[Our increasing ability to produce compelling presence experiences raises important ethical issues; this story from Gothamist includes different images and the two videos mentioned. –Matthew] [Image: Fusion] Videos: There’s An Oculus Rift 9/11 Simulator For Everyone Who Wants To Relive September 11th by Ben Yakas on Oct 29, 2015 There have been a lot—and we do mean A LOT—of cringeworthy, ill-considered tributes to September 11th that have made us stop in our tracks. From the 8-bit videos to the UES boutique sales (and those were just this year), it’s generally a bad idea to try to tie in your product…

[As this story from Road to VR notes, the makers of the new four-part “Sense of Presence” video series take an optimistic view on VR and presence so it’s not the complete picture, but the short segments (only the final one is over 5 minutes) feature interesting “commentary from the leadership of Oculus, NVIDIA, Weta Digital, Oculus Story Studio, Three One Zero, Magnopus and MatterVR, to name a few”; watch all four parts on Epic’s Unreal Engine blog. -Matthew] 4th Part of Epic’s ‘Sense of Presence’ VR Doc Focuses on the ‘Future of VR’ By Paul James – Oct 28,…

[As Matt Jones and I have argued, the topic of presence and sexuality raises complex but important issues; this story is from TechRepublic. –Matthew] Academic conference on ‘Love and Sex with Robots’ abruptly cancelled after being declared illegal Malaysian authorities deemed the second annual Love and Sex with Robots Conference, slated for November, illegal. TechRepublic talked to co-founder, Adrian David Cheok, for the story. By Hope Reese | October 21, 2015 TechRepublic has written a lot about the introduction of robots and artificial intelligence in the workplace. But while many of these issues revolve around whether or not robots will…

[Another provocative set of predictions about the future of presence and sexuality; the story is from The Daily Dot and includes two other images. See the related second post today. –Matthew] [Image: Yahoo! News] By 2050, we’ll all be having sex with robots By Dylan Love Oct 2, 2015 If you’re not having sex with a robot by 2050, you might be the minority. With VR porn and connected sex on the rise, theorists and ethicists are weighing in on the near-future implications of high-tech human sexuality. A paper titled “The Rise of the Robosexuals,” co-created by futurist Ian Pearson…

[This is an inspiring story from People about the ability of new 3D printing technology to create presence experiences for the blind (see the quote in the second paragraph); the story includes more images and a 4:27 minute video, and see the 3D Photoworks website for more information and a series of videos. And see the website for Sonic Paintings for a complimentary technology. –Matthew] 3D Creations Allow the Blind to Experience the World’s Greatest Artworks in a New Way By Cathy Free 10/26/2015 As he traced his fingers across a copy of the painting, “George Washington Crossing the Delaware,”…

[This invention produces presence as transportation into a social actor; the story from MIT Technology Review includes another picture and a 30 second video (the last image of which reads “Telepresence – Bear; Coming Soon”). -Matthew] [Image: You take control of this bear by donning a virtual reality headset to see through its eyes and control its head.] Inhabit This Teddy Bear’s Body Using Virtual Reality Japanese startup Adawarp thinks teleporting inside the body of a robotic stuffed animal could be a good way to keep in touch with loved ones. By Signe Brewster on October 26, 2015 Companies inventing…

[Presence experiences don’t have to involve experiencing the world as yourself or even another human; check out the 1:57 minute video and the other screenshots in this story from The Creators Project blog. –Matthew] Finally, Virtual Reality Lets You Become a Mystical Forest Creature By Kevin Holmes Sep 22 2015 In previous eras if you wanted to experience the world through the eyes of an animal you’d have to be some kind of next level shaman, but now we have virtual reality. In the Eyes of the Animal, the latest project from Marshmallow Laser Feast—Robin McNicholas, Barney Steel, and Adam…

[Here’s another interesting application of VR and presence; as so often happens, this story from The Los Angeles Times includes many descriptions of presence but not the term itself. -Matthew] [Image: Neal Taylor watches and listens a Los Angeles Philharmonic performance via a virtual reality headset in the orchestra’s Van Beethoven. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)] L.A. Philharmonic’s Van Beethoven takes virtual reality for a classical spin September 24, 2015 David Ng Can the technology that set the video gaming world abuzz create classical music fanboys and girls? The Los Angeles Philharmonic has launched a virtual reality project in…

[Shared augmented reality is more difficult than shared VR, with all kinds of interesting potential uses; this story, which features some of our presence colleagues, is from MIT Technology Review; btw, as the CNET coverage notes, the headsets are called “Reality Mashers.” –Matthew] [Image: One of Lanier’s students, Andrea Stevenson Won, wears a headset developed in his lab at Microsoft.] Microsoft Researchers Are Working on Multi-Person Virtual Reality Researchers in Jaron Lanier’s lab at Microsoft are exploring ways for people to share the experience of mixed reality. By Will Knight on October 12, 2015 Augmented or mixed reality, which renders…

[Note: Apologies for the lack of posts Monday, due to computer server problems beyond our control] [Aside from all the good this invention can do in testing vision, as someone with reduced vision (due to congenital nystagmus) and of course interested in VR and presence, I find its potential for personalized prescription VR screens particularly interesting; the story is from MIT Press. –Matthew] [Image: Ramesh Raskar holding the Netra device. Credit: John Werner/Camera Culture Group] Smarter lenses Newly launched mobile eye-test device could lead to prescription virtual-reality screens Rob Matheson | MIT News Office October 19, 2015 After five years…

[Here’s an ambitious plan for a 21st century virtual World’s Fair; this story is from Variety and there’s more coverage in Fortune; the Landmark press release is available via PR Newswire, and an earlier story in ISPR Presence News describes the company’s plans for mixed reality theme parks. –Matthew] Landmark Entertainment Is Building A Virtual Reality World’s Fair October 15, 2015 Janko Roettgers, Senior Silicon Valley Correspondent Landmark Entertainment President and CEO Tony Christopher thinks it’s about time that the world joined virtual reality: Landmark is unveiling plans to build what it calls a Virtual world’s fair, which could eventually…

[This first-person account of watching a political debate in VR identifies both strengths and limitations and raises questions about which will and won’t be solvable as the technology evolves. The story is from Mashable, where it features more images. –Matthew] I used virtual reality goggles to watch the CNN Democratic debate and it was underwhelming Jason Abbruzzese October 14, 2015 The Democratic debate almost made me throw up – but not for the reasons you expect. I’m in a giant hall, in the back right corner facing the stage. I look up and to my right, and I can see…