[From New Scientist, where the story includes a 1:33 minute video] Natural sense of touch restored with bionic hand 05 February 2014 by Douglas Heaven We have the world at our fingertips. A sense of touch can sometimes be as important as sight, helping us to avoid crushing delicate objects or ensuring that we hold on firmly when carrying hot cups of coffee. Now, for the first time, a person who lost his left hand has had a near-natural sense of touch restored thanks to a prosthesis. “I didn’t realise it was possible,” says Dennis Aabo Sørensen, who is so…

[Another story all about creating presence experiences, but without using the term; it’s from Wired, where you can find a second picture from Royal Caribbean] Cruise Ship’s 80-Inch ‘Virtual Balconies’ Livestream the High Seas By Damon Lavrinc 02.04.14 Passengers stuck in the bowels of Royal Caribbean’s latest behemoth can now pretend they’re living the high life with a “virtual balcony” — marketing-speak for an 80-inch HD display that pipes in real-time video to create a pseudo window, complete with a banister for “a feeling of safety.” Eighty-one interior staterooms aboard the 15-deck Navigator of the Seas will get screens that…

[From Gizmodo, where the story includes more images] The Oculus Rift Put Me In Game of Thrones and It Made My Stomach Drop Mario Aguilar 1/28/14 Game of Thrones might be fantasy, but the characters are so deep and the betrayals so gripping that it feels real. And thanks to Oculus Rift, I just experienced a brief slice of life in the Seven Kingdoms. It was awesome—but I’m glad to be back in our reality. For the second year in a row, HBO will be hosting a traveling Game of Thrones exhibition, and the first preview of the multi-city nerd…

[From Polygon; much more information including videos is available at PrioVR.com] PrioVR brings accurate, full-body motion control to games without a camera By Michael McWhertor on Jan 06, 2014 New gaming technology on display at CES frequently focuses on bridging the gap between virtual and physical reality. Unproven tech like VR headsets, force feedback vests and hands-free motion control are regularly on display, often in nascent, proof of concept form. One of the more interesting attempts is PrioVR, a suit that enables full-body motion control in games without the use of a Kinect, glowing PlayStation Move wand or Razer Hydra-style…

[From Serious Wonder; much more information including video material is available at the creator’s web site] Augmented, Virtual Reality: Quite the Combination 25. Nov ’13 Author: Gabriel Sistare Virtual reality is an immitation of the real world in a digital context. Augmented reality supplements a real-world experience with layers of digital interaction. In a combined experience, British researcher William Steptoe created a dual, virtual and augmented reality system to create what seems like a new reality altogether. Called the AR-Rift, Steptoe’s creation uses the Oculus Rift with additional components to create a series of tiered reality experiences. With webcams, 3D-printed…

[From The Guardian, where the story includes more pictures. A 1:11 minute video report on the app from One Minute News is available on YouTube] How to make sex ‘more awesome’ using Google Glass A new app developed at a wearable-tech hack day promises to show what your partner sees during sex – and means you could even turn off the lights with just your voice Alex Hern, theguardian.com, Tuesday 21 January 2014 Would you wear a pair of Google glasses while having sex? Would being able to see what your partner is seeing make you more or less likely…

[From Fast Company, where the story includes several images and a video] [Image: Screenshot from a player video on the DayZ TV web site] “DayZ” Makes You Feel Every Murder You Commit. Can You Handle This? Dean Hall developed the zombie-packed, psychologically trying PC game to re-create tension faced by soldiers. The emotional responses it triggers have helped the game sell more than a million downloads in its first month. By Evie Nagy January 22, 2014 In early January, a Reddit user posted an emotional story about waking up on a beach and befriending a fellow lost soldier. But the…

[From the Subway Stories web site, which features much more information including images and videos] Subway Stories By Alon Chitayat & Jeff Ong “Subway Stories” is an interactive subway simulator exploring the inner-lives of commuters in New York City. Living in New York City, many of us spend hours a day below ground. Each day millions of people commute via the subway — an apparently “interactive” experience if you stop to consider the potential collisions that could happen. But if you’ve spent significant time on subways, you begin to realize it’s often an isolating experience — one of the last…

[From Race Yourself, where the press release includes a 1:40 minute video and several photos (I couldn’t find a screenshot with the 400 tonne cargo train –ML)] Get Fit This Year by Fleeing From Augmented Reality Zombies: Race Yourself Transforms Exercise Into a Game on Google Glass Race Yourself is a New Fitness Startup for Google Glass, Aiming to Turn Exercise Into a Game.  By Racing Against a Virtual Projection of Yourself, Attaining Personal Bests, and Burning Calories, You Can Unlock New Game Modes Such as Running Away from Giant Rolling Boulders. Race Yourself has Already Raised £200,000 from Investors…

[“In My Shoes experiments with alternative methods of communication. My aim is to put audiences as close to being in the shoes of a stranger as I can, I use virtual reality software, touch, taste, sound & smell to make it as true to life as possible.”… This is from The Guardian, where the story includes an additional picture.] [Image: Jane Gauntlett leads someone wearing audio-visual and more conventional props through a performance of In My Shoes in New York. Photograph: Amy Hart] Virtual reality theatre puts experience of brain damage centre stage Jane Gauntlett’s brain injury forced her to…

[From Dezeen, where the post includes additional images and a related video] [Image: Neil Harbisson is the first officially recognized human cyborg, but digitally enhanced human brains may become the norm in the future. Photograph by Dan Wilton.] “Cyborg scenario” will see computers in the brain replace wearable tech 17 January 2014 News: surgically implanted chips that feed digital information directly into the brain will supersede wearable technology, according to the co-founder of a leading 3D imaging studio. WiFi-enabled chips mounted inside the skull will be more effective than today’s devices such as virtual reality headsets and Google Glass, according…

[A different but arguably very related use of the term presence, from Brain Pickings: “Watts argues that our primary mode of relinquishing presence is by leaving the body and retreating into the mind — that ever-calculating, self-evaluating, seething cauldron of thoughts, predictions, anxieties, judgments, and incessant meta-experiences about experience itself.”] An Antidote to the Age of Anxiety: Alan Watts on Happiness and How to Live with Presence Wisdom on overcoming the greatest human frustration from the pioneer of Eastern philosophy in the West by Maria Popova “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives,” Annie…