[Here are three examples of presence, not by name of course, in popular culture: First, a demonstration of Sony’s Project Morpheus on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon from Road to VR, where you can watch the 4:34 minute video.] News Bits: Sony’s Project Morpheus Goes Prime Time with Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show June 8, 2014 by Paul James The mainstream media are slowly warning up to the advent of virtual reality, or at the very least that demonstrating new and exciting ways to play games pulls viewers of the demographics they’re interested in. Now Sony’s Project Morpheus,…

[From CBS News; a 4:13 minute video report is available here] Is “digital cloning” the future of movie making? CBS News – June 2, 2014 “Maleficent,” the story of a winged fairy turning into a wicked sorceress, brought in $70 million this weekend. The film’s special effects are state of the art. When the tiny fairies fly, you see “pixie-perfect” human faces on them. What was once filmed on a sound stage, is now shot on a “light stage,” reports CBS News’ Carter Evans. The surreal laboratory is the brainchild of Paul Debevec who heads up the University of Southern…

[From The Verge, where the story includes two images and a 9:17 minute video] Control VR gloves warp your fingers into virtual worlds $350 device tracks your arms and hands with military-designed sensors By Rich McCormick on June 5, 2014 New technologies such as Google Glass and Oculus’ Rift headset are making it easier than ever for us to get our heads into augmented and virtual realities. But while we get our heads into these alternate worlds and use our eyes to check our emails, surf the internet, even destroy enemy starfighters with a spiral of missiles, our hands are…

[From The Creators Project, where the post includes several more pictures and two videos] Enter An Alternate Sensory Reality With Max Cooper’s 4D Sound Show By DJ Pangburn — Jun 5 2014 When people talk about alternate reality, the typically describes a psychedelic experience or a science fictional world—an experience that produces something outside normal reality. The conceptualization is usually visual, perhaps because humans process visual cues much more quickly and accurately than sounds. But, a new 4D sound system is letting electronic music producer Max Cooper bring the concept of alternate reality to the world of audio, which for…

[From PC World, where the story includes other pictures; much more information is available from SoftBank; a 0:46 minute video is available on YouTube] Meet Pepper, the ‘love-powered’ humanoid robot that knows how you’re feeling Tim Hornyak Jun 5, 2014 If the thought of a humanoid robot in your home makes your skin crawl, meet the friendly Pepper. Pepper is a cute, wisecracking personal robot designed to bring joy to everyone, and Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank wants people to start buying it next year for the price of a high-end PC. The phone giant unveiled the autonomous, sophisticated machine on…

[From MIT Technology Review, where the story includes two images; see also Tape Op’s March 2014 article “The Future of Audio Engineering”] [Image: Tape Op] Microsoft’s “3-D Audio” Gives Virtual Objects a Voice Headphones that make sounds seem to come from specific points in space could be the perfect counterpoint to virtual reality goggles. By Tom Simonite on June 4, 2014 Just as a new generation of virtual reality goggles for video games are about to hit the market, researchers at Microsoft have come up with what could be the perfect accompaniment—a way for ordinary headphones to create a realistic illusion…

[This story from I Programmer isn’t technically news, but as someone with a medical condition that requires regular phlebotomies, I found it particularly thought-provoking. –Matthew ] A Robot With A Hypodermic Needle Written by Lucy Black 27 July 2013 Would you let a robot take your blood? The answer to this question illuminates our real relationship to machines that aspire to rise above the robot vac. Is there another sort of uncanny valley? Veebot is a very clever use of some basic image processing plus some very accurate positioning mechanisms. It first locates a good vein using infrared. Once it…

[From Hypergrid Business, where the column includes a 0:32 minute promotional video for Chuck E. Cheese’ “Virtual Ticket Blaster”] [Image: Belarus-based Amusement & Edutainment Technologies pairs an Oculus Rift with moving seats to create its 3D entertainment attraction. (Image courtesy AET.)] Virtual reality could find its first home outside the home by Kevin Williams · May 29, 2014 The arcade industry was decimated back in the mid-90’s by the advancements in consumer console games as well as a failure to adapt to changing player demographics. Virtual reality could bring it back. As a side benefit, virtual reality arcades could help…

[From Silicon Angle, where the story includes more pictures and a 16:47 minute video] [Image: Microsoft] Virtual Reality brings Big Data visualization to life Mike Wheatley | May 29th 2014 Data visualization tools have made it somewhat easier to glean intelligence from a mass of information. But today’s tools are still extremely inefficient, as they fail to incorporate the science of human visual perception into their data visualization techniques. This results in tools that deliver great “eye candy” but poor human comprehension of the data. Traditional tools also tend to visualize what we already know about the data, rather than…

[From a large and interesting feature in IEEE Spectrum, “Special Report: The Future We Deserve: The Next 50 Years,” where the story features more images and three videos] [Image: Digital Ira] Digital Actors Go Beyond the Uncanny Valley Computer-generated humans in movies and video games are paving the way for new forms of entertainment By Tekla S. Perry Posted 27 May 2014 Say hello to Ira. His head is visible on a screen as though he’s in a videoconference. He seems to be in his early 30s, with a shaved head, a pronounced nose, and thin eyebrows. Ira seems a…

[From VentureBeat, where the story includes more images and a 1:26 minute video] [Image: A 3D recreation of the Mulberry Harbor built after D-Day. Image Credit: Dassault Systemes.] Engineers build D-Day relics that you can view in virtual reality with Oculus Rift May 26, 2014 Dean Takahashi Engineers have rebuilt D-Day relics in virtual reality using blueprints for the devices that were used the storming of Normandy seventy years ago. History buffs will be able to view these 3D animated visuals with the Oculus Rift virtual reality goggles. D-Day veterans have seen it and been amazed by it, and Nova (a…

[From The Creators Project, where the story includes several more images and a 2:12 minute video; more coverage is available from Geek] New Augmented Reality Prototype Can Make Any Object A Touch-Sensitive Visual Display By DJ Pangburn — May 27 2014 From music apps to Oculus Rift developments, it’s no question that augmented reality is continuously forcing its way into popular consciousness. Yet one of the technological questions to be answered about the increasingly-omnipresent format is the range and scope of how humans will interact with the innovation. Whether it’s smart glasses or other tech products, voice command has proven…