[This short story from Forbes describes Microsoft’s efforts to create audio and audio-visual chatbots based on specific people, including people who have died. Other coverage notes the idea’s similarity to the plot of the Black Mirror episode “Be Right Back” and/or refers to the bots as ‘ghostbots.’ For more on this topic see a new 22:46 minute WSJ documentary “How Tech Can Bring Our Loved Ones to Life After They Die,” which is also available via YouTube and is described in a short profile in The Verge. –Matthew]

Microsoft Could Bring You Back From The Dead… As A Chat Bot

By Barry Collins, Contributor
January 4, 2021

Microsoft has filed a patent which raises the intriguing possibility of digitally reincarnating people as a chat bot.

Instead of using the conventional method of training chat bots using conversations and material from a wide sample of users, Microsoft’s patent – as spotted by Ubergizmo – raises the possibility of creating a chat bot from the output of a specific person.… read more. “Presence after death: Microsoft could bring you back as a chatbot”

[The ambitious project Odeuropa will use AI to analyze descriptions of smells from Europe’s past and then recreate them for use in immersive cultural heritage attractions. This story from Blooloop provides details. The original story includes a second image and for a press release and 2:59 minute video visit the Odeuropa website (which also features a series of interesting blog posts). Coverage in the Minnesota Star Tribune has more details about the challenges of measuring and reproducing smells, and a New York Times item focuses on the idea of a personal smell museum and links to an interactive example:

“The restaurant critic Tejal Rao recently created a ‘personal smell museum’ of her life in Los Angeles, cataloging the aromas she encountered in her home and her office, the scent of vanilla she detected when driving past a commercial bakery. I asked her why she thought a smell museum was such a vital way to document her life.… read more. “Smell Museum: Odeuropa uses AI to recreate historical smells for attractions”

[In this short piece from Wired, the CEO and co-founder of online gaming platform Roblox predicts the pandemic-accelerated increase in 2021 and beyond of social and spatial presence experiences in 3D virtual worlds, which will “become a human co-experience utility.” –Matthew]

[Image: Credit: Leonie Bos]

The Metaverse is coming

A 3D virtual world where millions meet online will become our key social hub

By David Baszucki, an inventor and the CEO and Founder of Roblox
January 2, 2021

We will see a shift in the way people play, work, learn or simply hang out in 2021. Some of this connection will move into the Metaverse, a digital place where people seamlessly get together and interact in millions of 3D virtual experiences. Early iterations of the Metaverse emerged in the 1980s with VPL Research’s DataSuit and Linden Lab’s Second Life in 2003.… read more. “The Metaverse is coming”

[The pandemic has accelerated the development of innovative ways to link and merge virtual/mixed reality and designed physical spaces to create compelling entertainment experiences, as reported in this story from the Los Angeles Times (where the original includes two more pictures). –Matthew]

[Image: “Star Wars: Tales From the Galaxy’s Edge” VR screenshot: View from inside a ship. Credit: ILMxLab / Disney / Oculus]

How the new virtual reality ‘Star Wars’ experience gets us closer to a theme park ‘metaverse’

By Todd Martens, Game Critic
December 28, 2020

After a fulfilling and action-focused ending to the second season of “The Mandalorian,” fans of the “Star Wars” brand are no doubt hungry for other experiences within the space opera universe. Few offer as thrilling a pitch as “Star Wars: Tales From the Galaxy’s Edge.”

The game stands as a showcase for the latest in virtual reality, one that has us engaging in blaster fire with pirates, seeing familiar faces and peering deeper into the mystery of the franchise’s Force-like powers.… read more. “How new Star Wars VR experience gets us closer to a theme park ‘metaverse’”

[Reading this new story in PsyPost about a study demonstrating interesting effects of the illusion of having an opposite-sex body led me to the lead author’s earlier study of the effects of seeming to switch bodies with a friend. That study is nicely presented in a link-filled Vice story from August 2020 that reviews embodied cognition research based on these kinds of presence illusions. –Matthew]

Experiencing the illusion of having an opposite-sex body in virtual reality can shift aspects of gender identity

By Beth Ellwood
December 23, 2020

A new study published in Scientific Reports offers insight into how the perception of one’s body influences one’s sense of gender identity. An experiment involving the illusion of owning an opposite-sex body led people to embrace a more equal identification with both genders.

While it appears that the way a person perceives their body is linked to their gender identity, it has yet to be established exactly how the two are connected.… read more. “Experiencing the illusion of having an opposite-sex body in VR can shift aspects of gender identity”