ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: April 2022

Call: Ernst Mach Workshop X: David Chalmers on Virtual Reality

Call for Abstracts

Ernst Mach Workshop X: David Chalmers on Virtual Reality
July 7-8, 2022
Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences
Prague, Czech Republic
https://emw.flu.cas.cz/

Deadline for abstracts: May 31, 2022

The Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, invites speakers for the annual Ernst Mach Workshop, whose focus in 2022 is going to be David Chalmers’s philosophy of virtual reality, as laid out in his new book Reality+: Virtual Reality and the Problems of Philosophy (2022). Prof. Chalmers will summarize the main themes of his book in a keynote lecture and respond to each talk.

Originally a province of science fiction, virtual reality has recently become a technological possibility and increasingly a topic for philosophical reflection. While Bostrom (2003) and Chalmers himself (2003) initially focused the epistemological issues about virtual reality, Chalmers now offers a truly complete philosophy of virtual reality, i.e.,… read more. “Call: Ernst Mach Workshop X: David Chalmers on Virtual Reality”

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Facial recognition tech taken to the next level in virtual reality

[This ScienceDaily version of information from the University of South Australia describes a recently published study that tested the use of EEG to measure facial expressions that allow users to control their movement in virtual reality, as a replacement for or supplement to hand controllers; the study explicitly measured participants’ sense of presence. The link to the published study is at the end and see new coverage in Science for Students for more pictures and details. For a related story see an October 2020 ISPR Presence News post. –Matthew]

[Image: Participants used three facial expressions — a smile, a frown and clenched teeth — to interact with their virtual environment. Credit: Arindam Dey/University of Queensland]

Forget handheld virtual reality controllers: a smile, frown or clench will suffice

Facial recognition tech taken to the next level in virtual reality

February 18, 2022

Our face can unlock a smartphone, provide access to a secure building and speed up passport control at airports, verifying our identity for numerous purposes.… read more. “Facial recognition tech taken to the next level in virtual reality”

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Call: Fighting Pandemics with Computer Graphics and Applications – CG&A special issue

Call for Papers

Fighting Pandemics with Computer Graphics and Applications
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications Special Issue
https://www.computer.org/digital-library/magazines/cg/call-for-papers-special-issue-on-fighting-pandemics-with-computer-graphics-and-applications

Submissions deadline: May 28, 2022
Publication: November/December 2022

When pandemics strike societies, they can destroy critical infrastructures, such as healthcare and economic systems. When COVID-19 struck the planet, many technological research developments were proposed, some of them even leading to tools for citizens or governments, with the objective of supporting this complicated period for the entire planet. The vague knowledge available at the time made it difficult to develop computer graphics applications that could be robust and reliable enough to be used as a tool to fight the spread of the pandemic.

The adoption and development of new algorithms to simulate, visualize, and predict scenarios during the pandemic became a reality. Many research groups in universities and companies pursued the objective of proposing alternatives that would help people during such a challenging period.… read more. “Call: Fighting Pandemics with Computer Graphics and Applications – CG&A special issue”

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Giant VR robots are building railways in Japan

[Two short articles from VRScout and New Atlas report on a new application of teleoperation technology by a major railroad company in Japan. See the original versions of both stories for more pictures; videos are available via Twitter and YouTube. For related news, see an International Railway Journal story about the planned use of VR and digital twin technologies to maintain a new British high-speed rail line. –Matthew]

[From VRScout]

Giant VR Robots Are Building Railways In Japan

Could VR-powered humanoid robots be the future of heavy construction?

By Kyle Melnick
April 26, 2022

Over the years we’ve seen a number of major corporations try their hands at marrying VR technology and robotics, from VR convenience store employees and a remote-controlled bomb squad bot to a rather unsettling headset that uses a robotic arm to hand-feed delicious candy. And that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.… read more. “Giant VR robots are building railways in Japan”

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Call: “Embodied Agents for Wellbeing” issue of International Journal of Social Robotics

Call for Papers

SPECIAL ISSUE: EMBODIED AGENTS FOR WELLBEING
International Journal of Social Robotics (IJSR)
– Impact Factor 5.126 (2020)
Journal: https://www.springer.com/journal/12369
Special issue: https://www.springer.com/journal/12369/updates/20296154

Submission deadline: November 30, 2022

The current COVID-19 pandemic has led to societal changes (such as social isolation and work-from-home arrangements) that have severely impacted the mental wellbeing of the worldwide population, causing depressive and anxiety symptoms. This need has resulted in a greater interest in technology-based interventions to support people and promote their mental wellbeing.

Embodied agents (e.g., virtual agents, robots) are finding their way into helping to improve their wellbeing and are currently being designed and evaluated for various applications, such as, among others, therapeutic interventions, and medical treatments.

