[Swiss researchers have developed a technology that creates a ‘focus mode’ that alters the version of reality presented in a collaborative virtual space to remove distractions while recording them for the users to experience later. It’s explained well i(including explicit references to presence) n this story from VRScout; see the original for four more pictures and the 8:42 minute video. For more details see the project’s web page and CHI 2022 paper. –Matthew]

Hologram Voicemails Are Here Thanks To Asynchronous Reality

Mute the real world and revisit interactions you may have missed using this mind-bending technology.

By Bobby Carlton
May 2, 2022

Have you ever had one of those days where you needed to just sit down at your desk and focus to complete a task, but couldn’t because of all the distractions happening around you? What if you could alter the time dimension by hitting a mute button and putting reality on hold?… read more. “Asynchronous Reality lets users mute the real world, then revisit interactions they missed”

[The strange new use of electrical muscle stimulation described in this story from SYFY WIRE could solve a common challenge to maintaining presence in interactive media – the need to ‘nudge’ users to pay attention to particular objects and events without breaking the presence illusion. See the original story for a second image and a 3:46 minute video (also available via YouTube). –Matthew]

[Image: Figure 13: Wearable system setup  from Tanaka, Y., Nishida, J., & Lopes, P. (2022). Electrical Head Actuation: Enabling Interactive Systems to Directly Manipulate Head Orientation. CHI ’22: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, April 2022, Article No.: 262, Pages 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1145/3491102.3501910]

THIS VR SYSTEM TURNS YOU INTO AN NPC BY MOVING YOUR MUSCLES FOR YOU

If you stop playing the game, the game plays you.

By Cassidy Ward
May 1, 2022

David Cronenberg’s Videodrome imagines a torturous future where technology and the body meld into a single entity.… read more. “New VR system maintains presence and safety by using electrical stimulation to control head movements of users”

[This ScienceDaily version of information from the University of South Australia describes a recently published study that tested the use of EEG to measure facial expressions that allow users to control their movement in virtual reality, as a replacement for or supplement to hand controllers; the study explicitly measured participants’ sense of presence. The link to the published study is at the end and see new coverage in Science for Students for more pictures and details. For a related story see an October 2020 ISPR Presence News post. –Matthew]

[Image: Participants used three facial expressions — a smile, a frown and clenched teeth — to interact with their virtual environment. Credit: Arindam Dey/University of Queensland]

Forget handheld virtual reality controllers: a smile, frown or clench will suffice

Facial recognition tech taken to the next level in virtual reality

February 18, 2022

Our face can unlock a smartphone, provide access to a secure building and speed up passport control at airports, verifying our identity for numerous purposes.… read more. “Facial recognition tech taken to the next level in virtual reality”

[Two short articles from VRScout and New Atlas report on a new application of teleoperation technology by a major railroad company in Japan. See the original versions of both stories for more pictures; videos are available via Twitter and YouTube. For related news, see an International Railway Journal story about the planned use of VR and digital twin technologies to maintain a new British high-speed rail line. –Matthew]

[From VRScout]

Giant VR Robots Are Building Railways In Japan

Could VR-powered humanoid robots be the future of heavy construction?

By Kyle Melnick
April 26, 2022

Over the years we’ve seen a number of major corporations try their hands at marrying VR technology and robotics, from VR convenience store employees and a remote-controlled bomb squad bot to a rather unsettling headset that uses a robotic arm to hand-feed delicious candy. And that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.… read more. “Giant VR robots are building railways in Japan”

[This post is on the long side – the original article from IEEE Spectrum estimates it’s an 11 minute read –  but it’s a breezy and fascinating first-person glimpse into the history of a key presence-evoking technology and includes some bold but very informed predictions about its future; see the original version for five more images from the author. –Matthew]

[Image: Louis Rosenberg tests Virtual Fixtures, the first interactive augmented-reality system that he developed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in 1992. Credit: Louis Rosenberg]

HOW A PARACHUTE ACCIDENT HELPED JUMP-START AUGMENTED REALITY

In 1992, hardware for the first interactive AR system literally fell from the skies

By Louis Rosenberg
April 7, 2022

I climb into an upper-body exoskeleton that’s covered in sensors, motors, gears, and bearings, and then lean forward, tilting my head up to press my face against the eyepieces of a vision system hanging from the ceiling.… read more. “Presence history: How a parachute accident helped jump-start augmented reality”

[Zoom has added simple forms of gesture control to its desktop software and this story from Fast Company puts the development in a link-filled chronology of earlier presence-evoking gesture-based interface (the original article includes two additional images). For details on how to enable the new feature, see “Using gesture control” on the Zoom website. In related news from ZDNet, Microsoft is expanding access to its Front Row feature for Teams Rooms, which is designed to “blur the lines between virtual and in-person meetings participants.” –Matthew]

[Image: Source: 4×6/Getty Images]

Zoom’s next coup? Taking sci-fi’s favorite interface to the office

Zoom seems poised to take gesture control mainstream by not trying too hard.

