ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: June 2016

Call: 12th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2017)

Call For Participation

12th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2017)
March 6-9, 2017, Vienna, Austria
http://humanrobotinteraction.org/2017/

Submission Deadline: October 3, 2016

The ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction is a premiere, highly-selective venue presenting the latest advances in Human-Robot Interaction. The 12th Annual HRI Conference theme is “Smart Interaction,” following Vienna’s “Smart City” initiative. The conference seeks contributions from a broad set of perspectives, including technical, design, methodological, behavioral, and theoretical, that advance fundamental and applied knowledge and methods in human-robot interaction. Full papers, alt.HRI papers, Late-Breaking Reports, and abstracts from Tutorials, Workshops, Demonstrations and Videos, will be archived in the ACM Digital Library and IEEE Xplore Digital Library. Full details of the submission tracks is provided at http://humanrobotinteraction.org/2017/ .… read more. “Call: 12th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2017)”

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Chatbot lawyer overturns 160,000 parking tickets, raises presence questions

[As this story from The Guardian suggests, even simple chatbots can be very useful and are likely to become much more common; the presence-related research questions include to what degree and in what ways do users perceive and treat the bot as a social actor, and how do their perceptions impact their likelihood to use and be satisfied with their interactions? –Matthew]

Parking ticket on car

Chatbot lawyer overturns 160,000 parking tickets in London and New York

Free service DoNotPay helps appeal over $4m in parking fines in just 21 months, but is just the tip of the legal AI iceberg for its 19-year-old creator

Samuel Gibbs
28 June 2016

An artificial-intelligence lawyer chatbot has successfully contested 160,000 parking tickets across London and New York for free, showing that chatbots can actually be useful.

Dubbed as “the world’s first robot lawyer” by its 19-year-old creator, London-born second-year Stanford University student Joshua Browder, DoNotPay helps users contest parking tickets in an easy to use chat-like interface.… read more. “Chatbot lawyer overturns 160,000 parking tickets, raises presence questions”

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Call: 5th IEEE International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health (SEGAH 2017)

Call for Papers

SEGAH 2017
5TH IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SERIOUS GAMES AND APPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH
April 2 – 4, 2017
Perth, Western Australia
co-located with 26th International World Wide Web Conference, 2017 (http://www.www2017.com.au/)

View this call online at: http://www.segah.org/2017/

Supported by:
Polytechnic Institute of Cavado and Ave, IPCA, Barcelos, Portugal
Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: OCTOBER 30th, 2016

Dear Colleagues,

The 5th IEEE International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health, SEGAH 2017, will be held in Perth, Western Australia, from 2-4 April, 2017.

The overall objectives of the conference are the discussion and sharing of knowledge, experiences and scientific and technical results, related to state-of-the-art solutions and technologies on serious games and applications for health and healthcare, as well as the demonstration of advanced products and technologies. The 5th edition of SEGAH also features a special-topic workshop on Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Wearable Technologies.… read more. “Call: 5th IEEE International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health (SEGAH 2017)”

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Why does virtual reality matter? Presence!

[This piece from Recode is an excellent, brief summary of the challenges, rewards and current status of the evolution of virtual reality, and particularly the central role of presence, short for telepresence and otherwise, in the success of the medium. –Matthew]

Boy using Samgsung Gear at VidCon2016

[Image: Experiencing Samsung Gear VR at the Samsung Creator’s Lounge At VidCon 2016. Jonathan Leibson / Getty]

Why virtual reality matters

As a new medium, VR is in a peculiar predicament: Hailed as a multibillion-dollar industry, it’s also still in its creative infancy.

by Jason Brush Jun 28, 2016

Once upon a time, every medium in our incomprehensibly vast modern media landscape — photography, recorded music and radio, cinema, TV, video games, the Wii — was once just somebody’s impossible dream, a laughable absurdity. Movies, at their inception, were hand-cranked carnival attractions, TV an expensive, blurry, furniture-sized indulgence.

Every medium that permeates our lives was once attacked as being, at best, impracticable or, at worst, immoral.… read more. “Why does virtual reality matter? Presence!”

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Call: Game Criticism – Chapter proposals for edited collection

Call for Chapter Proposals: Game Criticism

Editor: Gaines S. Hubbell

Proposals (500 words) due July 21, 2016

As attention to the study and criticism of games grows, attention to how games are studied and criticized must keep pace. For some time, game studies has relied on methods of criticism appropriate to previous media and developed by prior disciplines. These methods have treated games as objects for anthropological studies, textual analysis, literary analysis, user experience studies, and technology studies, among many others; however, games often require that they be treated differently because of the medial, technological, or textual constraints they place upon methods. These constraints can subtly change the definition of the object of analysis as it shifts, for example, from a designed technology to a played technology. The different definitions of what a game is reveal different arguments about their success as games.… read more. “Call: Game Criticism – Chapter proposals for edited collection”

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Microsoft’s vision of a presence future: The Windows Holographic OS

[Microsoft’s vision for Windows as a standard operating system for virtual and augmented (mixed) reality has important implications. Here are two stories on this development: the first is from CNN Money, where the original features Microsoft’s 1:03 minute concept video, and the second is a big picture analysis from IT Business Edge that, among other things, identifies the origins of a presence-infused future in the Reeves and Nass-inspired ‘Bob’ product. –Matthew]

Windows Holographic OS (concept video screenshot)

Microsoft unveils its new vision for Windows

by Hope King
June 1, 2016

Microsoft wants to do for virtual reality what it did for PCs: Make the emerging technology as ubiquitous as possible.