Making an embodied agent suitable to promote wellbeing is still an open challenge. Indeed, embodied agents need to engage in social interactions with humans by communicating, cooperating, and making decisions, as well as take into account humans’ social cues to convey more natural and smoother interactions.… read more. “Call: “Embodied Agents for Wellbeing” issue of International Journal of Social Robotics”

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Presence history: How a parachute accident helped jump-start augmented reality

[This post is on the long side – the original article from IEEE Spectrum estimates it’s an 11 minute read –  but it’s a breezy and fascinating first-person glimpse into the history of a key presence-evoking technology and includes some bold but very informed predictions about its future; see the original version for five more images from the author. –Matthew]

[Image: Louis Rosenberg tests Virtual Fixtures, the first interactive augmented-reality system that he developed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in 1992. Credit: Louis Rosenberg]

HOW A PARACHUTE ACCIDENT HELPED JUMP-START AUGMENTED REALITY

In 1992, hardware for the first interactive AR system literally fell from the skies

By Louis Rosenberg
April 7, 2022

I climb into an upper-body exoskeleton that’s covered in sensors, motors, gears, and bearings, and then lean forward, tilting my head up to press my face against the eyepieces of a vision system hanging from the ceiling.… read more. “Presence history: How a parachute accident helped jump-start augmented reality”

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Call: International Conference on Graphics and Interaction – ICGI’2022

CALL FOR CONFERENCE PAPERS

International Conference on Graphics and Interaction – ICGI’2022
November 3 and 4, 2022
At the University of Aveiro (UA), Portugal [the organizers are prepared for remote participation if necessary; see below]
https://gpcg.pt/icgi2022/call-for-papers/

Deadline for paper submission: July 18, 2022
Deadline for poster submission: October 3, 2022

[See below for related Call for submissions for Computers & Graphics Journal, Special Section on Recent Advances in Graphics and Interaction.]

The 2022 edition of the International Conference on Graphics and Interaction – ICGI’2022 – will be held on November 3 and 4, 2022 at the University of Aveiro (UA), as a joint organization between the Department of Electronics, Telecommunications, and Informatics (DETI), the Department of Communications and Art (DeCA) and the Eurographics Portuguese Chapter (GPCG). The conference is expected to occur as an in-person event, but will be prepared to allow remote participation if necessary due to sanitary conditions.… read more. “Call: International Conference on Graphics and Interaction – ICGI’2022”

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Zoom adds gesture control, poised to take Sci-Fi’s favorite interface mainstream

[Zoom has added simple forms of gesture control to its desktop software and this story from Fast Company puts the development in a link-filled chronology of earlier presence-evoking gesture-based interface (the original article includes two additional images). For details on how to enable the new feature, see “Using gesture control” on the Zoom website. In related news from ZDNet, Microsoft is expanding access to its Front Row feature for Teams Rooms, which is designed to “blur the lines between virtual and in-person meetings participants.” –Matthew]

[Image: Source: 4×6/Getty Images]

Zoom’s next coup? Taking sci-fi’s favorite interface to the office

Zoom seems poised to take gesture control mainstream by not trying too hard.

By Mark Wilson
April 25, 2022

In Zoom’s latest update for PC and Mac, the teleconferencing company is making a subtly radical update to its interface. Now, when gesturing a thumbs up or raising your hand in a meeting, computer vision will recognize it and display the matching reaction icon on your colleagues’ screens.… read more. “Zoom adds gesture control, poised to take Sci-Fi’s favorite interface mainstream”

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Call: The Ethics of Digital Healthcare issue of Digital Society

Call for Papers

The Ethics of Digital Healthcare
Special issue of Digital Society

Submission deadline: January 2, 2023

The digitalization of healthcare already has a long history. Today, digitized medical images and patient records are integrated parts of routine healthcare all over the world. What is new, however, is the pace at which new uses of digital information technology are entering healthcare. Video meetings are used both to complement and replace traditional visits to the doctor’s office. Patients undergoing training such as gait rehabilitation are assisted by a robot that partly replaces the physiotherapist. Routine microscopic evaluations of tissues are performed by robots using machine learning techniques, and the question has been asked whether robots will come to replace pathologists in the not too distant future. Robot surgery is increasingly used to improve precision and minimize invasiveness. Artificial Intelligence is developed to support, or possibly replace, the physician’s diagnosis and proposal for treatment.… read more. “Call: The Ethics of Digital Healthcare issue of Digital Society”

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The VR exhibition taking you to the hedonistic heart of acid house

[This story from The Face provides insights into both Rave music and culture in England in the 1980s and a new virtual reality exhibition that reproduces experiences from those days. In coverage by NME the creator, Daniel Emerson, says

“I’ve always said that this is not a documentary experience, but an immersive cinematic experience of creative non-fiction. Certainly I hope people will come out of In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats with more knowledge of the Coventry acid house scene, but this has always been intended to be visceral entertainment, and not an exercise in education.”

The author of a story in Mixmag adds this:

“Having spent much of the last two years without human contact during the pandemic, there’s a satisfaction in undertaking an experience that feels so fundamentally cordial and collective within the VR world. ‘It’s ironic as we are using a very technical media and you are actually very shut off from the world’ comments Emerson, ‘but the VR reconnects you with a human element of life.”… read more. “The VR exhibition taking you to the hedonistic heart of acid house”

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