ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: February 2022

Call: Ludic Spatial Strategies & Forest Spaces – UNITE GamiFOREST Coffee Talk #2

Call for Participation

UNITE GamiFOREST Coffee Talks #2
LUDIC SPATIAL STRATEGIES & FOREST SPACES by Mattia Thibault
Date: March 18, 2022
Time: 13:00 (Helsinki Time)
Zoom Link: https://tuni.zoom.us/j/67954634202

How can the organisation of a space favour playfulness, creativity and curiosity? If we look at existing spaces designed to host playfulness (theme parks, arenas, interactive museums, playgrounds, casinos, treetop parks and so on) we can try to outline a series of spatial strategies that are put in place exactly to this end. But how can these strategies be applied to a space with an emergent morphology and an intrinsically open-ended configuration?

WHAT ARE UNITE GAMIFOREST COFFEE TALKS?… read more. “Call: Ludic Spatial Strategies & Forest Spaces – UNITE GamiFOREST Coffee Talk #2”

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Presence and the definition and nature of reality

[This intriguing essay from Scientific American isn’t about technology and doesn’t refer to telepresence or presence, but it raises several issues related to the concept(s) of presence, including the difficulty of agreeing on definitions of primary terms we use like “reality”; the important roles of the attributes of media technology users in presence experiences; the relationship between presence and dreams; the limitations of referring to “first order” mediation (experiences mediated by our biology) and “second order” mediation (experience mediated by both our biology and technology); and the radical possibility that rather than all of us living in a giant metaverse-like simulation as proposed by the Nick Bostrom and others, we each live in our own subjective universe. Follow the links in the essay, including the one in the author description, for more thought-provoking ideas. –Matthew]

[Image: Credit: gremlin/Getty Images]

Does Quantum Mechanics Reveal That Life Is But a Dream?read more. “Presence and the definition and nature of reality”

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Call: Virtual Consumerism issue of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking

CALL FOR PAPERS

Special issue on Virtual Consumerism
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
https://home.liebertpub.com/cfp/special-issue-on-virtual-consumerism/366/

Submission deadline: April 1, 2022

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking is developing a special issue dedicated to virtual consumerism.

Ushered in by Amazon and fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual consumerism (VC) is more than simply the act of buying products on the Internet. The term encompasses entire economies and the study of each facet of these intricate new systems. Modern technologies, buoyed by current world conditions and trends, have enabled the creation of a seemingly inexhaustible parade of consumer products and services, forming new markets, and effectively blurring the boundary between “virtual” and “real” consumerism.

Special consideration will be given to articles that go beyond documenting a current state of affairs in VC to those taking a data-driven approach to understanding virtual consumerism in a rapidly changing digital environment.… read more. “Call: Virtual Consumerism issue of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking”

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Cars as social actors: Mitsubishi’s AI explains itself with intuitive driving instructions

[From the early days of Cliff Nass’ Computers Are Social Actors (CASA) research we’ve noted drivers’ social responses to cars as well, due largely to their direct, haptic interaction with their vehicles. Voice-based GPS navigation systems added another set of cues to enhance Cars As Social Actors perceptions and responses. But this interesting story from IEEE Spectrum describes the next level of this form of Medium As Social Actor (MASA) presence created by an evolving vehicle-based AI that provides real-time, context-dependent guidance in a more natural, conversational manner that humans can better understand, and trust. See the original story for three more images and a 4:07 minute video (also available via YouTube). –Matthew]

[Image: Rather than tell the driver that there’s an intersection 30 meters ahead, the navigation system refers to landmarks, such as the crosswalk in this illustration, or a tree farther down the street.read more. “Cars as social actors: Mitsubishi’s AI explains itself with intuitive driving instructions”

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Call: “Extended Reality as a Gateway to the Metaverse” at MetroXRAINE 2022

Call for Papers

Special Session on: “EXTENDED REALITY AS A GATEWAY TO THE METAVERSE: PRACTICES, THEORIES, TECHNOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS”
2022 IEEE International Conference on Metrology for eXtended Reality,Artificial Intelligence, and Neural Engineering (IEEE MetroXRAINE 2022)
October 26-28, 2022
Rome, Italy

Session: https://metroxraine.org/special-session-10
Conference: https://metroxraine.org/

Extended abstract submission deadline: March 18, 2022
Final paper submission deadline: July 30, 2022

SPECIAL SESSION DESCRIPTION

The fast development of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) solutions over the last few years are transforming how people interact, work, and communicate. The eXtended Reality (XR) term encloses all those immersive technologies that can shift the boundaries between digital and physical worlds to realize the Metaverse. According to tech companies and venture capitalists, the Metaverse will be a super-platform that convenes sub-platforms: social media, online video games, and ease-of-life apps, all accessible through the same digital space and sharing the same digital economy.… read more. “Call: “Extended Reality as a Gateway to the Metaverse” at MetroXRAINE 2022”

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Men are creating AI girlfriends and then verbally abusing them

[This story from Futurism reports on an interesting but depressing phenomenon that raises serious questions about the perils of medium-as-social-actor presence, as well as human nature. –Matthew]

[Image: Getty Images/Futurism]

Men Are Creating AI Girlfriends and Then Verbally Abusing Them

“I threatened to uninstall the app [and] she begged me not to.”