To do that, the company is trying to get its Windows Holographic platform into as many devices as possible, just like it did with Windows when personal computers first hit the market. (Think of Windows Holographic like a standard operating system for virtual reality and augmented reality.)… read more. “Microsoft’s vision of a presence future: The Windows Holographic OS”

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Call: Machine Ethics and Machine Law 2016

Call for Papers

Machine Ethics and Machine Law
Interdisciplinary perspectives on moral and legal issues in artificial agents
November 18, 2016 – November 19, 2016
Jagiellonian University
Cracow, Poland

WEBSITE: http://machinelaw.philosophyinscience.com/

Abstract submission: 9 September 23:59 CEST
Abstract guidelines: 1000 words, prepared for blind review via website

AI systems have become an important part of our everyday lives. What used to be a subject of science fiction novels and movies has trespassed into the realm of facts. Our machines are tasked with ever more autonomous decisions that directly impact on the well-being of humans. This leads directly to the question: What are the ethical and legal limitations of those artificial agents? It is clear that some constraints should be imposed; both the unintended and often unforeseen negative consequences of the technological progress, as well as speculative and frightening views of the future portrayed in the works of fiction, leave no doubt that there ought to be some guidelines.… read more. “Call: Machine Ethics and Machine Law 2016”

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Edward Snowden’s strangely free life – As a robot

[This story from New York Magazine describes the interesting ways Edward Snowden uses telepresence to interact with the world and how people in the world respond, as well as his views on the emergence of virtual reality. This is an abridged version of the long original, which includes several more images. –Matthew]

Snowden at the Whitney

[Image: Attending “Astro Noise” at the Whitney. Photo: Henrik Moltke]

I, Snowden

For a man accused of espionage and effectively exiled in Russia, Edward Snowden is also, strangely, free.

By Andrew Rice
June 26, 2016

Edward Snowden lay on his back in the rear of a Ford Escape, hidden from view and momentarily unconscious, as I drove him to the Whitney museum one recent morning to meet some friends from the art world. Along West Street, clotted with traffic near the memorial pools of the World Trade Center, a computerized voice from my iPhone issued directions via the GPS satellites above.… read more. “Edward Snowden’s strangely free life – As a robot”

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Call: Fringe 30 at Australasian Simulation Congress (ASC 2016)

Call for Presentations

Fringe 30 at Australasian Simulation Congress (ASC 2016)
Monday 26 September – Thursday 29 September 2016
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Victoria, Australia
http://www.simulationcongress.com/

Expressions of interest due by Wednesday 20 July 2016

Simulation Australasia, the national body for those working in simulation in Australasia, will once again bring together the SimHealth and SimTecT conferences under the name of the Australasian Simulation Congress (ASC) with opportunities for a number of joint sessions of mutual interest.

In 2016, it will also incorporate the International Simulation and Gaming Association (ISAGA).

WHAT IS FRINGE 30?

Leading for the future with creative, experimental, edgy and unusual ideas in simulation.

We don’t deny the importance of scientific measure and rigor in modelling and simulation; it’s just that sometimes you need to push the boundaries in order to meet the needs of your audience.… read more. “Call: Fringe 30 at Australasian Simulation Congress (ASC 2016)”

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The struggle to adapt storytelling for virtual reality

[For VR and the presence experiences it creates to evolve, we need to figure out how to tell compelling stories in the new medium; production designer and founder of Virtual Reality Company Robert Stromberg provides insights about where we are and where we need to go in this story from Engadget (where it includes more images). –Matthew]

The Martian VR (screenshot)

[Image: A still from “The Martian VR Experience” (Image credit: Virtual Reality Company)]

The struggle to adapt storytelling for virtual reality

“We’re ready to tell stories but how do you do that in VR?” asks Oscar-winning art director Robert Stromberg.

Mona Lalwani
June 23, 2016

Storytelling in virtual reality has yet to take shape. While the simulated world of gaming has proved the visual capabilities of the medium, few have taken a crack at the art of building a compelling narrative.

But now that the battle of the VR headsets is fully under way, a shift is evident.… read more. “The struggle to adapt storytelling for virtual reality”

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