[The application of virtual reality and presence to the work of surrealist Salvador Dali (and presence experience creator Walt Disney) seems particularly appropriate; this story is from the AP via Business Insider; a 1:16 minute promotional video, a 5:09 minute 360 degree navigable version of the experience, and more information, are available from The Dali Museum. –Matthew] Virtual reality experience highlight of new Dali Museum show Beth J. Harpaz, Associated Press Jan. 22, 2016 Visitors to a new exhibition at The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, won’t just be looking at art. Thanks to virtual reality, they’ll be exploring…

[As this and other articles on the artist’s work note (without using the term), it’s hard to suppress a presence response to these realistic dolls. The story is from the Huffington Post and features more pictures; for a recent update on research on the Uncanny Valley, see coverage in Slate. –Matthew] Don’t Blink! These Russian Dolls Are So Lifelike They Could Move Captivating videos show Michael Zajkov eerily whittling away blocks of clay into lifelike human beings. 01/21/2016 Nina Golgowski Trends reporter, The Huffington Post When it comes to dolls, Michael Zajkov is not playing around. The Russian artist’s collection…

[This discussion from The New Yorker is full of incomplete but provocative ideas about the nature of our experience of both reality and mediated/virtual reality. –Matthew] [Image: Credit Sarah Lee / eyevine / Redux] Werner Herzog Talks Virtual Reality By Patrick House January 12, 2016 “I’m a skeptic of 3-D, but when I saw the paintings I knew I had to use it,” Werner Herzog told Judith Thurman in 2010, after the New York première of his documentary “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.” The film examines some of the world’s earliest known paintings, which cover the walls of the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave,…

[Even inexpensive VR gear is becoming more realistic and likely to evoke presence; this is from Motherboard. –Matthew] [Image: Screenshot from Google’s sample app for audio spatialization.] 3D Sound Is Coming to Google Cardboard to Make Virtual Worlds More Real Michael Byrne, Editor January 14, 2016 Google’s goofy but cool Cardboard virtual-reality platform is getting an audio upgrade. On Wednesday, Cardboard project manager Nathan Martz announced via the Google Developer’s Blog that software development kits (SDKs) for both the Java-based (Android) and Unity-based (iOS) implementations of the VR headset API would be getting support for audio spatialization. Now, Cardboard apps…

[This Panasonic prototype seems to evoke presence in multiple ways (the headline in The Verge is “Panasonic’s transparent display is hard for your eyes to believe”); the story below is from Digital Journal, where it features a different image and the 2:05 minute video from YouTube. For a nice summary of this and a wide variety of other presence-related tech at CES 2016 see coverage in CNN Money. ––Matthew] [Image: Source: CNN Money] Panasonic’s transparent TV disappears when you wave at it By James Walker Jan 12, 2016 As part of its demonstrations during CES 2016 last week, Panasonic unveiled…

[Without using the term, this story from Engadget covers key current challenges and future prospects for designing effective presence illusions; for more details see coverage in The Verge. –Matthew] [Image: Source: The Verge] Fox pushes virtual reality to the limit with 30 minutes on Mars Being Matt Damon has never been easier. Joseph Volpe January 08, 2016 I wasn’t prepared for The Martian VR Experience. All I’d known before sitting down in a padded seat in a near-pitch-black booth, tucked away in the Library bar at Vegas’ Marquee nightclub, was that I’d be enveloped in virtual reality for up to…

[We usually study individual, brief presence experiences, but the ‘performance’ in this story looks ahead to when VR and presence is a way of life. It’s from The Creators Project, where you’ll find four more images and two videos. –Matthew] This Guy Just Spent 48 Hours in Virtual Reality By DJ Pangburn — Jan 14 2016 After decades of broken dreams, virtual reality appears to be fulfilling its promise. It’s not just that the hardware and software are finally arriving with Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear headsets (motion sickness not excluded); it’s that artists, game designers, filmmakers, and other creatives…

[No need to imagine what the game player will see – these clever people “injected an actor into a scene using VR” and then captured their performance; the story is from Ars Technica, where it includes the 3:50 minute explanatory video. See the studio’s blog for more information and images. –Matthew] Is this the world’s first full virtual-reality motion/voice capture session? Actors combine mo-cap suit, HTC Vive to become characters, see virtual teleprompters. by Sam Machkovech – Jan 13, 2016 Forget latex suits and white ping-pong balls. Motion-capture sessions for video games and films have only gotten more intense over…

[Research question: Are puppies cuter when you experience them in VR? This story from Popular Mechanics (where it features a different image) mentions a few interesting possible sporting event applications of VR as the technology evolves. For information on the different ways to see the Puppy Bowl players in VR see the Discovery website and for full details on the event, see the press release. –Matthew] [Image: Source: PCProactive] The Most Exciting (Dog-Related) Sporting Event Will Show Practices in VR Why would you watch the Super Bowl when you can strap on some Goggles and go hog wild at the…

[This news release from Nanyang Technological University highlights developments in robotics and artificial intelligence that help independently acting social robots and user-inhabited telepresence robots evoke presence. Pretty amazing, and progress is sure to continue… –Matthew] [Image: Prof Nadia Thalmann (left) posing beside Nadine. NTU-built EDGAR telepresence robot (right).] NTU scientists unveil social and telepresence robots Published on: 29-Dec-2015 Say hello to Nadine, a “receptionist” at Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore). She is friendly, and will greet you back. Next time you meet her, she will remember your name and your previous conversation with her. She looks almost like a human…

[It’s easy to forget that the pursuit of presence experiences has a very long history; the fascinating, if long, story below is from the Otago Daily News where it includes a 5 image photo gallery. –Matthew] [Image: A Magic Lantern Slide Lecture on St. Peter’s Basilica, 1897. An illustration from the December 1897 catalogue of T. H. McAllister Company, Manufacturing Opticians, New York. Source: Art History Resources.] In thrall of travelling stereopticon Tue, 5 Jan 2016 In The Lives of Colonial Objects, even the seemingly ordinary can offer exceptional insights into New Zealand’s cultural fabric. The following extract from the…

[vTime brings us yet closer to the goal of a practical, cross-platform, mobile-capable, real-time, immersive virtual social environment that effectively evokes spatial and social presence. This story is from Road to VR, where it features more images and a 1:07 minute promotional video; a separate Road to VR story includes an 18:29 minute interview inside vTime with the Product Development Director. –Matthew] First Look: ‘vTime’ is a “Sociable Network” for Mobile VR, Available Today on Gear VR By Scott Hayden Dec 21, 2015 Starship, a Liverpool-based digital entertainment studio, has today released vTime on the Gear VR store, the mobile…