[Despite the humorous description in this review by TonyVT (Skarredghost) in his excellent The Ghost Howls blog, and modern echoes of the Pet Rock phenomenon, “Rock Life: The Rock Simulator” is a real, apparently presence-evoking game for VR and other platforms. I see a sly but important message here about the ability of even simple, low resolution, limited interaction simulations to create effective, and in these stressful times, appealing, presence experiences. See the original blog post for more images, and a 7:28 minute video version of the review on YouTube; there’s also a 4:20 minute un-narrated gameplay video on YouTube.…

[A vivid example of presence after death is described in this story from BBC News. Additional details from the Daily Mail follow below; the original version of that story also contains more images. A 1:33 minute video is available in DesignTAXI’s coverage (and available on YouTube), and you can interact with the StoryFile version of the late Marina Smith on her foundation’s website. For more on StoryFile and related projects, see the May 2021 ISPR Presence News post “Modern Spiritualism: How holograms, deepfakes, and AR are raising the dead.” –Matthew] Holocaust activist seems to talk to guests at her funeral…

[Here’s a succinct summary of the features needed for a ‘perfect’ VR headset. See the original version of the MIXED story for an image or video about each feature, as well as a video of the 2 hour 40 minute Siggraph presentation (also available via YouTube). For a related story see the June 2022 ISPR Presence News post “Meta reveals VR prototypes on path to improve presence and pass the ‘Visual Turing test.’” –Matthew] Meta’s display chief names 10 features for a perfect VR headset There are still many hurdles to overcome before virtual reality reaches its technical potential. The…

[Amid vivid news coverage of modern inhumanity around the world, this touching and inspiring NPR story describes a project that uses presence experiences to help people affected by such events in the past. See the original version for the seven minute video and many more pictures. –Matthew] [Image: Ishar Das Arora, 83, watches a 3-D video of his birthplace in Pakistan, through a virtual reality device. Credit: Raksha Kumar/NPR] 75 years after India’s violent Partition, survivors can cross the border — virtually By Lauren Frayer August 13, 2022 NEW DELHI — First comes the melancholy twang of a South Asian…

[The mixed reactions to a digital recreation of beloved baseball announcer Harry Caray, at a game celebrating a much-loved film about “a farmer who builds a baseball field in his cornfield that attracts the ghosts of baseball legends” (Wikipedia), illustrate the challenges of creating effective presence illusions of people who have died. The report below is from The Washington Post, where the original includes more pictures, video clips and Tweets; find more reactions in coverage from TV Insider, CBS Sports and Sports Illustrated. Note that the reactions seem to have been more positive in the stadium than on social media…

[Many of us have had the strange experience in which the recorded music we’re listening to (e.g., in headphones or earbuds while walking) coincidentally seems to match up with the environment we’re moving through. This story from Creative Boom describes a new purposeful effort to create these matches between mediated and nonmediated elements of our experience, a type of presence illusion. See the original story for several different pictures and a 1:06 minute promotional video (also available via YouTube) and see the “Projects” page of the Circus Family website for other interesting presence-related projects such as “Vlisco – We are…

[This Associated Press story describes some of the ways people around the world have been using technology and presence to experience religious sites and rituals, including during the pandemic. See the original version of the story for six more pictures and a video. –Matthew] [Image: This July 22, 2019 photo taken from video gives a 360-degree view of Ramadan prayers on the plateau of the Dome of the Rock, which can be seen in The Holy City, a virtual reality experience in the metaverse. Credit: The Holy City VR via AP] From Mecca to the Vatican, exploring sacred sites with…

[A project and publication from University of York researchers focuses on how to design audio experiences in virtual reality to create more effective presence experiences. See the original version of the story for a 1:46 minute gameplay demonstration (also available on YouTube) and find more videos in the article’s supplementary material. –Matthew] [Image: Figure 3 from Constantin Popp et al., Creating Audio Object-Focused Acoustic Environments for Room-Scale Virtual Reality, Applied Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.3390/app12147306. Screenshot showing an area in Planet Xerilia. The collision-based system is implemented in the “water” droplets, here visible as randomly rotated white small squares, which fall…

[A new app for Quest headsets uses passthrough augmented reality as well as virtual reality, along with hand tracking, to teach people how to play the piano, as reported in this story from Classic FM. See the original version for the mentioned 9:29 minute video review (also available on YouTube) as well as a shorter demonstration video. For more details, see coverage from UploadVR. –Matthew] [Image: Source: UploadVR] Music in the Metaverse – learn to play the piano in this new augmented reality app This new VR game is the piano’s answer to Guitar Hero, but the controller is your…

[Here’s a fascinating story about new evidence demonstrating that virtual reality can evoke “self-transcendence” – a “sense of deep connectedness and ego attenuation” (which sounds like a rich form of social as well as spatial presence) that is also created by “LSD or psilocybin (the main psychoactive component of ‘magic’ mushrooms).” See the original story in MIT Technology Review for a 1:13 minute video (also available via Vimeo). –Matthew] [Image: Credit: MS TECH | SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY (CT/MRI IMAGE)] VR is as good as psychedelics at helping people reach transcendence On key metrics, a VR experience elicited a response indistinguishable…

[Presence scholars usually focus on illusions created by digital technologies, but physical tools and materials can be used to evoke presence too (as in paintings, drawings, and sculptures). Today’s post is about buildings designed and built or remodeled to create a presence illusion. The February 2022 story below from New York City’s Gothamist describes what appears to be “a pretty typical residential townhouse” in Brooklyn Heights but is actually a subway fan plant and emergency exit (the story also describes a videogame based on the unusual ‘house.’ A 2010 story from Curbed New York includes a familiar term in a…

[Without using the terms telepresence or teleoperation, this story from Stanford University includes vivid descriptions of the experience of remotely operating a new sophisticated underwater humanoid robot as it explores ocean depths. See the original story for two more images and two four-minute videos. –Matthew] [Image: OceanOneK with its boom camera in hand near a Beechcraft Baron F-GDPV aircraft that was 67 m down (over 200 ft). Credit: Frederic Osada/DRASSM/Stanford] Stanford’s OceanOneK connects human’s sight and touch to the deep sea The diving robot explored sunken planes, ships, and a submarine, and descended nearly 1 km. Special features of OceanOneK…