By Mark Wilson
April 25, 2022

In Zoom’s latest update for PC and Mac, the teleconferencing company is making a subtly radical update to its interface. Now, when gesturing a thumbs up or raising your hand in a meeting, computer vision will recognize it and display the matching reaction icon on your colleagues’ screens.… read more. “Zoom adds gesture control, poised to take Sci-Fi’s favorite interface mainstream”

[This story from The Face provides insights into both Rave music and culture in England in the 1980s and a new virtual reality exhibition that reproduces experiences from those days. In coverage by NME the creator, Daniel Emerson, says

“I’ve always said that this is not a documentary experience, but an immersive cinematic experience of creative non-fiction. Certainly I hope people will come out of In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats with more knowledge of the Coventry acid house scene, but this has always been intended to be visceral entertainment, and not an exercise in education.”

The author of a story in Mixmag adds this:

“Having spent much of the last two years without human contact during the pandemic, there’s a satisfaction in undertaking an experience that feels so fundamentally cordial and collective within the VR world. ‘It’s ironic as we are using a very technical media and you are actually very shut off from the world’ comments Emerson, ‘but the VR reconnects you with a human element of life.”… read more. “The VR exhibition taking you to the hedonistic heart of acid house”

[This story from The Art Newspaper describes a clever use of the presence-evoking technology of the company PROTO (previously PORTL) designed to ‘beam’ people into remote locations; see the original story for a video (also available via Instagram) and for earlier coverage of PROTO see the ISPR Presence News posts here and here. In other hologram news, Paramount+ recently projected a 60-foot (“world’s tallest”) animated hologram over four cities to celebrate the success of the HALO franchise; see coverage including images in Mental Floss and Animation Magazine. –Matthew]

[Image: Edgar Degas’s Petite danseuse de quatorze ans as seen through a Proto device. Credit: Christies]

Christie’s uses hologram technology to take a $20m Degas sculpture on tour

The hologram, produced by the Los Angeles-based company Proto, is currently on view at Christie’s San Francisco and will next be transported via the cloud to Hong Kong

By Daniel Cassady
21 April 2022

Among the most tangible consequences of the global pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have been the stark rise in oil prices and the spike in shipping costs.… read more. “Christie’s uses hologram technology to take a $20m Degas sculpture on tour”

[Researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology have demonstrated an impressive system for teleoperation via robot, as described in this story from New Atlas; see the original story for two more pictures and a 3:39 minute video (also available via YouTube). Coverage in IEEE Spectrum notes that the first version of the robot was released in 2008. For much more information see a March 2022 research paper available via arXiv. –Matthew]

[Image: The iCub 3 robot and its operator, prior to the telepresence demo. Credit: IIT]

New iCub 3 biped robot used as a long-distance avatar for its operator

By Ben Coxworth
March 16, 2022

We first heard about the child-like iCub humanoid robot back in 2011, when it was nominated to take part in the Olympic Torch Relay. The latest and greatest version, the iCub 3, was the star of a recently-announced (and pretty impressive) telepresence demonstration.… read more. “IIT’s advanced teleoperation system lets users interact with remote site via new iCub3 robot”

[This MIT News story describes an impressive advance in telemedicine, a system that lets surgeons perform life-saving interventions for patients with strokes or aneurysms remotely during the critical period required to save their lives. See the original story for a 3:02 minute video (also available via YouTube). –Matthew]

Joystick-operated robot could help surgeons treat stroke remotely

The system could provide teleoperated endovascular treatment to patients during the critical time window after a stroke begins.

Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office
April 13, 2022

MIT engineers have developed a telerobotic system to help surgeons quickly and remotely treat patients experiencing a stroke or aneurysm. With a modified joystick, surgeons in one hospital may control a robotic arm at another location to safely operate on a patient during a critical window of time that could save the patient’s life and preserve their brain function.… read more. “Joystick-operated robot could help surgeons treat stroke remotely”