[Vox reports on a rare positive use of deepfake technology: disguising identities of vulnerable people who appear on camera while allowing viewers to fully “see” them. See the original story for two different images and three videos. For more details and a video about the process, see coverage in Documentary Magazine, which adds this important detail: “It’s possible for the face veil to be completely undetectable. But France and his team wanted viewers to know who wore a [digital] veil and who didn’t. (The Russian activists generally did not.) ‘It’s an instant visual communicator that that person is in danger,’…

[I need to go experience the Philadelphia version of the interesting use of augmented reality and the presence it can evoke described in this story from The New York Times (where the original includes 5 different pictures and 2 short videos). For more details about the project, see the Art Production Fund website. Coverage in artnet News adds these important observations: [Artist Nancy Baker] Cahill, who draws in VR before working with a tech team to convert her images to AR, is committed to the nascent medium. “It inherently has subversive potential. It is invisible to the naked eye, and yet…

[As this story from Forbes notes, Hybri isn’t the first attempt to create compelling digital companions, and it assumes the upcoming Kickstarter campaign will be successful, but it’s an interesting example of a social presence technology and raises lots of ethical questions. For example, coverage in Beebom includes this: “[A] digital companion is not at all creepy, until it has the face of one of your loved ones who left you or even passed away. This feature makes Hybri one of the creepiest apps I have ever seen. … So, technically, you can use a picture of a person who is…

[To encourage more effective and compelling presence experiences it’s important to make the technology involved less apparent and intrusive. This story from Mashable describes new prototype technology developed by Facebook Research to do this for VR headsets. –Matthew] Facebook reveals the future of VR headsets, and it’s more ‘CSI Miami’ than ‘Tron’ By Amanda Yeo June 30, 2020 Immersing yourself in virtual reality can feel like a sci-fi fantasy come true, but bulky, cumbersome VR headsets almost make it more trouble than it’s worth. There have been various attempts to slim down VR headsets, such as Dlodlo’s lightweight V One…

[A milestone in presence history took place 50 years ago, on June 30, 2020, as described in this story from Fast Company; see the original for two more pictures and the two videos mentioned. –Matthew] Watch the first videoconference, which took place 50 years ago today The Zoom of its time, AT&T’s Picturephone II went live on June 30, 1970, in Pittsburgh June 30, 2020 By Harry Mccracken In 1964, AT&T unveiled its Picturephone—a telephone with video as well as audio—at the New York World’s Fair and at Disneyland. It was an iconic moment for personal technology. But when the…