[This blog post from the Huffington Post argues that the transformative power of VR (and thus implicitly presence) is not in visual displays like Oculus but in “VR for the hands.” –Matthew] What Nobody Will Tell You About Virtual Reality Steven Schkolne, Caltech VR PhD, internationally renown artist, and 3dSunshine founder 02/24/2016 There’s a lot of hype about virtual reality these days, and most of it is wrong. Science fiction films and books have created a hunger for Oculus-style, head-mounted displays (HMDs) and “immersive” experiences, but does wearing a pair of goggles really have more power to transport us? Based…

[The professionals who design and create mediated experiences are increasingly recognizing the importance of presence; unlike many stories we’d recognize as being about presence phenomena, this story from CNET focuses directly and explicitly on the concept. The original includes both videos and more images. –Matthew] Virtual reality’s fragile magic ingredient Pioneers of the new wave of VR reveal how they immerse you in other worlds, but “presence” doesn’t come easily. “It’s like a small bird you can very easily kill,” one filmmaker says. February 19, 2016 By Richard Trenholm One moment I’m in a room full of people, the next…

[An art exhibit recreates a famous painting of a real space and lets people live in the recreation (and experience a sense of presence) for a night. This story is from the Chicago Tribune and more coverage is available in a separate Tribune story. For more information including two videos see the Art Institute of Chicago’s website; the Airbnb listing is here.–Matthew] Art Institute re-creates Van Gogh’s bedroom to rent on Airbnb By Corilyn Shropshire, Chicago Tribune February 11, 2016 Now you can sleep in Vincent Van Gogh’s bedroom. Well, sort of. As part of the Art Institute of Chicago‘s…

[Aside from demonstrating how users of virtual assistants experience (social) presence, this piece from CNN Money illustrates some of the ethical issues creators of presence-evoking technology must face. –Matthew] Even virtual assistants are sexually harassed by Heather Kelly February 5, 2016 All virtual assistants have to deal with inappropriate comments and questions. From seasoned vets like Siri and Google Now, to the rash of new specialists with names like Amy, Molly, Mia and Robin. When Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) launched Cortana in 2014, a good chunk of early queries were about her sex life, according to Microsoft’s Deborah Harrison.…

[Hyperrealistic art can evoke intense and thought-provoking presence responses. This story from The Creators Project makes clear that some of the works can be quite unsettling (the original includes 16 images, I’ve purposely included only a mild example here). For more on this theme see the links at the end of this story and another recent piece in The Creators Project about the hyperrealistic paintings of Matt Story (“Unbelievable Realist Paintings of Women Underwater Look Like Photo”). –Matthew] [Image: Cornered. By Marc Sijan] Hyperrealistic Sculptures Blur the Line Between Clay and Flesh By Anna Marks — Feb 4 2016 Victor…

[This hasn’t gotten a lot of press coverage, but could be an important step toward more effective presence illusions. The story is from Engadget, which features a 0:13 minute demo video using the avatar pictured below; a second video using an animated robot is available on YouTube. More details from Oculus via Geeky Gadgets are included below. –Matthew] [Image: From Geeky Gadgets] Oculus wants to help VR avatars look normal when they talk It’s all thanks to a clever Unity plugin Chris Velazco 02.14.16 Remember all those Hong Kong kung-fu movies with really poor dubbing so the actors’ mouths would keep…

[Here’s another sign that VR, because of its ability to evoke presence, is heading for the mainstream; this story is from Fast Company, where it features more images and two videos. –Matthew] Sports Illustrated Swimsuit VR Couldn’t Be More “Intimate” You can strap on a headset for the articles Daniel Terdiman February 15, 2016 Supermodel Hannah Davis is used to doing photo shoots with tons of people around, surrounded by crew members fixing her makeup, hair, and eyelashes and giving her all manner of direction about what to do while the camera clicks. But when the 2015 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit…

[Chatbots are increasingly capable of passing the Turing Test, with users not able to distinguish them from humans, but I find it particularly interesting that even when users are aware that they’re conversing with an AI they don’t care and still treat it as they would a human. This story is from Nautilus, where it includes other images. According to The Daily Dot, “There’s no English counterpart for Xiaoice yet, but if you speak Mandarin, you can test her out on this website.” –Matthew] Your Next New Best Friend Might Be a Robot Meet Xiaoice. She’s empathic, caring, and always…

[Here’s yet another way we’re trying to increase presence in our mediated experiences; this one is interesting in part because it works with both TV sets and VR headsets. The story is from Engadget, where it includes more images and a 3:53 minute video. –Matthew] Immersit’s crazy 4D motion sofa kit hits Kickstarter Turn your couch into a bucking bronco for around $750. Steve Dent February 11, 2016 Immersit thinks that your gaming, virtual reality or home cinema experience could be a little more dynamic. To fix that, it just launched its Immersit 4D motion sim for your sofa on…

[This simple and elegant presence-evoking installation could be a model for one way to help users move between nonmediated and mediated realities; the original version of the story from Fast Company features a 1:21 minute video and more images. –Matthew] This Magical Door Lets You Explore The Virtual World Without Putting On A Headset There’s a chasm between our physical and virtual worlds. This captivating installation offers one way to bridge them. Mark Wilson February 10, 2016 It should feel like a cliché. Doors, a project by interactive studio The Ortiz, is something we’ve seen 1,000 times before: a portal…

[This is a thoughtful, example-filled, theory-building discussion of the essential elements of storytelling in VR, all with a focus on the user’s experience (including explicitly the experience of presence – see the third paragraph). It’s from Road to VR, where it includes the 29:39 minute podcast, another image and both mentioned videos. Several typos have been corrected. –Matthew] The Four Different Types of Stories in VR Voices of VR Podcast – Episode #293 By Kent Bye – Feb 4, 2016 For the past year, Devon Dolan has been trying to make sense of the interactive storytelling landscape that’s possible within…

[Robots are among many technologies that can evoke a sense of presence, a misperception of experience mediated by technology, in which the medium itself seems to be a living social actor. This story from IEEE Spectrum considers the possibility that as robots become more human-like in both appearance and behavior we’ll resist them as threats to our uniqueness (akin to anthropocentrism and computers). See the original story for an additional image featuring Geminoid DK with his doppelganger creator and the mentioned 2:56 minute video. –Matthew] Study: Nobody Wants Social Robots That Look Like Humans Because They Threaten Our Identity By…