[On Thursday July 21 the compelling USA cable TV series Mr. Robot will distribute a VR ‘film’ in the one-time-only format of traditional broadcast TV (before VCRs and DVRs). Details are in the story below from The Creators Project, where you can find the 1:44 minute trailer for season 2 of the series. If you haven’t watched Mr. Robot, I highly recommend it for a lot of reasons including its use of presence-related techniques – see the review in IndieWire for an introduction, and the program’s website for more on how to view the VR film. –Matthew] ‘Mr. Robot’ Is…

[The new study described in this story from Lafayette College demonstrates the effectiveness of live mediated social interaction (vs. recorded, parasocial interaction) for learning by children as young as 17 months; see the links at the end for more information, including images and a 1:00 minute video. –Matthew] New Study of Toddlers Sheds Light on Value of FaceTime Video Chat as Meaningful Interaction Research reveals young kids can tell the difference between live interactions and pre-recorded ones designed to seem real 15-Jul-2016 Newswise — Does your toddler’s video chat with Grandma equal quality interaction time, or just more “screen” time…

[According to this CNBC story (which includes a 1:47 minute video), presence experiences are likely coming to air travel; I’m not sure about using VR to “transport passengers into business class seats” though (!). –Matthew] [Image: A member of the Easyjet staff tries out the Oculus virtual reality headset, used to train Easyjet cabin crew, during a demonstration at the ‘Easyjet Plc Innovation Event’ held at Milan’s Malpensa airport in Milan, Italy, on Thursday, June 4, 2015. Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images.] Virtual reality and Netflix: The future of in-flight entertainment is coming Arjun Kharpal 13 July 2016…

[It’s hard to remember how much of our experience has become mediated, and to understand the critically important implications of this for how we perceive the nonmediated world; this wide-ranging piece from openDemocracy considers some of these ‘big picture’ presence issues. –Matthew] [Image: The Matrix Number Falling Code. Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TInfxe7c7yA.] Does anyone know what’s real anymore? Increasingly we are lost in a world of binary codes: zero or one, Republican or Democrat, black or white, female or male, good or bad. Eleonora Zbanke 11 July 2016 When I was a child in the early 1990s one of my favourite hobbies…

[This is the kind of story that reminds me why I care so much about presence; it’s from NPR, where the original includes more pictures. –Matthew] [Image: Virginia Anderlini (right) was the first private client to try out Dr. Sonya Kim’s new virtual reality program for the elderly, and says she’s eager to see more. Kim’s handful of programs are still at the demo stage. Kara Platoni/KQED] Virtual Reality Aimed At The Elderly Finds New Fans June 29, 2016 Kara Platoni Virginia Anderlini is 103 years old, and she is about to take her sixth trip into virtual reality. In…

[This story from The Columbus Dispatch highlights the increasingly common use of presence to give consumers “the next best thing to [the] actual experience” of visiting travel destinations, in this case by bringing VR experience to them. For more details see the press release at PR Newswire. –Matthew] TourismOhio uses virtual-reality video to attract visitors in Ohio By Marla Matzer Rose, The Columbus Dispatch Tuesday July 12, 2016 Summer typically is high season for state tourism marketing, matching the time when Americans are most likely to take driving vacations. This year, however, is challenging because of a crowded and expensive…

[Even though much of the same logic has been applied to drone strikes, as this story from Motherboard reminds us, the issues raised by the events in Dallas last week are a new context and I find the blunt heading “Telepresence and Killing” disturbing. –Matthew] The Legal and Ethical Ramifications of Letting Police Kill Suspects With Robots Written by Jason Koebler July 9, 2016 Thursday night, after a shocking night of violence in which five police officers were killed by snipers, Dallas police took the unprecedented step of using a remote-controlled “bomb robot” to kill one of the suspects. Now…

[There’s lots of positive press out there about the new “hyper-reality” Ghostbusters experience at Madame Tussauds in New York; this story is from The Verge, where the original includes more pictures and a 2:16 minute video. A story from Inverse (badly in need of proofreading) thoughtfully considers the odd juxtaposition of a wax museum featuring static reproductions of real-life people and modern dynamic digital reproductions of fictional characters. –Matthew] We tried Ghostbusters: Dimension, the world’s most immersive VR experience ‘Busting The Void By Ben Popper and Adi Robertson on June 29, 2016 At Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Times Square…

[This project is an example of the breadth of emotional experiences that can now be created via technology. The story from Little Black Book features a different image and a 1:30 minute video; for more information and a different 1:18 minute video that features people’s reactions to the experience, see the Atomic London website. –Matthew] VR Life Garden Thanks 100,000 Contributors to Cancer Research UK Rushes teams with Atomic London to launch beautiful VR experience Rushes, July 7, 2016 Cancer Research UK will display a virtual reality garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show this month. The VR experience…

[If VR and related presence-evoking technologies are to succeed, we’ll need tools like this; the short item is from Fast Company, where it features a 4:29 minute video. For information on how to create the effect yourself, see coverage in Ars Technica. –Matthew] The World’s First Decent Ad For Virtual Reality It’s long been impossible to share the immersive experience of VR in plain old video, but that problem was just solved. Mark Wilson 04.06.16 Look, virtual reality is fantastic and immersive and transformative and blah blah blah. We’ve all heard that. The problem is, VR looks horrible in advertisements…

[Here’s an argument from an experienced designer and researcher for human-centric mixed reality over virtual reality, at least in military applications; it’s from The Conversation, where the original features two more images. –Matthew] Military needs a more realistic approach to virtual reality June 1, 2016 Robert Stone, Chair in Interactive Multimedia Systems, University of Birmingham Disclosure Statement: Robert Stone receives funding from BAE Systems, Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (Dstl/MoD), Royal Centre for Defence Medicine. The worlds of warfare and virtual reality are an appealing combination. Millions of fans of Call of Duty would no doubt jump from their sofas…

[Will augmented reality become ‘ingrained in people’s daily lives’? The original version of this story from NPR includes another picture, a 3:04 minute video and links to several related stories. –Matthew] To Be The Very Best: Pokémon Enters Into Augmented Reality June 30, 2016 Gabriel Rosenberg Halfway through your walk to school, a wild Charmander appears. Just a few throws of a Pokéball, and it could be yours. Will you stop to catch it? Nintendo is betting you will. Not just that, they’re betting that you’ve waited most of your life to see a Pokémon in the real world. Pokémon…