ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: June 2022

Job: Assistant Teaching Professor, Interactive Media and Game Development, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Call for Applications

Assistant Teaching Professor
The Interactive Media and Game Development (IMGD) program
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)
Worcester, Massachusetts
https://wpi.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/WPI_External_Career_Site/details/Assistant-Teaching-Professor_R0001988

Application review will begin on July 8, 2022 and continue until the position is filled.

Dear colleagues,

Interactive Media & Game Development at WPI is searching for an Assistant Teaching Professor! The start date is as soon as August 2022, with a January 2023 start possible. We especially welcome candidates with a background in experience design, interactive storytelling, narrative design, interactive theater, alternate reality games, live-action roleplaying, tabletop games, and/or escape rooms and other interactive experiences.

IMGD is an interdisciplinary program at WPI, one of the oldest game degree programs in the United States, and we have a thriving undergraduate (BS and BA) and graduate (MS, MFA, PhD) program. Teaching faculty at WPI have full participation in faculty governance and secured contracts.… read more. “Job: Assistant Teaching Professor, Interactive Media and Game Development, Worcester Polytechnic Institute”

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VR developer builds VR game inside VR in just 24 hours

[This story from VRScout reminded me of the “infinite regression” or “simulations within simulations” scenario (see Jones, Lombard, and Jasak, 2011), portrayed in the 1999 film The Thirteenth Floor. To demonstrate how VR can be (and in the future will more easily and commonly be) used to create immersive experiences, developer Quentin Valembois spent 24 hours in virtual reality creating a virtual reality game. See the original story for two more images and watch the 9:31 minute video via YouTube. On a related topic, see the New World Notes blog post, “Why Are We Not Having Conferences About The Metaverse On Actual Metaverse Platforms?” –Matthew]

VR Developer Builds VR Game Inside VR In Just 24 Hours

By Kyle Melnick
June 27, 2022

A VR developer by the name of Quentin Valembois, aka Valem, is quickly becoming known for his experimental projects involving immersive technology.… read more. “VR developer builds VR game inside VR in just 24 hours”

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Call: Positive Communication Scholarship – Special Issue of International Journal of Business Communication

Call for Papers

Special Issue on Positive Communication Scholarship
International Journal of Business Communication
https://www.businesscommunication.org/d/do/4316 (.docx file)

Deadline for submission of preliminary extended abstracts: December 2, 2022

The International Journal of Business Communication is inviting papers for a Special Issue in Positive Communication Scholarship. Positive Communication Scholarship (PCS) refers to the rigorous and systematic inquiry into the acts, mechanisms, and processes of social interaction that promote life-sustaining systems. It is a research approach that seeks to identify and measure communication practices and experiences that contribute to human flourishing. It focuses on both communication processes and outcomes with the purpose of generating new knowledge and understanding. PCS is unique in that it takes an affirmative stance toward inquiry and documents/highlights/assesses the nature of positive, generative communication across contexts. PCS is research that cultivates communication praxis and contributes to communication as a practical discipline (see Craig, 1989).… read more. “Call: Positive Communication Scholarship – Special Issue of International Journal of Business Communication”

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Feel tremors under your feet or watch an ocean bed split open: VR tech brings geography lessons to life

[Geography students at the National University of Singapore (NUS) can learn about earthquakes by experiencing vivid simulations from a variety of perspectives thanks to a combination of virtual reality and vibrating platforms. See the original version of this story for two additional images. For more on this topic see the ISPR Presence News posts “Big Shaker mobile earthquake simulator used to increase awareness and safety” (October 2019) and “An earthquake simulator to treat PTSD in New Zealand” (June 2012). –Matthew]

[Image: The VR tech adds a touch of realism to the learning experience, allowing students to immerse themselves in various scenarios of earth processes that can be difficult to visualise without first-hand experience.]

Feel tremors under your feet or watch an ocean bed split open: VR tech brings geography lessons to life

March 1, 2022

You are standing in an apartment when you hear on the news that an earthquake has struck.… read more. “Feel tremors under your feet or watch an ocean bed split open: VR tech brings geography lessons to life”

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Call: Digital Futures of Cross-Cultural Communication (free, online Cross-Cultural Communication Conference)

Call for Abstracts and Papers

International Cross-Cultural Communication Conference
Theme: Digital Futures of Cross-Cultural Communication
15 September 2022 (5pm – 9pm ICT)
Online; Hosted by Chulalongkorn University (Thailand)
https://www.commarts.chula.ac.th/th-th/news-detail.html?id=881

Deadline for abstract submissions: August 15, 2022

The years of Covid pandemic have completely transformed how we communicate – from maintaining connections with friends via FaceTime calls to conducting university classes via Zoom. More and more business interactions happen online as well. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of virtual communication technologies, and also created an impetus for further development of these technologies. Online communication tools and platform became so sophisticated that one may wonder if they have already surpassed the experience of face-to-face communication. Will we ever go back to normal? And what’s more important, do we want to? What the world which relies on digital communication for cross-cultural connections will look like?… read more. “Call: Digital Futures of Cross-Cultural Communication (free, online Cross-Cultural Communication Conference)”

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Passive training virtually can reduce psychosocial stress and anxiety

[A new, important and all-too-timely benefit of the presence evoked by passive viewing of virtual exercise from the first-person perspective has been found in a study from Tohoku University. For more details see the published study. –Matthew]

[Image: Figure 2 from the new study: Participants and the virtual bodies in the virtual scenario: (A,D) male and female participants sitting, wearing the visor and looking in the direction that was coherent with their group assignment in order to see the avatar (the male is looking down, towards himself; the female is looking to her left side), respectively; (B) (static phase) and (C) (dynamic phase) the male virtual body displayed from 1PP; (E) (static phase) and (F) (dynamic phase) the female virtual body displayed from 3PP.]

