[The short Gamespot story below describes the latest version of a presence-evoking product that extends the lighting on a television (or other) screen to the viewing environment. A press release from the manufacturer via PR Newswire provides more details, and Yanko Design has a detailed review that features many images and a 30 second video (also on YouTube). Here are a couple key quotes from the review:

“TV backlights were made to help better immerse you in the show or movie you’re watching by making sure that the light behind and around your TV reflects the content that’s on screen.”

“There are two new lighting effects, namely Arrakis and Spice, that will make you feel like you’re actually in that fictional world [of Dune: Part 2]. Even the app itself gets a Dune theme to match. But if you really want to be transported to Arrakis, Govee’s DreamView technology allows you to sync with other Govee lights in the room, bathing you in the warm orange glow of the planet’s environment.… read more. “Govee adds Dune-themed and other presence-evoking lighting effects to your entertainment center”

[Here’s an interesting idea to enhance entertaining presence experiences. The story is from autoevolution, where it features a 19-image photo gallery and two videos (also available on YouTube here and here). For more information, see the Honda press release via PR Newswire and coverage from Gizmodo and PC Gamer. –Matthew]

Honda Uni-One Coming to SXSW 2024 to Give Americans a First-of-Its-Kind VR Experience

By Daniel Patrascu
February 29, 2024

A little over a year ago the world got to meet something called the Uni-One. Made by Honda, it is not a car, or a motorcycle, but a sort of wheelchair the Japanese carmaker describes as “a hands-free, personal mobility device.”

You could think about the Uni-One as a Segway on steroids, in the sense that it too is self-balancing and moves along thanks to the postural movements of its occupant, but adds to that ability to change the height of riding and, as of now, a seamless interaction with the virtual world.… read more. “Honda combines personal mobility and VR in world’s first extended reality mobility experience to debut at SXSW 2024”

[An impressive and potentially life-saving application of presence-evoking technology is described in this story from MIT News. See the original version for three more images and links to related information. –Matthew]

[Image: Benjamin Warf, the director of neonatal and congenital neurosurgery at Boston Children’s Hospital, uses a virtual reality environment to demonstrate a procedure that he pioneered to treat infant hydrocephalus. As Warf operates his avatar from a distance in real-time, medical residents in Brazil watch, interact, and learn in a 3D environment. Credit: Photo courtesy of the MIT.nano Immersion Lab.]

Brain surgery training from an avatar

MIT.nano Immersion Lab works with AR/VR startup to create transcontinental medical instruction.

By Becky Ham | MIT.nano
February 29, 2024

Benjamin Warf, a renowned neurosurgeon at Boston Children’s Hospital, stands in the MIT.nano Immersion Lab. More than 3,000 miles away, his virtual avatar stands next to Matheus Vasconcelos in Brazil as the resident practices delicate surgery on a doll-like model of a baby’s brain.… read more. “MIT project provides transcontinental brain surgery training from an avatar”

[The experiential learning provided by presence-evoking technologies can be used not just for traditional content but to develop social and emotional learning for K-12 students, especially those with autism and social anxiety. Details are reported in the story below from GovTech. Note this comment from Discovery Education’s senior director of immersive content:

“The thing about augmented reality and virtual reality is it’s this great amplifier, and it creates this experiential learning scenario. When [students are] collaborating, all the soft skills are starting to come in. They’re using immersive content to solve problems as if they are actually there.”

–Matthew]

What Could AR/VR Do for Social and Emotional Learning?

While VR hardware costs remain a major adoption barrier for K-12, experts say the technologies could provide an outlet for students with autism or social anxiety to practice social and emotional skills.… read more. “Experts explore use of AR, VR to enhance social and emotional learning for K-12 students”

[The tagline for The Markup’s weekly newsletter Hello World is “Challenging technology to serve the public good.” The first-person report and interview below describe how a presence-evoking virtual tour of different places at the U.S.-Mexico border via Google Earth and a VR headset is helping people experience and understand how surveillance technology is used at the border and some of the impacts and implications of the surveillance. See the original version of the story for a second image and links to related stories. –Matthew]

[Image: Credits: Photo illustration: Joel Eastwood; photos by John Moore / Getty Images (4); Loren Elliott / AFP; Trevor Hunter]

A Virtual Reality Tour of Surveillance Tech at the Border

A conversation with Dave Maass of the Electronic Frontier Foundation

By Monique O. Madan, Investigative Reporter
February 24, 2024

After reading my daily news stories amid his declining health, my grandfather made it a habit of traveling the world—all from his desk and wheelchair.… read more. “A virtual reality tour of surveillance tech at the U.S-Mexico border”

[This story from The Debrief describes a new study that compares the persuasiveness of propaganda written by humans to that of propaganda generated by artificial intelligence, with worrying results. The story includes extended comments by the lead author (and the original version includes a second image). See also the related WION story “Explained: How AI-generated Propaganda Poses a Real Threat This Historic Election Year.” –Matthew]

[Image: Original propaganda and GPT-3-generated AI propaganda were highly persuasive. Credit: Goldstein et al.]

