[From The New York Times] [Image: “Wild — The Experience” puts viewers in the wilderness with Reese Witherspoon. Credit Felix & Paul Studios] Virtual Reality ‘Wild’ Trek, With Reese Witherspoon By Michael Cieply DEC. 14, 2014 LOS ANGELES — They read the book. They saw the movie. Now, a few admirers of “Wild,” Cheryl Strayed’s tale of her lonely trek along the Pacific Crest Trail, can spend several bone-weary, fully immersive minutes in the deep wilderness with Reese Witherspoon, who plays Ms. Strayed in the Fox Searchlight Pictures film about the adventure. On a smartphone. Fox Searchlight and its partners…

[From the Wall Street Journal’s Japan Real Time blog, where the post includes a different image] Virtual Christmas Dinner Planned for Long-Distance Couples By Jun Hongo Dec 11, 2014 In Japan, Christmas Eve is an occasion for couples to go out on a romantic date–even, it turns out, if they’re 400 kilometers apart. Mobile carrier KDDI Corp. is organizing a virtual Christmas dinner event for couples in a long-distance relationship, with one person in Tokyo and the other in Osaka. “The dinner will make it feel like the other person is actually there with you at the table,” Ayumi Tsujishita,…

[From Venture Beat, where the story includes more images] [Image: MediaSpike’s 3D blimp ad and its outdoor movie screen] MediaSpike creates cool in-game native ads for virtual reality December 8, 2014 Dean Takahashi MediaSpike specializes in doing product-placement ads that look like they’re part of a game world. Now it’s doing the same thing for virtual reality, so that the emerging platform isn’t plagued by banner ads and other intrusive advertising. The in-game virtual reality ads are part of the “native advertising” movement to make ads more welcome and less intrusive. As the brands start to get excited about virtual reality…

[From Gizmag, where the story includes an image gallery] [Image: Learn Immersive generates scene descriptions and text translations from scans of real-world environments that you experience in virtual reality, all of which they hope will help immerse you in a new language (Credit: Panoptic Group)] Learn Immersive teaches languages in virtual reality By Richard Moss December 9, 2014 The trouble with learning a foreign language is that to become fluent – or even just to be passably coherent in a reasonable timeframe – you need to be immersed in it. You need to live in a country where that language…

[From Wired, where the story includes more images and a 4:14 minute video about Project Syria] [Image: A still from Perspective; Chapter 1: The Party, in which viewers can experience both roles in a date rape story] VR Films Are Going to Be All Over Sundance in 2015 By Angela Watercutter 12.04.14 Next month, a giant industry gathering is going to be flooded with virtual-reality experiences: the Birdly flight simulator; something that lets users confront a kaiju attack; an Oculus Rift-enabled spin on combat training; even a VR installation that lets you go to a college party. But this isn’t…

[Anyone interested in telepresence should watch the short (3:28 minute) video “The Revered Gaze,” which explores the history of our use of technology to create immersive and inspiring experiences. It’s the latest (December 4, 2014) installment of Shots of Awe, a web series in which host Jason Silva “freestyles his way into the complex systems of society, technology and human existence and discusses the truth and beauty of science in a form of existential jazz.” Note also the link to Alison Griffiths’ 2008 book Shivers Down Your Spine: Cinema, Museums, and the Immersive View. As always, you can post your…

[From Fast Company’s Co.Design, where the story includes a photo gallery and a 3:54 minute video; for more coverage, see Technobob and The Washington Post] Crazy Project Will Let You Hijack A Human And See The World Through His Eyes Have an adventure without ever leaving your house. Mark Wilson December 1, 2014 Walk into that market. Take a look around. Ooh, what are those strange spikey fruits? Walk up to them and give ‘em a sniff. How do they smell? Like feet? Awesome. Ask the lady what they cost. 588 yen? That’s…about $5? Okay, tell her you’ll take three,…

[From New Scientist, where the story includes a 0:48 minute video; more information including a longer video is available from the University of Bristol] Haptic holograms let you touch the void in VR December 1, 2014 by Chris Baraniuk Feeling is believing. A system that uses sound waves to project “haptic holograms” into mid-air – letting you touch 3D virtual objects with your bare hands – is poised to bring virtual reality into the physical world. Adding a sense of touch as well as sight and sound will make it easier to completely immerse yourself in VR. And the ability…

[From Harvard Business Review; for more information including a video, see the project page on the HCI Lab’s web site; a broader discussion see a recent article in Fair Observer] [Image: CTV News] Can Robots Be Managers, Too? James Young and Derek Cormier April 2, 2014 Robots are starting to enter homes as automatic cleaners, work in urban search and rescue as pseudo teammates that perform reconnaissance and dangerous jobs, and even to serve as pet-like companions. People have a tendency to treat such robots that they work closely with as if they were living, social beings, and attribute to…

[From The Creators Project blog, where the post includes more images] Interact with the Virtual Worlds of Teengirl Fantasy’s New EP By DJ Pangburn — Nov 18 2014 To coincide with the release of Teengirl Fantasy‘s new EP, THERMAL, out today on Break World Records, the digital agency 4REAL—composed of musician/hacker Slava and artist Analisa Teachworth—built four interactive virtual realities that they paired with each of the EP’s four tracks. The THERMAL website, which went live today, runs on WebGL, a web-based 3D graphics technology makes 4REAL’s four virtual worlds interactive. This allowed Slava and Teachworth to move the concept…

[From CNN’s Smart Business coverage; follow the link for a large photo gallery and three videos] [Image: A business conference can take in virtual tours in a range of settings.] A whole new world: 5 ways virtual reality can transform business By Kieron Monks November 25, 2014 (CNN) — A winter commute can seem far easier when the office is a Caribbean beach complete with lapping waves, a lilting calypso soundtrack, and no boss to bother you. The ability of virtual reality to transform worlds is not limited to gaming, and as excitement builds ahead of the launch of Oculus…

[An inspiring post-Thanksgiving story from Road to VR, where you’ll find more pictures] Dreamporte Needs Your Immersive Videos for Unique VR Education Program November 26, 2014 by Paul James Dreamporte is a non-profit organisation set up to help bring the wonders of the world to underprivileged children. But they need help to achieve their goal: your 360 degree or 3D videos. We asked co-founder of the project, Kelly Zhang, to tell us what Dreamporte is and why it matters.…