[BigScreen and other technologies like it may be the future of presence – shared virtual social experiences with “just as many possibilities as the real world”; the story from Upload includes more pictures. –Matthew] ‘BigScreen’ Lets You Share and Use Your Entire PC Desktop Inside VR by David Jagneaux March 11th, 2016 I was sitting on a couch in a comfortable and decadent penthouse-style apartment overlooking a beautiful city landscape at night time. The horizon was peppered with lights and buildings in the distance. In front of me was a floating flatscreen monitor, hovering at an angle below my neck,…

[This story suggests another likely-to-be-popular use of VR and presence, one reminiscent of the Lonesome Gal radio show from more than six decades ago. The story from RocketNews24 includes many more pictures.—Matthew] VR visit to Japanese swimsuit model’s apartment provides joy for dateless men on Valentine’s Day Ai Shinozaki, one of Japan’s hardest-working models, extends some VR hospitality. Casey Baseel Feb 15, 2016 Ai Shinozaki could probably make a comfortable living doing nothing more than smiling for the camera, seeing as how she covers the three Bs of the Japanese modeling world: baby-faced, busty, and (frequently) bikini-clad. Nevertheless, the 23-year-old Tokyo…

[This article from The Guardian highlights the challenges and potential of using emerging technologies to deepen our experience of presence in the performing arts. –Matthew] [Image: Stuck in the Middle With You, a new virtual reality dance production commissioned by Acmi and Sydney Dance Company. Photograph: Wendell Levi Teodoro] Audience takes centre stage in pioneering virtual reality dance film Acmi join forces with Sydney Dance Company for an immersive film that combines choreography with virtual reality, allowing the audience to view the production from all angles Jana Perkovic Monday 7 March 2016 How do you capture a stage show on…

[This story presents a vivid example of how presence experiences can be intense and impactful. It’s from VICE’s Munchies channel, where it includes additional images and related links. More coverage is available from NPR and The Huffington Post UK, the latter authored by the executive director of iAnimal. The interactive 7:13 minute video is available via the link in the story below and on YouTube. By the way, this story makes me glad I’m a vegetarian. –Matthew] This Virtual Reality Slaughterhouse Could Turn You Vegetarian By Charles Parkinson March 8, 2016 Bleeding animal carcasses, piglets torn from their mothers, and…

[This press release from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz describes a new article proposing a code of conduct for the use of VR, prompted by its potential to evoke presence – the article includes this passage: “Some of the risks and ethical concerns that we have already encountered in the early days of the internet will reappear, though with the added psychological impact enabled by embodiment and a strong sense of presence.” I’ve written, in Cheryl Bracken and Paul Skalski’s book “Telepresence in Everyday Life,” about the need for an even broader set of ethical guidelines for presence. –Matthew] First code…

[The community of presence researchers is well-positioned to take on the challenge of developing a “language of presence” as outlined in this piece in VentureBeat (by the way, I think the film “The Room” the author mentions is the 2003 film rather than last year’s “Room.”). Check out the Ars Technica article the author mentions too. —Matthew] Virtual reality will be stuck in limbo until it gets its own language Manick Bhan, Rukkus March 6, 2016 Virtual reality is being hailed as the Next Big Thing, the newest tech trend that will upend all our lives and make a handful…

[Whether it’s regular television or virtual reality, advertising can easily cause a (frustrating, annoying) break in presence; this story from Advertising Age wisely contemplates guidelines to minimize the ‘damage.’ –Matthew] [Image: From PSFK] Marketers, Don’t Ruin Virtual Reality With Ads Five Guidelines to Help Protect the VR User Experience By Nicholas Manluccia. Published on March 01, 2016. 2016 will be a pivotal year for virtual reality. While skeptics remain, many analysts and investors predict that virtual reality is on its way to becoming a mainstream platform. As the medium makes its way from headlines to homes, a content ecosystem will…

[The progress toward rich social (tele)presence, in this case with fictional characters, continues. Note the explicit mention and definition of presence in the second paragraph of this story from Variety, where the original features a 0:46 minute teaser video; for more information on the work being done by Limitless, see the company’s press release on PRWeb and coverage in VentureBeat. –Matthew] This Virtual Reality Startup Wants to Make Characters Talk Back Janko Roettgers, Senior Silicon Valley Correspondent March 3, 2016 Seattle-based virtual reality startup Limitless is building a new technology to bring responsiveness to animated characters in virtual worlds and…

[This story is about arguably the most important application of VR and presence; it also explicitly raises important research questions for presence scholars to investigate (see the paragraph that begins, “According to Bryan Mochizuki…”). The story is from Wired, where the original includes a photo gallery and three videos. –Matthew] VR Films Work Great for Charity. What About Changing Minds? Angela Watercutter March 1, 2016 New inventions, whether they’re gadgets or startups or biotech advancements, always come with some promise to “change the world.” Some do. Most don’t. A rare few find revolutionary uses that go far beyond what their…

[We need more of this kind of ‘thinking outside of the box’ in the design of presence experiences. The story is from The Verge (where it includes another image); more details and a video are available on the Oculus blog. –Matthew] Dragon Front is a Hearthstone-like card game built for virtual reality A game that rethinks the first-person VR approach By Nick Statt on February 26, 2016 Virtual reality has traditionally been about transporting you to new worlds and making you believe you’re really there. It’s the immersion element, known as “presence” in industry lingo, that makes VR feel like…

[The study reported in this story from the Huffington Post provides new evidence that the ability of presence to give people vivid experiences from different perspectives can produce valuable positive effects. –Matthew] [Image: A study participant playing the role of an adult comforting a crying child.] Virtual Reality Therapy Could Be Used To Treat Depression The new therapy could one day help improve symptoms by teaching self-compassion. 02/17/2016 Carolyn Gregoire, Senior Health & Science Writer, The Huffington Post Could virtual reality be the next frontier for treating depression? A new study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry Open on…

[As the title suggests, this story from Wired considers one of the key ‘big picture’ ethical issues raised by telepresence. It arguably has applied to most previous technologies but the potential of today’s and especially future technology brings it new salience. –Matthew] VR Will Make Life Better—Or Just Be an Opiate for the Masses Wagner James Au Culture, author of The Making of Second Life (HarperCollins) and writer for the blog New World Notes February 25, 2016 Virtual reality will dramatically transform movies and gaming, but some see an even loftier goal for the burgeoning technology: Providing the world’s poor…