[Note: For more on the topic of presence and sexuality, see the new article “Telepresence and Sexuality: A Review and a Call to Scholars” by Lombard and Jones in the current issue of Human Technology: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Humans in ICT Environments, available free here (sorry for the self-promotion!).  –Matthew ] [From Pocket-lint, where you can watch the 1:31 minute Durex video; a 1:34 minute CNN video story is here; the Durex video followed by a panel discussion can be found in a segment of The Common Room on YouTube here] Revealed: The future of foreplay is in Fundawear…

[From Human Productivity Lab via PRWeb] Human Productivity Lab Releases New Publication, “Planning a Video Conferencing or Telepresence Project” Detailed guide outlines end-to-end planning of a telepresence or video conferencing project Ashburn, VA (PRWEB) May 31, 2013 The visual collaboration consultancy Human Productivity Lab (HPL) announces the release of the publication Planning a Video Conferencing or Telepresence Project. Written by HPL Consultant Richard Tucker, this guide is based on the experiences and lessons learned by end user organizations that have implemented telepresence projects, from personal systems to immersive room systems. The detailed guide provides information for end-to-end planning of a…

[From Hypergrid Business, where the commentary includes two images] [Image: From 3D Your PC on NVIDIA’s blog] Can 3D save the PC industry? By Maria Korolov Thu, Apr 11 2013 Yes, it can. I really think it can. So here’s the deal. Personal computer sales are going down the toilet. According to IDC, total sales are down 14 percent for the first quarter of this year compared to last year. There were more than 88 million computers sold in the first quarter of last year, and just over 76 million this year. That’s twice as steep a drop as IDC originally…

[From The Guardian] The future of virtual reality: want to conquer vertigo or have a go at surgery? Now you can with the next level of 3D technology – which defies gravity and lets you come squeamishly close to death Posted by Oliver Wainwright Friday 24 May 2013 Ever wondered what it would be like to tightrope walk above the city, dissect a human heart, and jump out of a plane at 10,000 feet – all in one afternoon? These are just some of the experiences on offer in a basement in east London, as part of the Digital Shoreditch…

[From Businessweek’s Getting In blog] A Serious Second Life for B-Schools—No ‘Big Bird’ Avatars Allowed By Francesca Di Meglio May 17, 2013 Will there ever come a day when students and teachers interact in a virtual world? Avaya is betting on it. The Santa Clara (Calif.) company creates a virtual space, similar to Second Life, that allows people to interact as they would in the real world. The MIT Sloan School of Management has already held one executive education course using the technology, and a second is planned for October. Avaya says it’s in talks with other business schools to…

[From England’s The Northern Echo; much more information, including videos, is available on the group’s development blog] Deep sea world is brought to life by virtual reality students 27th May 2013 in News By Barry Nelson, Health Editor A team of final year students from Teesside University are making waves around the world after they developed a deep sea exploration game for a cutting-edge gaming device. The students, who are studying courses in the School of Computing, pooled together their varied expertise to create UnderCurrent for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.…

[From Salon; much more information, including images and videos, is available at the artists’ Tumblr blog] [Image: Copy of the Eiffel Tower in Tianducheng (2012) (all photographs by Phil Thompson and Sebastian Acker)] What’s the Eiffel Tower doing in China? Two artists attempt to explain the Chinese phenomena of “copy towns,” replica cities popping up across the country By Ryan O’Hanlon Sunday, May 19, 2013 This piece originally appeared on Pacific Standard. Hallstatt, Austria, is in China. So is the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, Christ the Redeemer and a soon-to-be-completed Manhattan. There are others, too, and it’s all part…

[From 3D Focus, where the story includes several additional images and a video] [Image: Immersive Cocoon] “VR can change the world with the right apps” says VR expert May 20, 2013 Sébastien ‘VR Geek’ Kuntz is one of the world’s foremost experts on virtual reality.  A board member of the French national VR association AFRV, Kuntz worked at Virtools / Dassault Systèmes as the lead virtual reality engineer for four years. He founded ‘i’m in VR’ to achieve his goal of providing the most immersive VR experiences to everyone. One of the company’s software tools – MiddleVR, won a Laval…

[From Digital Trends, where the story includes additional images] Playing God: Meet the man who built the most lifelike android ever By Andrew Couts — May 18, 2013 Next month, leaders in the world of robotics, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence will converge on New York City for the second annual Global Future 2045 Congress, an event devoted entirely to the quest toward “neohumanism” – the next evolution of humankind. GF2045 is the brainchild of Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov, who’s made it his life’s goal to transpose human consciousness into a machine, thus giving us the power of immortality. (Really.) Among…

[From MIT’s Technology Review] Second Life Founder’s New Virtual World Uses Body Tracking Hardware Hardware that tracks your head, eyes and hands will make the follow up to Second Life very different to the pioneering virtual world Tom Simonite May 20, 2013 The founder of once-popular virtual world Second Life, Philip Rosedale, is working on a new 3D digital world that looks like it will be operated using gestures and body-tracking hardware. Rosedale declined to talk about his new company, called High Fidelity, just yet. But videos and other material posted online by the company suggest it is working on…

[From Gamespot, where the story includes an additional image and two videos] VRcade Sets Its Sights on the Next Leap in Immersive Gaming Using the Oculus Rift, VRcade’s engineers are designing what they believe will become the future of virtual entertainment. May 8, 2013 By Peter Brown, Editor The Oculus Rift has single-handedly revived public interest in virtual reality and it represents a tremendous leap forward from the immature head-mounted display tech that was touted so passionately in the ’90s. For developers interested in advancing the field of immersive gaming, it has already proven to be a catalyst of sorts,…

[From The Washington Post, where the story includes a large photo gallery] Mind-controlled prostheses offer hope for disabled By Devin Powell, Published: May 6 The first kick of the 2014 FIFA World Cup may be delivered in Sao Paulo next June by a Brazilian who is paralyzed from the waist down. If all goes according to plan, the teenager will walk onto the field, cock back a foot and swing at the soccer ball, using a mechanical exoskeleton controlled by the teen’s brain. Motorized metal braces tested on monkeys will support and bend the kicker’s legs. The braces will be…