Training Virtually Can Reduce Psychosocial Stress and Anxiety

June 17, 2022

Previous research has described how virtual training produces acute cognitive and neural benefits.… read more. “Passive training virtually can reduce psychosocial stress and anxiety”

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Call: Workshop on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Transparency and Ethics in XR (IDEATExR) at ISMAR 2022

Call for Papers

Workshop on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Transparency and Ethics in XR (IDEATExR)
To be held in conjunction with the 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR 2022)
Monday October 17, 2022
Hybrid
https://ismar2022.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/W20_CFP_IDEATExR.pdf

Abstract deadline: July 4, 2022
Paper Submission Deadline: July 8, 2022

ABSTRACT

The potential benefits of XR should be for all, regardless of their cultural background, gender identity, race, neurodiversity, ethnicity, economical status, age, etc. However, our community is still facing challenges preventing everyone from being involved in XR.

Most research within this space relies on the M-WEIRD population and researchers (Male, White, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic), effectively missing 95% of the world’s population [1], thus hindering generalizability of findings and diversity of ideas. In fact, approximately 95% of the global population is excluded from VR research and only 15% of first-paper authors at ISMAR and IEEEVR are women [2].… read more. “Call: Workshop on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Transparency and Ethics in XR (IDEATExR) at ISMAR 2022”

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New acoustic levitation tech blurs boundary between physical and digital, could revolutionize immersive entertainment

[A new technology demonstrated by University College London researchers offers the possibility of “fully immersive real-world simulations without the need for clunky headsets or goggles.” The details and links to more information are in this UCL news release and watch a 2:42 video about the new tech on YouTube. –Matthew]

Levitating objects with sound could revolutionise virtual reality and 3D printing

21 June 2022

Using sound to levitate something when there are other objects in the way has been shown for the first time by UCL researchers and could lead to advances in the manufacturing and entertainment sectors. The findings open up possibilities for more advanced interactive entertainment through virtual reality and mixed reality at theme parks, arcades and museums. Technology using 3D levitation could lead the way to fully immersive real-world simulations without the need for clunky headsets or goggles.… read more. “New acoustic levitation tech blurs boundary between physical and digital, could revolutionize immersive entertainment”

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Call: ICMI 2022 Workshop on Social Affective Multimodal Interaction for Health (SAMIH)

CALL FOR PAPERS

3rd Workshop on Social Affective Multimodal Interaction for Health (SAMIH)
A workshop in conjunction with the 24th ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI 2022)
7 or 11 November, 2022
Bengaluru (Bangalore), India
SAMIH Workshop: https://ahcweb01.naist.jp/samih2022/
ICMI Conference: https://icmi.acm.org/2022/

Workshop papers due: July 26, 2022

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

This workshop is looking for works describing how interactive, multimodal technology such as virtual agents can be used in social skills training for measuring and training social-affective interactions. Sensing technology now enables analyzing user’s behaviors and physiological signals (heart-rate, EEG, etc.). Various signal processing and machine learning methods can be used for such prediction tasks. Beyond sensing, it is also important to analyze human behaviors and model and implement training methods (e.g., by virtual agents, social robots, relevant scenarios, design appropriate and personalized feedback about social skills performance). Such social signal processing and tools can be applied to measure and reduce social stress in everyday situations, including public speaking at schools and workplaces.… read more. “Call: ICMI 2022 Workshop on Social Affective Multimodal Interaction for Health (SAMIH)”

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Alexa has a new voice – your dead relative’s

[The headline of this Washington Post story is premature since Amazon is still developing the feature, but the ability to have Alexa speak in the voice of someone who has died based on only a minute’s worth of voice recordings represents another example of ways technology can be used to evoke presence after death. The excerpt from coverage in The Verge that follows below notes that Amazon’s senior VP and head scientist of Alexa artificial intelligence “said the feature could enable customers to have ‘lasting personal relationships’ with the deceased.” Of course as the Washington Post sub-headline notes, this raises a variety of practical and ethical concerns. In a Microsoft blog post a few days ago, that company’s Chief Responsible AI Officer announced that the company is restricting its similar Custom Neural Voice feature: “This technology has exciting potential in education, accessibility, and entertainment, and yet it is also easy to imagine how it could be used to inappropriately impersonate speakers and deceive listeners.”… read more. “Alexa has a new voice – your dead relative’s”

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