to be human. During the recent presentation —…

[On Thursday July 21 the compelling USA cable TV series Mr. Robot will distribute a VR ‘film’ in the one-time-only format of traditional broadcast TV (before VCRs and DVRs). Details are in the story below from The Creators Project, where you can find the 1:44 minute trailer for season 2 of the series. If you haven’t watched Mr. Robot, I highly recommend it for a lot of reasons including its use of presence-related techniques – see the review in IndieWire for an introduction, and the program’s website for more on how to view the VR film. –Matthew] ‘Mr. Robot’ Is…

[The new study described in this story from Lafayette College demonstrates the effectiveness of live mediated social interaction (vs. recorded, parasocial interaction) for learning by children as young as 17 months; see the links at the end for more information, including images and a 1:00 minute video. –Matthew] New Study of Toddlers Sheds Light on Value of FaceTime Video Chat as Meaningful Interaction Research reveals young kids can tell the difference between live interactions and pre-recorded ones designed to seem real 15-Jul-2016 Newswise — Does your toddler’s video chat with Grandma equal quality interaction time, or just more “screen” time…

[According to this CNBC story (which includes a 1:47 minute video), presence experiences are likely coming to air travel; I’m not sure about using VR to “transport passengers into business class seats” though (!). –Matthew] [Image: A member of the Easyjet staff tries out the Oculus virtual reality headset, used to train Easyjet cabin crew, during a demonstration at the ‘Easyjet Plc Innovation Event’ held at Milan’s Malpensa airport in Milan, Italy, on Thursday, June 4, 2015. Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images.] Virtual reality and Netflix: The future of in-flight entertainment is coming Arjun Kharpal 13 July 2016…

[It’s hard to remember how much of our experience has become mediated, and to understand the critically important implications of this for how we perceive the nonmediated world; this wide-ranging piece from openDemocracy considers some of these ‘big picture’ presence issues. –Matthew] [Image: The Matrix Number Falling Code. Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TInfxe7c7yA.] Does anyone know what’s real anymore? Increasingly we are lost in a world of binary codes: zero or one, Republican or Democrat, black or white, female or male, good or bad. Eleonora Zbanke 11 July 2016 When I was a child in the early 1990s one of my favourite hobbies…

[This is the kind of story that reminds me why I care so much about presence; it’s from NPR, where the original includes more pictures. –Matthew] [Image: Virginia Anderlini (right) was the first private client to try out Dr. Sonya Kim’s new virtual reality program for the elderly, and says she’s eager to see more. Kim’s handful of programs are still at the demo stage. Kara Platoni/KQED] Virtual Reality Aimed At The Elderly Finds New Fans June 29, 2016 Kara Platoni Virginia Anderlini is 103 years old, and she is about to take her sixth trip into virtual reality. In…

[This story from The Columbus Dispatch highlights the increasingly common use of presence to give consumers “the next best thing to [the] actual experience” of visiting travel destinations, in this case by bringing VR experience to them. For more details see the press release at PR Newswire. –Matthew] TourismOhio uses virtual-reality video to attract visitors in Ohio By Marla Matzer Rose, The Columbus Dispatch Tuesday July 12, 2016 Summer typically is high season for state tourism marketing, matching the time when Americans are most likely to take driving vacations. This year, however, is challenging because of a crowded and expensive…

[Even though much of the same logic has been applied to drone strikes, as this story from Motherboard reminds us, the issues raised by the events in Dallas last week are a new context and I find the blunt heading “Telepresence and Killing” disturbing. –Matthew] The Legal and Ethical Ramifications of Letting Police Kill Suspects With Robots Written by Jason Koebler July 9, 2016 Thursday night, after a shocking night of violence in which five police officers were killed by snipers, Dallas police took the unprecedented step of using a remote-controlled “bomb robot” to kill one of the suspects. Now…

[There’s lots of positive press out there about the new “hyper-reality” Ghostbusters experience at Madame Tussauds in New York; this story is from The Verge, where the original includes more pictures and a 2:16 minute video. A story from Inverse (badly in need of proofreading) thoughtfully considers the odd juxtaposition of a wax museum featuring static reproductions of real-life people and modern dynamic digital reproductions of fictional characters. –Matthew] We tried Ghostbusters: Dimension, the world’s most immersive VR experience ‘Busting The Void By Ben Popper and Adi Robertson on June 29, 2016 At Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Times Square…