[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…

[Our colleague Andrea Stevenson Won is quoted in this story from Scientific American about a new study of how people come to perceive and control simulated extra limbs. The story says that “the results suggest participants felt like they had acquired whole new body parts—not just like they had extended their existing feet by adding a new tool [which] potentially opens up a world of virtual and real possibilities.” See the supplementary information at the end of the Scientific Reports article for a 1:36 minute video that demonstrates the experimental procedures. –Matthew] [Image: Figure 1c from the new study: “The…

[Virtual reality and the transcontinental spatial and social presence it enables played a key role in making possible the recent separation of three-year-old conjoined twins, as reported in this story from Futurism. You can watch a three minute interview withs surgeon Noor ul Owase Jeelani from BBC News on  YouTube (the role of VR is discussed at the end), and for more on the use of the “digital twin” concept in medicine see the February 2022 Screenshot story, “New project creates digital clones of human brains to help treat neurological disorders.” –Matthew] [Image: Source: BBC News] Surgeons Use VR Headsets…

[This CNN story makes clear that users, in this case in South Korea, are often unsure about the status of or actually perceive virtual influencers as real rather than digital humans, raising significant ethical issues regarding their potential influence (see the original story for several more pictures). An article produced by the Chinese company Baidu and published in MIT Technology Review describes some of the ways in which digital humans are becoming more sophisticated and taking on more roles in our lives. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Sidus Studio X] Forever young, beautiful and scandal-free: The rise of South Korea’s virtual influencers…

[The new Gorilla Trek Virtual Reality Experience from Immotion is designed to use presence to engage, entertain, inform, build empathy and encourage conservation. The story below from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel provides details and describes audience member responses. Coverage from OnMilwaukee (with the headline of this post) adds this indirect reference to presence from Immotion Group Commercial Director Rod Findley: “People come out of Gorilla Trek and they really feel they have been transported to a different world.” The attraction is now also available at the Pittsburgh Zoo (follow the link for a description and a vivid 30 second trailer…

[This story from Frontiers Science News describes new research that uses virtual reality and presence to test the effects of simple urban design choices on wellbeing; see the original open-access journal article for full details. For interesting, related developments, see the example-filled DesignTAXI story “Artist Uses DALL-E To Make Real Streets Much More User-Friendly,” about how an artist is using “the popular DALL-E 2 art-generating AI as a landscape-planning tool, envisioning public spaces to finally be returned to the public.” –Matthew] [Image: Colorful virtual reality cityscape. Credit: A. Batistatou, F. Vandeville, and Y.N. Delevoye-Turrell] Colorful urban environments, even if just…

[As this story from VentureBeat notes, the vision of a company called Endiatx in which patients receive a small robotic ‘pill’ in the mail, swallow it during a telemedicine appointment, and a doctor controls the device remotely with a tablet or phone to explore the patient’s body via teleoperation, is the stuff of science fiction. But apparently this vision is well on its way to becoming reality. See the original version of the story for three more images. And see a May 2022 ISPR Presence News post for more on author Louis Rosenberg’s early experiences with augmented reality and haptics.…

[This post isn’t a news item, but after watching and appreciating the unusual, well-regarded 2014 horror film It Follows recently and reading up on interpretations of the many ambiguous and subtle aspects of the film, I found the explanation from Yahoo! Entertainment below by the film’s director of how the film was designed to be immersive and evoke spatial (and I’d argue social) presence. Though it’s not mentioned here, I also noticed several examples in which relatable sensory experiences are emphasized to evoke presence as perceptual realism, for example dabbling one’s toes in water, applying lipstick, holding hands, walking on…