[CNN reports on efforts to improve the training of police officers and prevent the kinds of tragedies we hear about so often. See the original version of this story for more images and a 2:55 minute video report. For related recent stories see How a new virtual reality system can help train Sacramento police for real-life encounters (The Sacramento Bee) Greenfield [Indiana] officers using virtual reality to help with de-escalation training (WTHR) New Voinovich Academy initiative offers Appalachian law enforcement training via virtual reality (Ohio University) –Matthew] With virtual reality police training, Sacramento tries to ‘get to a much better place’ By Emma…

[I’m sure many of us would like to try out Google’s new prototype system for social presence called Project Starline, described in this first-person report from Wired. See the original story for two looping mini-videos and see Google’s 1:50 minute video on YouTube. –Matthew] Google’s Project Starline Videoconference Tech Wants to Turn You Into a Hologram Our reporter tests out a “video booth” to glimpse the future of telepresence. By Lauren Goode May 18, 2021 Over the past several years, Google has been working hard to craft software experiences that make you feel like you’re present with another human being,…

[Although there’s much more research to do, particularly on the specific role of presence, this New York Times story suggests another positive application of presence-evoking technology. See the original story for a second image and a 2:52 minute video (also available via YouTube). –Matthew] [Image: Michael Heinrich, who lost the use of the lower half of his body after an accident, undergoes virtual reality therapy. “From an emotional standpoint, coming off an injury where I lost the majority of the use of my body, V.R. pushed the boundaries of what I thought was possible,” he said. Credit: Michigan Medicine] Meet…

[This link-filled story from The Conversation summarizes some of the presence-related themes of the author’s new book Artificial Intimacy: Virtual friends, Digital Lovers and Algorithmic Matchmakers. See the original story for two more images. –Matthew] Sex bots, virtual friends, VR lovers: Tech is changing the way we interact, and not always for the better By Rob Brooks, Scientia Professor of Evolutionary Ecology; Academic Lead of the University of New South Wales Grand Challenges Program, UNSW May 2, 2021 Twenty-first century technologies such as robots, virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) are creeping into every corner of our social and…

[We seem to lose track of time when we’re using virtual reality (and other presence-evoking media technologies?), as demonstrated in the new study reported in this story from UC Santa Cruz. Follow the link in the story to read the new article in the journal Timing & Time Perception. –Matthew] Virtual reality warps your sense of time Psychology research demonstrates unique ‘time compression’ effect of virtual reality By Allison Arteaga Soergel May 12, 2021 Grayson Mullen was playing a virtual reality game at a friend’s house when, suddenly, he noticed that something very strange was happening. “I stopped playing the…

[A new long story in City Journal magazine presents a useful, link-filled history of what the author calls imitative technologies and then turns to the long-term impact of the pandemic on our use of telepresence and telecommuting; an extended excerpt is below. –Matthew] [Image: With virtual reality and augmented reality, the line between the real world and the world of representation has gotten even blurrier. Credit: Mark Rightmire/Medianews Group/Orange County Register/Getty Images] The Great Fake Digital advances have taken imitative technology on a miraculous trajectory—bringing new challenges but also new possibilities. By Joel Mokyr, a professor of economics and history…

[A new method for generating photorealistic computer graphics for real-time interaction has the potential to increase evoked presence for both games and VR. This story from Road to VR explains, and includes more pictures and an 8:33 minute narrated demonstration video. For more examples and much more information see the project’s web page. –Matthew] [Image: An example of a frame from GTA V after being enhanced by the method. Credit: Courtesy Intel ISL] Intel Researchers Give ‘GTA V’ Photorealistic Graphics, Similar Techniques Could Do the Same for VR By Ben Lang May 13, 2021 Researchers from Intel’s Intelligent Systems Lab…

[New research described in this story from StudyFinds suggests that along with other humans, robots can use touch to influence our emotions and behavior, a demonstration of medium-as-social-actor presence. Follow the links at the end below for full details and see also the recent review article “Calming Effects of Touch in Human, Animal, and Robotic Interaction—Scientific State-of-the-Art and Technical Advances” in Frontiers in Psychiatry, which concludes that “Taken together, the majority of previous research reviewed in this article indicates a calming/stress-relieving effect of touch, irrespective of the agent that is touching or being touched.” –Matthew] [Image: Source: PLOS One] A…

[Michigan State University has launched a new virtual reality app called “A Mile in My Shoes” that uses presence to build awareness and empathy about, and practice responding to, macroaggressions and other negative experiences on campus. The original version of this MSU Today story includes three different pictures and a 3:50 minute demonstration video (also available via YouTube). You can listen to or read an interview with Associate Dean and Director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Quentin Tyler in WKAR’s May 10, 2021 story; here are some highlights: “On How the Program Works: ‘These are scenarios based on situations that…

[Gizmodo reports on a new application of deepfake AI technology that provides an alternative to subtitles and traditional (unsynced) dubbing to create the illusion that a movie actor is speaking a different language, potentially making films accessible to a broader audience. See the original story for a 1:59 minute showreel video and a three minute demonstration featuring Tom Hanks in Forest Gump. –Matthew] Deepfake Lips Are Coming to Dubbed Films By Andrew Liszewski May 6, 2021 For those who find reading a foreign film’s subtitles too distracting, movies are often dubbed into different languages. But that can be equally distracting…

[A new Apple Insider story describes how the company is working on next-level presence-evoking technology that would adapt a multi-sensory “synthesized reality” experience to the contours of a user’s physical location. Further blurring the line between actual and virtual surroundings, a December 2020 Apple Insider story describes a technology system that could use information from standard 2D video and a variety of other sources including audio-only media to extract and (re)create the content and form of a 3D synthesized reality experience – here’s an excerpt from that story about Apple’s research on a “Method and device for generating a synthesized…

[The Guardian provides this update on the growing popularity of both designer and more reasonably priced digital fashion, some of the reasons for its appeal, and predictions that “wearing” virtual clothing in whole body fully-tracked 3D via augmented reality will become as common as the use of Snapchat and Instagram facial filters is now. See the original story for two more images. –Matthew] [Image: Author Hannah Marriott in her back garden, ‘wearing’ an Auroboros bodysuit and Shishigami shoes. Photograph: TBC] Digital fashion: This outfit will set you back £780 … and it’s just an illusion Thanks to augmented reality, we…