[There’s a lot to figure out about how best to use presence for education (at all ages), but there are encouraging developments; the story is from The New York Times, where it features a 1:34 minute video from Google. –Matthew] [Image: Students using Google Expeditions, via a cardboard viewer and a smartphone, at Bronx Latin High School in New York. Credit: Andrew Federman/Bronx Latin High School.] Google Virtual-Reality System Aims to Enliven Education By Natasha Singer September 28, 2015 As part of a class last year on “Romeo and Juliet,” Jennie Choi, an English teacher at Mariano Azuela Elementary School…

[Apparently the little-known company Uncorporeal has figured out how to jump across the ‘uncanny valley’ in VR to produce more effective presence experiences. This story is from Wired, where it includes another image and two videos. There’s not much there at this writing, but the company’s website is uncorporeal.com –Matthew] [Image: The geometric data gathered by Uncorporeal’s cameras and processing hardware results in a data mesh that can be placed in any game environment built in Unity 3D.] These FX Wizards May Have Solved VR Films’ Biggest Problem Peter Rubin October 7, 2015 Sebastian Marino already has an Academy Award…

[The ‘magic’ of Disney technology; this story is from Business Standard; a 1:59 minute video is available on YouTube, the original press release is available via EurekAlert!, and the conference paper is available from Disney Research. –Matthew] New Disney app turns coloured drawings into 3D characters Press Trust of India | Washington October 4, 2015 A colouring book app devised by researchers at Disney can cause characters from drawings to leap from the page in 3-D with the help of augmented reality. A child colours a character, such as an elephant, on the book page normally, while a tablet or…

[Fascinating debates are ahead as technologies increasingly mimic human social actors; this is from Phys.org. –Matthew] [Image: Pepper is described as an “engaging, friendly companion that can communicate with people through the most intuitive interface we know: voice, touch and emotions.” Credit: Aldebaran, SoftBank, Corp.] Incident of drunk man kicking humanoid robot raises legal questions October 2, 2015 by Lisa Zyga A few weeks ago, a drunk man in Japan was arrested for kicking a humanoid robot that was stationed as a greeter at a SoftBank, Corp., store, which develops the robots. According to the police report, the man said…

[This is a sweet story from Ars Technica about a marriage proposal in virtual reality; as the technologies evolve, this could not only become more common but the proposer might be able to ‘take’ their partner to all kinds of elaborate, vivid virtual places to ‘pop the question.’ –Matthew] Valve employee uses virtual reality to propose real-life marriage Bride-to-be wore HTC Vive headset; world’s first “room-scale” VR proposal. by Sam Machkovech – Oct 3, 2015 The HTC Vive virtual reality headset hasn’t yet reached store shelves, meaning only a select few developers have gotten their hands on pre-release kits and…

[Even though they’re created with technologies, we’re used to perceiving buildings as ‘real’ physical objects; the example of glitch architecture in this story from The Creators Project (which includes a 0:43 minute video) makes observers question that perception, creating a type of inverse presence illusion that blurs real and virtual. For an interview with the architects see Hopes and Fears; for more on the “radical capacity of glitch art” see Redefine Magazine; and for the related short film “Algorithmic Architecture,” see more coverage by The Creators Project. –Matthew] Glitch Architecture Shows How Beautiful Broken Can Be By DJ Pangburn —…

[Another experience otherwise unavailable to all but a few to be provided by technology; it’s interesting how this story from BBC News highlights the potential of presence to increase addictive behavior. For more on the development of the William Hill project see earlier coverage by Fast Company. –Matthew] William Hill bets on virtual reality racing 1 October 2015 Anyone who has been to a racecourse will know the excitement when the horses pound towards the finish line. But this thrill of the ride is something that many customers who bet in shops or online do not experience. Bookmaker William Hill…

[This story from PCWorld (where it includes more images and a video) makes a great point about what it takes to evoke a compelling sense of presence rather than just a compelling media experience. -Matthew] For virtual reality to be perfect, it needs to be less perfect Arcades that don’t feel like arcades, living rooms that don’t feel lived in—we take a look at virtual reality’s problem with perfection. Hayden Dingman Games reporter, PCWorld Sep 29, 2015 I’ve been pondering suspension of disbelief lately. It’s a thing we’re all familiar with, I think. It’s the state that keeps us from…

[It’s hard to imagine being able to not experience presence in this new CableRobot Simulator; the story is from Road to VR and features a 2:30 minute video; more information is in the Fraunhofer IPA press release. –Matthew] ‘CableRobot’: A Crazy Motion Platform for Complete VR Immersion, If it Doesn’t Kill You By Paul James – Sep 28, 2015 Now that some of the hardware problems surrounding virtual reality, such as 1:1 head tracking and high frame-rate displays, are being resolved, the ways in which a player’s physiology can be brought in line with the mind are being looked to…

[Natural Reality 2:1 uses VR to make us contemplate the roles of technology and nature in our lives; this story is from The Creators Project blog (where it includes more images). There’s more information about the production in a post on the Abundance Generation blog and a first-hand user report in a second post there. –Matthew] Escape into the Virtual Countryside By Kevin Holmes — Sep 25 2015 Virtual reality transports Londoners from the center of the capital to the rural marshes of east England in filmmaker Dorothea Gibbs, and Third Channel productions’ Natural Reality 2:1—produced by Rupert Lloyd and…

[It looks like live streaming of sports, news and other events in virtual reality is going to be a regular thing; I couldn’t find a link for the GOP debate clip mentioned in this Mashable story, but the author provides a first-person report about the sense of ‘being there’ that he got from watching it in VR. It’d be interesting to study viewer reactions to watching the upcoming Democratic debate live on TV and in VR. –Matthew] You’ll see the Democratic presidential debates in virtual reality, thanks to CNN Jason Abbruzzese September 24, 2015 CNN is offering you a front-row…

[This story includes detailed descriptions of the design process for a new high-end ‘virtual’ classroom and quotes from students using it that indicate it’s effective at evoking presence; the story is from Fortune and includes two more pictures. –Matthew] [Image: Strategy professor Bharat Anand leads a session in Harvard Business School’s new virtual classroom. Photograph Courtesy Harvard Business School] Harvard Business School really has created the classroom of the future Whether they’re in Beijing, Warsaw, or San Francisco, every student in Harvard’s HBX Live! virtual classroom now sits front and center. By John A. Byrne August 25, 2015 (Poets&Quants) —…