AI Propaganda is Dangerously Persuasive and Could Be Used in Covert Operations, New Study Warns

By Micah Hanks
February 21, 2024

AI propaganda generated by popular large language models is remarkably persuasive, according to new findings that compared AI-generated content to real propaganda produced by countries like Russia and Iran.

In a recent study, portions of articles previously identified as material suspected of originating from covert foreign propaganda campaigns were provided to GPT-3.… read more. “Study: AI propaganda is dangerously persuasive”

[This story from Scientific American reports on the latest uses of presence-evoking virtual reality in the study of criminal behavior. –Matthew]

[Image: Credit: Credit: Maskot/Getty Images]

Virtual Bar Scenes Are a New Tool to Study Why People Commit Crimes in the Heat of the Moment

Virtual-reality could assist researchers in decoding how emotions spur a decision to commit a crime

By Ingrid Wickelgren
February 21, 2024

A young man enters a busy, dimly lit pub in Amsterdam alone to await the arrival of friends. A faint dance beat plays in the background. A drunken man approaches the bar and orders drinks in a loud, obnoxious manner. He proceeds to taunt the newcomer, burp in his face and bark, “What? Am I hitting on you or what?”

On a virtual-reality (VR) headset where this scene plays out, a question is superimposed on the screen: “How do you feel at this moment?”… read more. “Virtual bar scenes are a new tool to study why people commit crimes in the heat of the moment”

[This AP story uses examples and research results to illustrate how VR-based presence experiences are enjoyable and useful for older people. See the original story for seven more photos and a 1:44 minute video. –Matthew]

[Image: Retired Army Col. Farrell Patrick, 91, wears a VIVE Flow headset as he participates in Mynd Immersive VR therapy at John Know Village. Credit: AP/Lyne Sladky.]

‘Soaring’ over hills or ‘playing’ with puppies, study finds seniors enjoy virtual reality

By Terry Spencer
Updated February 19, 2024

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Retired Army Col. Farrell Patrick taught computer science at West Point during the 1970s and then at two private universities through the 1990s, so he isn’t surprised by the progress technology has made over the decades.

But when the 91-year-old got his first virtual reality experience recently, he was stunned. Sitting in a conference room at John Knox Village, a suburban Fort Lauderdale, Florida, retirement community, Patrick sat up straight as his eyes and ears experienced what it would be like to be in a Navy fighter jet flying off the Florida coast.… read more. “‘Soaring’ over hills or ‘playing’ with puppies, study finds seniors enjoy virtual reality”

[Following the coverage of OpenAI’s Sora software, which lets users generate realistic video from text prompts, the AI voice company ElevenLabs announced new software that adds realistic sound effects to accompany the video, surely enhancing the presence experience of viewers/listeners. This story from New Atlas includes the details and a one-minute video demonstration (also available via YouTube). –Matthew]

[Image: “What if you could describe a sound and generate it with AI?” teases ElevenLabs as AI-generated sound effects and dialog are added to video footage generated by Sora from OpenAI. Credit: ElevenLabs.]

Stunning new AI adds realistic sound effects to any video

By Paul Ridden
February 19, 2024

Last week, OpenAI released a new AI model called Sora that could generate high-resolution video clips from text prompts. But they’re all essentially clever silent films. Now ElevenLabs has added background sounds to Sora-created footage.… read more. “Stunning new AI adds realistic sound effects to any video”

[Sora, a new tool from OpenAI, produces impressively convincing videos from text prompts. This story from Computerworld provides some of the details and raises some frequently mentioned concerns, as well as a more novel one from Dan Faggella of Emerj Artificial Intelligence. See the original version of the story for two more images and two video examples. For related coverage, see stories from Gizmodo and CBS News. The Decoder reports that “Meta’s chief AI researcher says OpenAI’s ‘world simulator’ Sora is a dead end,” and that he says Meta has a better approach. In any case, presence-evoking technology is advancing quickly. –Matthew]

OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video tool’s impact will be ‘profound’

OpenAI is not the first to offer generative AI technology that can transform a text prompt into realistic video, but its tool appears to be among the most advanced to date.… read more. “OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video tool’s impact will be ‘profound’”