[A new study adds to the evidence for the potential of VR and presence to reduce perceived pain during medical procedures, in this case using a less interactive stimulus that’s designed for older adult patients who are laying down. All of the press coverage so far, including this story from News-Medical.Net, is based on a press release which unfortunately doesn’t include an image of the stimulus. For a related development see the new open access publication “Efficacy of Smartphone Active and Passive Virtual Reality Distraction vs Standard Care on Burn Pain Among Pediatric Patients” in JAMA Network Open. –Matthew] [Image:…

[Most people most of the time don’t think about the fact that they’re experiencing the world only through their senses and perceptual processing systems rather than directly (what some have called first order mediation), but naturally occurring and especially human-created optical illusions (a form of technology defined broadly) can be powerful reminders and represent compelling (tele)presence illusions. The post below from the Pascal’s Pensées, or Pascal’s Thoughts, blog (“Contemplations from the trenches of Neuroscience, Psychology, Metaphysics and Life”) introduces an effective example. See the original version of the post for larger images and a detailed technical report about the illusion.…

[There doesn’t seem to be much press coverage yet and this VRScout story and the company’s website provide few details, but the Arcadia concept is intriguing. See the original story for another image and a 3:48 minute video (also available via YouTube). –Matthew] Arcadia Is A Mixed Reality Competition For Athletes & Gamers The “world’s first stadium-size mixed reality arena” will begin searching for its first-ever ‘Arcadia Champion’ later this year. July 14, 2021 by Kyle Melnick After three years of secret development, Arcadia, an ambitious stadium-size mixed reality competition, will soon host its Arcadia Trials in an effort to…

[The University of Maryland’s Maryland Today reports on a new study that correlated EEG and real-time self-reports of cybersickness during a virtual reality experience (the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire was also administered after the session). More details are in the published article in Virtual Reality; here’s the final paragraph: Our findings in this paper are just a first step to the many opportunities that present themselves in using EEG to study cybersickness in virtual environments. Some of the more important amongst these include a better understanding of the sources of cybersickness, the relationship of the duration of immersion to cybersickness, and…

[This New York Times story explores the concept and several early examples of “the metaverse”; among many other things it highlights the huge amounts of corporate and individual incomes already involved in the phenomenon and includes this interesting example of inverse presence: “Mr. [Craig ] Donato [chief business officer of Roblox] said that during the pandemic he spent so much time meeting in the company’s virtual office that upon returning to the physical space, he had to remind himself that he could not do the same things as his Roblox character. ‘I was like, “Gosh, I have to make sure…

[This is a short piece from Psychology Today about the potential for using presence-evoking technology-for dating; it highlights both benefits and some ethical concerns. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Olena Yakobchuk/Shutterstock] Dating in the Digital Age How Virtual Reality Could Change the Way We Date Will the first dates of the future take place in a headset? July 9, 2021 By Liesel Sharabi Ph.D. Reviewed by Devon Frye One of the biggest problems with online dating is that the people we meet often fail to live up to expectations. People sometimes lie and exaggerate to make their virtual self look appealing and,…

[The stories from The New York Times and SoraNews24 below contain different details about a new, popular presence illusion outside a busy subway station in Tokyo. Each story contains short videos of the giant “Shinjuku east exit cat” along with some other examples of illusions created the billboard display technology. –Matthew] A Digital Cat Is Melting Hearts (and Napping a Lot) in Japan The calico prances and dozes on a 26-by-62-foot LED billboard in Tokyo. It has drawn crowds in real life and sparked joy on social media. By Hikari Hida and Mike Ives July 8, 2021 Ryoko Kikuchi was…

[Below is an abbreviated version of a long but compelling story from The New Yorker about how robot pets evoke, and how older users experience, medium-as-social-actor presence that combats loneliness. If you have time, it’s well worth reading the full version (or listening to the included audio version). –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Illustration by Grace J. Kim] What Robots Can—and Can’t—Do for the Old and Lonely For elderly Americans, social isolation is especially perilous. Will machine companions fill the void? By Katie Engelhart May 24, 2021 It felt good to love again, in that big empty house. Virginia Kellner got the cat…

[We’ve seen individual stories here about some of the innovations covered in this article from Freethink but this is a nice summary of many of the ways presence-evoking technology is improving surgery. See the original version for three videos. –Matthew] [Image: The HipInsight system projects holograms on AR glasses that effectively give surgeons x-ray vision, so they can see what they need to see, when they need to see it, right inside the patient’s body. Source: Surgical Planning Associates via PR Newswire] The Augmented, Virtual, Human-Machine Future of Surgery Is Here Advancements in XR technologies are rapidly integrating into the…

[The public can now experience famous prehistoric paintings in the Lascaux caves in France via virtual reality, as reported in this short Reuters story. See the original story for a one-minute video and see WION for a 3:09 minute video report. For more on this topic see “Did art peak 30,000 years ago? How cave paintings became my lockdown obsession“ in The Guardian and a February 2020 Engadget story that says a new Google “exhibit is the closest you’ll ever get to standing inside” France’s Chauvet Cave. –Matthew] [Image: The Lascaux caves in south-western France. Credit: Tuul & Bruno Morandi/Getty.…

[The curators of a new augmented reality art exhibition in New York City are experimenting with the possibilities for creating, displaying and experiencing art; see the original version of this story from The New York Times for more pictures and a short video. See also the related July 1, 2021 Artnet story “Botanical Gardens Around the World Are Hosting Augmented Reality Artworks by Ai Weiwei, El Anatsui, and Other Artists This Fall” in which a co-curator of the ‘Seeing the Invisible“ exhibition says the goal is to break down “the binary between what is often considered ‘natural’ versus ‘digital.’” –Matthew]…

[The post headline above is from UploadVR’s coverage but all of the stories about the expansion of the Peabody Awards to presence-evoking and other ‘new’ media is all based on the press release below. –Matthew] PEABODY EXPANDS TO INCLUDE INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING Peabody Awards Expand To Include New Categories For Digital and Interactive Storytelling Distinguished Board Of Jurors Appointed For The Inaugural Awards ATHENS, GA (June 29, 2021)—The Peabody Awards today introduced the expansion of its award categories to recognize storytelling achievements across interactive, immersive and new media categories. An additional board of ten newly appointed jurors, composed of esteemed industry…