[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…

[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…