By Ashley Bardhan
January 18, 2022

Content warning: this story contains descriptions of abusive language and violence.

The smartphone app Replika lets users create chatbots, powered by machine learning, that can carry on almost-coherent text conversations. Technically, the chatbots can serve as something approximating a friend or mentor, but the app’s breakout success has resulted from letting users create on-demand romantic and sexual partners — a vaguely dystopian feature that’s inspired an endless series of provocative headlines.

Replika has also picked up a significant following on Reddit, where members post interactions with chatbots created on the app.… read more. “Men are creating AI girlfriends and then verbally abusing them”

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Call: AI-Generated Characters: Putting Deepfakes to Good Use – CHI 2022 workshop

Call for Participation

A Workshop at ACM CHI 2022
AI-Generated Characters: Putting Deepfakes to Good Use
Hybrid Workshop
April 30, 2022
Workshop: http://deepfakes.media.mit.edu/
CHI 2022: https://chi2022.acm.org/

Submission deadline: March 5, 2022

AI-generated characters (more infamously known as “deepfakes”) are a form of digital media generated by deep neural networks, which feature the human appearance and appear authentic to human beings. Such realistic renderings are made possible through advances in generative machine learning for the hyper-realistic synthesis, recreation, and modification of prose, images, audio, and video data.

While the technology is perhaps most widely associated with media manipulation and misinformation, it is increasingly used for positive applications as well. For instance, it is integrated into industries ranging from entertainment, such as movie studios and games, to humanitarian efforts and educational tools. Given the growing interest in AI-generated characters across industries, we see a potential for future positive applications in a variety of areas including learning, privacy, communication, art, and therapy.… read more. “Call: AI-Generated Characters: Putting Deepfakes to Good Use – CHI 2022 workshop”

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Beyond Zoom: Beem app lets you livestream yourself in AR; 2-way telepresence coming

[Tech Crunch provides this description of the origins and current and planned capabilities of Beem’s consumer augmented reality technologies designed to create social presence experiences. See the original story for four more images and a 48 second video (also available via YouTube). –Matthew]

Beem, an app that lets you livestream yourself in AR, raises $4 million

By Sarah Perez
February 17, 2022

What’s the next step beyond Zoom calls and FaceTime? How about beaming yourself from one device to another in real time using augmented reality? That’s the premise behind a startup called Beem, which is today announcing its first consumer app, $4 million in seed funding and its longer-term plan to become a communications technology for the AR glasses of the future.

Consumers today know AR technology thanks to interactions with Snapchat Lenses and TikTok Effects, through mobile games like Pokémon GO and by visualizing products they’re considering buying — like furniture they place in their room, or makeup they virtually try on via an AR filter.… read more. “Beyond Zoom: Beem app lets you livestream yourself in AR; 2-way telepresence coming”

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Call: “Theory of Mind for social HRI” and other special sessions at RO-MAN 2022

[Note: See the conference website for information about these other special sessions:

  • Hand-Object Interaction: from Human Demonstrations to Robot Manipulation
  • Short- and Long-Term Personalisation in Human-Robot Interaction
  • Social Human-Robot Interaction of Human-care Service Robots
  • Mental Models of the Human User in Social HRI
  • Safe Human-Robot Cooperation and Collaboration in Manufacturing Environments
  • Nonverbal Communication Skills in Humans and Robots

–Matthew]

CALL FOR PAPERS

SPECIAL SESSION Theory of Mind for social HRI
31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2022)
August 29th – September 2nd, 2022
Naples, Italy and Online [See NOTE below]
http://ro-man2022.org

Important dates for Regular and Special Session papers:

  • Submission deadline: March 15, 2022
  • Notification of acceptance: May 30, 2022
  • Camera-ready deadline: June 15, 2022

NOTE: RO-MAN 2022 will be held in a hybrid format, including simultaneous on-site and online sessions. Authors will have the options to present their work and interact with participants either physically in Napoli or virtually.… read more. “Call: “Theory of Mind for social HRI” and other special sessions at RO-MAN 2022”

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Scent-based immersion could be coming soon. Will the public have a nose for it?

[This story from Built In provides an entertaining, link-filled history and update on efforts to bring olfactory illusions to presence experiences. See the original story for three more images, and for more information see ISPR Presence News posts from June 2020 (an interview with OVR Technology’s CEO) and September 2020 (regarding the Virtual Mayflower project). –Matthew]

The Metaverse, in Glorious Smell-O-Vision!

Scent-based immersion could be coming soon. Will the public have a nose for it?

Stephen Gossett, a staff reporter covering UX, design and product management. He is the former digital editor at the design magazine Sixtysix.

February 8, 2022; Updated: February 15, 2022

The complicated, oft-mocked, yet defiantly resilient history of scent-based immersion technology is long enough to fill volumes. But if you’re looking for a microcosm of that history, the University of Chicago’s Human-Computer Integration Lab offers a pretty good option.… read more. “Scent-based immersion could be coming soon. Will the public have a nose for it?”

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