ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: August 2022

Call: MIN2022: Museums Immersive Network webinar on meaningful application of immersive tech in museums and heritage organizations

Call for Participation

MIN2022: Museums Immersive Network: Got Tech?
A free webinar focused on the meaningful application of immersive technology in museums and heritage organisations
By Cornwall Museums Partnership
September 7, 2022, 13:00 – 15:15 BST
Online
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/399409302977

The Museums Immersive Network team will be hosting our next webinar on 7th September 2022, 13:00-15:00 BST. This event will be a deep-dive into making technology work for your organisation and audience.

Colleagues from Museums, Heritage, and Digital organisations share their experiences of making the most of technology to enhance the experience of audiences. ‘Got Tech?’ is a deep dive into making technology work for your organisation. From large-scale augmented reality in communities to potato-powered digital experiences! This webinar will open discussion around what types of technology are right for specific experiences, audiences, and locations. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to meaningful uses of immersive technology!… read more. “Call: MIN2022: Museums Immersive Network webinar on meaningful application of immersive tech in museums and heritage organizations”

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Presence peril: You just hired a deepfake. Get ready for the rise of imposter employees.

[As the excellent technology writer Mike Elgan reports in this story from Protocol, both video and audio deepfake technologies are already commonly used by a variety of fraudsters in remote hiring and will represent an increasingly serious threat as the ability to fool employers with deepfakes improves. –Matthew]

[Image: Credit: z_wei/iStock/Getty Images Plus; Protocol]

You just hired a deepfake. Get ready for the rise of imposter employees.

New technology — plus the pandemic remote work trend — is helping fraudsters use someone else’s identity to get a job.

By Mike Elgan, a journalist, opinion columnist and author
August 22, 2022

Before COVID-19, job interviews took place in person and new hires worked in the office, for the most part.

But with remote work came an increase in remote hiring, from the job application to onboarding and everything in between.… read more. “Presence peril: You just hired a deepfake. Get ready for the rise of imposter employees.”

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Call: HRI 2023, 18th Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

Call for Participation

18th Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2023)
March 13-16, 2023
Stockholm, Sweden [and online]
https://humanrobotinteraction.org/2023/

Full paper submission deadline: October 3, 2022
Workshop and tutorials submission deadline: October 7, 2022

The ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction is a premier, highly-selective venue presenting the latest advances in Human-Robot Interaction. The 18th Annual HRI conference theme is “HRI for all.” We encourage the community to consider ways to both make the field a more inclusive place for those who may not feel included, as well as to encourage inclusion within our research methods and practices. The conference seeks contributions from a broad set of perspectives, including technical, design, behavioural, theoretical and methodological, that advance fundamental and applied research in human-robot interaction. Full papers will be archived in the ACM Digital Library.

We aim to have a hybrid conference, with opportunities to participate both in person and online.… read more. “Call: HRI 2023, 18th Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction”

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Could virtual reality (and presence) be the future of poultry health?

[Food Safety News reports on an unusual application of presence-evoking technology to simulate a free-range environment for hens, which a study shows can reduce their stress levels and increase their resistance to disease (though it also raises ethical questions about only simulating better treatment of many kinds of animals). –Matthew]

[Image: Figure 1 from “Exposure to a Virtual Environment Induces Biological and Microbiota Changes in Onset-of-Lay Hens.” Representative pictures of Virtual Reality (VR) outside (A,B) and inside (C) of the chickens’ Pens. VR images were projected onto the vinyl projector screens placed against each pen wall in the VR group only.]

Could virtual reality be the future of poultry health?

By Jonan Pilet
August 29, 2022

Researchers at Iowa State University are attempting to increase hens’ welfare and health through virtual reality (VR).

In recent years, VR technology has found its way into every part of life.… read more. “Could virtual reality (and presence) be the future of poultry health?”

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Call: Engaging with Automation theme issue of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing

Call for Papers

Engaging with Automation: Understanding and designing for operation, appropriation, and behavior change
Theme issue of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
Issue: https://www.springer.com/journal/779/updates/20071234
Journal: https://www.springer.com/journal/779/

Submissions due: September 30, 2022

Guest Editors:
Peter Fröhlich, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria, peter.froehlich@ait.ac.at
Matthias Baldauf, Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland, matthias.baldauf@ost.ch
Virpi Roto, Aalto University, Finland, virpi.roto@aalto.fi
Philippe Palanque, Université Paul Sabatier – Toulouse III, France, palanque@irit.fr
Manfred Tscheligi, University of Salzburg & AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria, manfred.tscheligi@sbg.ac.at

Automation permeates our everyday lives.

Given both the ubiquity and, in many cases, the indispensability of ubiquitous automated systems, creating engaging experiences with them is increasingly relevant.

The objective of this theme issue is to explore the interplay of engagement and automation from a multi-disciplinary perspective.

We are interested in contributions to advance understanding of three levels of engagement with automation:

  1. ENGAGEMENT FOR OPERATION: how can users be enticed to consume, monitor and operate an automated system in a contextually suitable way?
read more. “Call: Engaging with Automation theme issue of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing”
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VR to bring viewers to launchpad for NASA’s Artemis I, may foretell new forms of high presence remote experiences of events

[This may reach you after today’s NASA launch but I’m sure replays of the innovative VR presentation described in this story from The Hollywood Reporter (which explicitly mentions presence), will be available afterwards. For more on viewing options, see coverage in Space.com and see the extended excerpt from a story in The Debrief that follows below for discussion of “how this may be just the beginning of how events are viewed remotely going forward.” –Matthew]

[Image: A look at NASA’s Artemis I rocket. Credit: Courtesy of Felix & Paul Studios]

Artemis I Launch: How an Emmy-Winning Team is Prepping a Virtual Reality Livestream

The launch of the test flight is scheduled for Monday.

