[This article from Road to VR not only uses the term presence but highlights many presence dimensions or types. Note that the “55% of communication is nonverbal” claim is a misapplication of Mehrabian’s work (e.g., see the 3:29 minute CreativityWorks video “Busting the Mehrabian Myth” on YouTube). –Matthew ] Why Social Virtual Reality is Worth Celebrating February 21, 2015 This guest article comes from Chris Madsen who has been eagerly exploring the developing Social VR scene. Chris graduated from the University of Utah in psychology and has worked in the mental health field for almost 20 years. Throughout his career…

[I like that they’re calling the discs “experience reels”… this is from CNET, where the story includes more pictures and a 1:45 minute video report; more CNET coverage is available here and the press release is available from Mattel. –Matthew ] A View-Master for virtual reality: Hands-on with Mattel’s new AR, VR phone toy February 13, 2015 Scott Stein Mattel is relaunching View-Master, but as a virtual reality and augmented-reality phone toy. And I got to play around with it for a bit…or at least, some of the tech behind it. Announced at an event in New York City, the…

[Several of our colleagues are quoted and many interesting examples and links are included in this story from The Atlantic. –Matthew ] The Good and the Bad of Escaping to Virtual Reality Researchers believe new immersive technology could lead to isolation, but maybe when social needs are met online, people won’t need in-person interaction as much. Monica Kim Feb 18 2015 In Silicon Valley, in 1985, a ragtag band of programmers began exploring the concept of virtual reality from a tiny cottage in Palo Alto. Spearheaded by the 24-year-old Jaron Lanier, VPL Research helped make VR a buzzword in the…

[This is reminiscent of Philips’ Hue and Microsoft’s IllumiRoom… the story is from Wired, where you can find several more pictures. –Matthew ] A Pixar-Inspired Projector That Beams VR Into an Entire Room By Joseph Flaherty February 12, 2015 Virtual reality can make you feel like you’re high atop the Wall in Westeros, flying like a bird, or running from an alien intent on killing you, but to everyone else, you look like a spaz flailing about in high-tech ski googles. This makes demonstrating a head-mounted display like the Oculus Rift difficult in a group setting.…

[How real(istic) does a virtual stimulus have to be to say we’ve had the corresponding experience? A first-person report from Road to VR, where the story includes more images and two videos. –Matthew ] I Went Mountain Biking* February 13, 2015 by Ben Lang Not like taking a few jumps on a raked path in the woods behind my house like I used to do as a kid—I mean really mountain biking, the kind of thing you’d see on a GoPro commercial. The kind of thing that would almost certainly result in my death if I tried it without practice.…

[Imagine the possibilities for other sports and non-sports installations… This is from Wired, where the story includes a photo gallery and short video loop. –Matthew ] [Image: “The Last Shot” is a 10-million-pixel immersive scene that lets you recreate one of Michael Jordan’s iconic game-winners. Credit: Tim Moynihan/WIRED] This Immersive Michael Jordan Simulator Is the World’s Coolest Basketball Court By Tim Moynihan 02.15.15 If you’ve played with the Wii, the Kinect, or PlayStation Move, you’ve already blurred the line between games and real-life action. But you’ve never experienced anything like the immersive, genre-bending installation called “The Last Shot”—unless you’re Michael…

[A Valentine’s Day post from psfk, where the story includes an additional picture; more information including gifs and a 1:33 minute video is available at the Cyborg Dating website website and a longer video is available on YouTube] Virtual Reality Dating Lets Couples Build Trust in Time for Valentine’s Cyborg Dating is an augmented experience that pairs couples in a VR-assisted game of ‘follow the leader’ By Kiran Umapathy on February 9, 2015 New virtual reality experiences are being developed every day. And if you’re looking for an interesting date idea, you may want to check out Cyborg Dating.…

[A technology for evoking telepresence after death (other coverage suggests this is a good alternative to taxidermy) from Oddity Central, where the story includes several more pictures and a 4:31 minute video with customer reactions (starting at about 2:12). For a single set of particularly compelling reactions see YouTube for “My family’s reaction to Cuddle Clines Tobi” (especially starting at about 2:15). The company’s website is down because of traffic volume at this writing, but more information is available here. I’d seriously consider this for my late, much-loved and missed dog Sidra… –Matthew ] Company Specializes in Creating Cuddly Plush…

[From Advertising Age; my favorite quote (from near the end): “one thing that turns out to be a rule is that you need to nurture a sense of presence.” –Matthew ] [Image: Masquerading with the Most Interesting Man Credit: Dos Equis] Grab Your Headset: Producers Plunge Into Virtual Reality Demand for VR Rises as Advertisers Invest in Immersive Experiences By Ann-Christine Diaz. Published on February 11, 2015. Before you start dismissing virtual reality as the stuff of gamer nerds, or the next Second Life, think again. In the last month alone, top creators from the entertainment and ad worlds and…

[An unusual story about social presence from Fast Company’s Co.Design, where the article includes a large photo gallery; follow the link at the end for more information and images] [Troy, Nine Months of Reborning, from photographer Jamie Diamond’s series “Mother Love”] Meet The Women Who Treat Their “Reborn” Dolls Like Real Children A photographer immersed herself in the Reborning movement, in which collectors mother uncannily realistic baby dolls. Carey Dunne is a Brooklyn-based writer covering art and design. January 12, 2015 In the Reborning subculture, collectors “adopt” hyper-realistic artificial babies—impeccably crafted from vinyl, glass, doe suede, and up to eighty…

[From Motherboard] The Dark Age of Virtual Reality-Based Torture Is Approaching Fast Written by Doug Bierend January 31, 2015 ​Imagine you’re in a small room. The walls are covered in geometric patterns that literally hurt to look at. In the corner are a polygonal bed and bench canted at angles that make them impossible to sit on. The floor is cluttered with a gridwork of bricks rendering it impossible to walk any direction but forward. It sounds like a computer model of the exact opposite of Fung Shui, but it’s quite real. Built by anarchists fighting in the Spanish Civil…

[From The Creators Project, where the post includes more images; the installation will also be at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona until May 17, 2015] Enter the Sun Without Burning Alive in New NASA Installation By Becky Chung — Feb 5 2015 Inside the Solarium, a video installation by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), you can enter the belly of the sun without worrying about frying to a crisp. In fact, the dynamic visuals of the giant star’s turbulent gas atmosphere exploding and erupting on the walls of the Goddard Space Flight Center’s Visitor Center [in Greenbelt,…