[A new, free, nostalgic but useful website cleverly simulates the environment and experience of being inside a Blockbuster video store. The story below from Giant Freakin Robot is followed by excerpts with additional details and context from Yahoo! Tech, FirstShowing.net, What’s on Netflix and BroBible; see the original versions of these stories for more images and information. –Matthew] Free Website Turns Your Streaming Library Into A Virtual Blockbuster By Chris SnellgroveAugust 9, 2026 These days, it’s easier to watch movies than ever before. With a single click of your remote, you can check out one of the hundreds of titles…

[Apple and Major League Baseball have announced that this fall seven games will be available in high-presence formats via the Apple Vision Pro spatial computing headset. Details and some context are in the story below from Sportico via Yahoo! Sports. The Apple Newsroom press release says that the games will feature “unique camera angles that place viewers right in the game, immersed in the drama of each at-bat, the celebrations in the dugout after a big hit, close plays at the outfield wall, and more. The experience features bespoke commentary from Paul Severino (play-by-play), Xavier Scruggs (analyst), and Michelle Margaux…

[This story from National Defense Magazine describes an omnidirectional treadmill that allows virtual reality users to wear regular footwear and move naturally without a harness. It’s being developed by a startup company for use in military training but has obvious application in other contexts. For more information including a demo video, see the OmniTrek website. –Matthew] [Image: Source: OmniTrek] Virtual Reality Treadmill Simulates Military Training Scenarios By Colby LambJuly 21, 2026 ARLINGTON, Virginia — A Utah-based startup is developing an omnidirectional treadmill to simulate military training scenarios inside a virtual reality environment. OmniTrek’s proof-of-concept prototype for the omnidirectional treadmill uses…

[Apologies for the personal and lengthy introduction to this post. When a person who is close to us, or as many of us know, a pet, dies, even when the death is expected, we feel not only sadness and loss but a profound sense of disruption. We stop, cry, and dwell on the significant change that has occurred in our reality. Most people have felt a less intense version of this response when the death is of someone they’ve only known through media – a favorite actor or actress, musical artist or person in the news. Scholars have labelled the…

[Evolving technologies including generative AI have made it easier and increasingly effective for bad human actors to create and distribute messages that purposely deceive, manipulate and harm other humans (for example, altered or created images, voice cloned phone calls, deepfake videos, etc.). Now we also need to worry about non-human actors using presence (i.e., misleading us about the role of technology in our experience) pursuing the same goals on their own. The abridged version below of a post on the blog of the UK government’s AI Security Institute (AISI) describes how in a recent test new AI models demonstrated the…

[This essay from The Pharmaceutical Journal describes many of the potential benefits of using presence-evoking technologies rather than just in-person experiences for recruiting and training workers, in this case in the context of manufacturing medicines in the UK. See the original version for a collage of three more images. –Matthew] [Image: An example of an immersive virtual reality experience to introduce students to the world of cell and gene therapy manufacturing] Virtual reality holds the promise of filling medicines manufacturing workforce gaps Will virtual reality technology enable the UK to meet the demands of training in the pharmaceutical industry and…

[Cars are increasingly being designed to create presence-evoking experiences, as reported in this story from StereoNET (where the original includes six more images). For more details see the press release via Business Wire. –Matthew] Your Next Car Could Become an Immersive Gaming Arena Cinemo and SmashLabs are developing an in-car gaming platform that brings vehicle audio, lighting, haptics and even climate systems into the action. By Jason SextonJuly 28, 2026 Cars already stream music, movies (and in some cases), games, but Cinemo and SmashLabs want to take the next step by making the vehicle itself part of the entertainment.…

[In a new paper, a large international team of researchers argues that the ability of virtual reality “to immerse [study] participants in hyper-realistic environments and control that environment down to the most minute detail”- and evoke presence and responses similar to those in nonmediated settings – means VR has immense potential to advance research on human behavior. But the team writes that that can only happen if researchers adopt rigorous and standardized practices such as the protocols they propose. The news release below from Dublin City University (and also available from University College London (UCL); the University of California, Merced…

[The decades-long pursuit of, and prognostication about, mainstream commercial success for presence-evoking virtual reality continues; here’s a cautiously optimistic assessment by two experts on VR and sport from the Sports Business Journal. In addition to the link in the story, visit the Dayholi website for more about that VR company and the SailGP website for more about that sailing league’s VR and XR innovations. –Matthew] [Image: Tech-driven SailGP events keep spectators engaged with real-time, graphical overlays of the competition. Credit: Getty Images] Opinion Virtual reality: Not dead, just still ahead of its time By Rick Burton, the David B. Falk…

[A promising application of presence-evoking technologies externalizes the destructive inner voice people with eating disorders (and other conditions) hear as a digital avatar, allowing patients to confront and banish the voice. This abridged version of a story from The Sunday Times describes the treatment process; note references to the patients suspending disbelief, feeling transported, and the experience seeming real. See the original version of the story for five more pictures and links to other related stories. The research report for the study is available via medRxiv. –Matthew] [Image: Illustration by lou kiss] I cured my eating disorder using virtual reality…

[The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has a team dedicated specifically to creating immersive media experiences that raise awareness and help “alleviate suffering for those affected by conflict.” This article from the ICRC website describes the team’s mission, origins and evolution, and identifies some of its productions; in addition to the links in the article, see the website for six embedded short videos that provide more details about the productions. –Matthew] The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Immersive Technology (ImmTech) team: See What We See. Understand What We Do. July 7, 2026 The ICRC Immersive Technology…

[A very positive application of presence to improve the design of products and spaces is described in two stories below; the first, from The CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Universe, provides an overview, and the second, from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, provides additional details. For information on many other presence-related projects at the University of Canterbury’s Human Interface Technology (HIT) Lab, visit the Lab’s Research page. –Matthew] [Image: UC Mechanical Engineering student Julio Messenger (left) and Henry Ward with Dr George Stilwell and Associate Professor Shayne Gooch. Source: University of Canterbury] Researchers Use Virtual Reality to Advance Disability-Inclusive…