By Carolyn Giardina
August 28, 2022

As NASA prepares for Monday’s scheduled launch of its Artemis I rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, coverage plans include a unique live stream in virtual reality.… read more. “VR to bring viewers to launchpad for NASA’s Artemis I, may foretell new forms of high presence remote experiences of events”

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Call: Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice Area at Southwest Popular/American Culture Association (SWPACA) 2023 Conference

Call for Papers:

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice Area
44th Annual Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA) Conference
February 22-25, 2023
Marriott Albuquerque
Albuquerque, New Mexico
http://www.southwestpca.org

Submission deadline: October 31, 2022

The Game Studies, Culture, Play & Practice Area invites papers, panels, and other proposals on games (digital and otherwise) and their study and development. Proposals are welcome from any and all scholars (including graduate students, independent scholars, and tenured, tenure-track, and emeritus faculty) and practitioners (developers, artists, archivists, and so forth). Unusual formats, technologies, and the like are encouraged.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

Possible topics include (but are in no way limited to):

  • Advertising (both in-game and out)
  • Archiving and artifactual preservation
  • ARGs
  • Design and development
  • Economic and industrial histories and studies
  • Educational games and their pedagogies
  • E-Sports and competitive gaming
  • Fan studies
  • Foreign language games and culture
  • Game art/game-based art (including game sound)
  • Game development education
  • Game engines and entertainment
  • Game genres/types
  • Game streaming
  • Games and health
  • Gender and sexual identity
  • Haptics and interface studies
  • Hardware/platforms
  • Histories of games
  • Industry studies
  • International/non-US game studies
  • Localization
  • Mobile gaming
  • MOGs, MMOGs, and other forms of online/networked gaming
  • Performance
  • Pornographic games
  • Religion and games
  • Representations of race and class
  • Representations of space and place
  • The rhetoric of games and game systems
  • Serious games
  • Table-top games and gaming
  • Technological, aesthetic, economic, and ideological convergence
  • Theories of play
  • Transmedia and games
read more. “Call: Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice Area at Southwest Popular/American Culture Association (SWPACA) 2023 Conference”
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How VR and AI (and presence) could revolutionize language training for adult immigrants

[The Toronto Star reports on a collaborative pilot project that uses virtual reality and artificial intelligence to help adult immigrants learn English. The impacts include not just the language learning but increased comfort and confidence; the story notes apparent advantages of using cartoon avatars rather than more perceptually realistic ones. See the original version of the story for two more pictures and for more context see the related April 2019 ISPR Presence News post “Believing VR is a Promising Tool for Learning Languages, Companies and Colleges Invest.” –Matthew]

[Image: From left: Yusra Doro, Manar Mustafa, and Adlais Hitou are seen with the VR headsets they use as a learning tool at the University of Toronto Mississauga campus. Credit: Giovanni Capriotti]

How VR and AI could revolutionize language training for newcomers

A new project is exploring the use of virtual reality and artificial intelligence in language acquisition for adult immigrants through simulated environment that mirrors real-life situations.read more. “How VR and AI (and presence) could revolutionize language training for adult immigrants”

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Call: Workshop on Social and Ethical Issues in Entertainment Computing

Call for Papers

Workshop on Social and Ethical Issues in Entertainment Computing
The International Conference on Entertainment Computing
Bremen, Germany
November 1-3, 2022
https://www.icec2022.eu/index.php/workshops/

Submission deadline: October 11, 2022

Entertainment computing spans anything from a single player game on a console through to large-scale multiplayer online virtual worlds. This workshop focuses on a range of issues which impact on the design, use and adoption of entertainment computing systems from an ethical and social perspective. Issues to be explored include the composition of those working in the industry from the perspectives of diversity and inclusion, how these impact on design and how groups are represented within games and other entertainment platforms. The workshop will further explore issues relating to monetization, incentives, and potential addiction. The workshop will therefore look at current and future challenges and start charting a way forward.

We welcome all topics related to ethical and social issues in entertainment computing, and some suggestions are provided below, although submissions around other topics are also welcome.… read more. “Call: Workshop on Social and Ethical Issues in Entertainment Computing”

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Making Meta: Inside the tech giant’s Pittsburgh offices where virtual reality shapes its future

[This story from Pittsburgh Inno describes some of the technology Meta is using to develop more effective social presence illusions. See the original version for 12 more images, and for more Meta developments see a related story from NEXTpittsburgh, “Inside Pittsburgh Tech: Walking a Mile in the Ekto One Virtual Reality Boots” (which includes a 1:53 minute video). –Matthew]

[Image: Meta’s Reality Labs in Pittsburgh. Shown here is Mugsy, a system with 170 cameras and hundreds of lights in a sphere-like shape that’s nearly 10 feet tall. It’s used to recreate someone’s face with impressive detail. Credit: Nate Doughty]

Making Meta: Inside the tech giant’s Pittsburgh offices where virtual reality shapes its future

By Nate Doughty
August 24, 2022

Chuck Hoover is convinced that the future of Meta Platforms Inc. will continue to focus heavily on making the metaverse — a single and universally experienced virtual world connected to the internet that is viewed through virtual reality and augmented reality headsets.… read more. “Making Meta: Inside the tech giant’s Pittsburgh offices where virtual reality shapes its future”

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