ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: April 2023

Job: Assistant Professor in Interactive Media, Screens, and Interfaces at Utrecht U.

By Matthew Lombard | Published: April 21, 2023

Call for Applications

Assistant Professor in Interactive Media, Screens, and Interfaces (1.0 FTE)
Faculty of Humanities
Department of Media and Culture Studies
Utrecht University
The Netherlands
https://www.uu.nl/organisatie/werken-bij-de-universiteit-utrecht/vacatures/assistant-professor-in-interactive-media-screens-and-interfaces-10-fte

Application deadline: May 7, 2023

FUNCTION

This vacancy is part of a broad recruitment campaign. Utrecht University’s Faculty of Humanities is looking for more than 40 talented and passionate assistant professors. Based on their subject matter expertise, they will contribute to strengthening our interdisciplinary education and its connection with urgent social themes.

We are looking for colleagues who find it interesting and challenging to teach and conduct research within more than one disciplinary and institutional context. Such a cross-boundary perspective is most successful and satisfying when working from a specialisation. We are therefore looking for colleagues who unite a subject specialisation with a discipline-transcending perspective and who can give shape to multi-, inter- or transdisciplinary team teaching and team science from a specific subject expertise within and between the broad domains of Philosophy and Religious Studies, History and Art History, Media and Cultural Studies, and Languages, Literature and Communication (or who want to develop further in this).… read more. “Job: Assistant Professor in Interactive Media, Screens, and Interfaces at Utrecht U.”

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Researchers submitted an academic paper written by ChatGPT to see if it gets accepted. It did.

By Matthew Lombard | Published: April 21, 2023

[This story from ZME Science draws on a recent story in The Guardian that demonstrates how effective widely available generative AI technology already is at creating illusions of humanness that can fool even expert academic peer reviewers. –Matthew]

Researchers submitted an academic paper written by ChatGPT to see if it gets accepted. It did

So uhm, this happened.

by Mihai Andrei; Edited and reviewed by Zoe Gordon
March 22, 2023

AI is making it more and more difficult to detect plagiarism and to reward originality — and what better way to do that than with a paper that’s written by an AI? We’ve all heard about ChatGPT and GPT-4 and all the madness that generative AIs are bringing, but surely researchers would know the difference, right? Right?

Wrong. Debby Cotton, director of academic practice at Plymouth Marjon University proved it through an academic paper, but she didn’t write the academic paper, and neither did her colleagues.… read more. “Researchers submitted an academic paper written by ChatGPT to see if it gets accepted. It did.”

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Call: MUM 2023, 22nd International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia

By Matthew Lombard | Published: April 20, 2023

Call for Papers

MUM 2023, 22nd International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia
December 3-6, 2023
Vienna, Austria
https://mum-conf.org/2023

Submission deadline: August 22, 2023

MUM 2023, the 22nd International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia, will be held in Vienna, Austria, December 3rd – 6th. MUM is an interdisciplinary forum for advances in research of mobile and ubiquitous multimedia systems, applications, and services. At MUM, academics and practitioners discuss challenges and achievements in this field from diverse perspectives, such as interaction techniques, user research, system development, software solutions, and devices. This edition of MUM aims to continue the tradition of innovation and excellence in research established by previous MUM conferences.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES AND LIST OF TOPICS

We welcome submissions of high-quality papers that offer original and unpublished contributions relevant to mobile and ubiquitous multimedia. Paper topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Paper topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Prototypes and systems tackling relevant technical challenges
  • Novel applications for mobile and ubiquitous gaming, learning, entertainment, social networking, and advertising
  • Augmented, mixed, and virtual reality systems and applications
  • Case studies, field trials, or user experience evaluations of new applications and services
  • Context-aware and location-based mobile and ubiquitous services
  • Metrics and measures for evaluating and testing mobile and ubiquitous systems
  • Privacy and security-related challenges to multimedia systems
  • Social implications of mobile and ubiquitous multimedia systems
  • Interaction and collaboration with human-centered AI systems
  • Tools and development environments for building mobile, wearable, and ubiquitous multimedia systems
  • User interfaces, interaction design, and interaction techniques for mobile and ubiquitous systems
  • Interaction design for automotive and other modes of transportation
  • Fabrication and device prototyping
… read more. “Call: MUM 2023, 22nd International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia”
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First-person report: Canon’s “ImmersiveCall” VR phone calling app Kokomo

By Matthew Lombard | Published: April 20, 2023

[This first-person report from TechCrunch has praise for the concept of Canon’s new platform that enables high-presence phone calls via virtual reality, while noting that in its still-early form technical issues cause too many breaks in presence. A January 2023 TechCrunch story featuring an interview with the platform’s creators includes this description:

“’We support most of the popular consumer VR headsets in the market to enable people to engage in immersive calls, as we are calling them. In these calls, people can engage. They are dynamic, in living, breathing environments. You can download a companion app on a mobile phone, which lets the person you talk to see you from head to toe,’ explains [Jon] Lorentz. ‘No more legless avatars. No more wondering what someone is actually gesturing. And you can actually see the other person. You can be in the call, rather than on the call.’”… read more. “First-person report: Canon’s “ImmersiveCall” VR phone calling app Kokomo”

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Call: “Virtual Reality in Medical Education” for Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking

By Matthew Lombard | Published: April 19, 2023

Call for Special Collection Papers:
“Virtual Reality in Medical Education“
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
https://home.liebertpub.com/cfp/call-for-special-collection-papersandnbsp-virtual-reality-in/458/

Guest Editors:

  • Frank D. Buono, PhD, Associate Research Scientist, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA (buono@yale.edu)
  • Asher Marks, MD, Associate Professor, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
    (marks@yale.edu)
  • Deborah Lee, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Michigan School of Nursing, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
    (webdeb@med.umich.edu)

Submission deadline: July 31, 2023

Virtual reality (VR) technologies have been around for over 30 years. Recent advances in hardware and software are rapidly accelerating the possibilities for impactful uses in healthcare and health education. Immersive VR applications have been used effectively to address a range of health issues in youth and adults, including phobias, social anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder to name a few. It has also been shown to be an effective tool for medical education, training physicians and improving medical knowledge in both patients and the general public.… read more. “Call: “Virtual Reality in Medical Education” for Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking”

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Three Orthodox Jewish women take 70,000 on virtual visit to Auschwitz

By Matthew Lombard | Published: April 19, 2023

[The story below is from NoCamels (a “news site covering breakthrough innovation and technology from Israel for a global audience”). It describes how three determined women created an intense and important presence experience that takes audiences to the Auschwitz concentration camp. See the original story for four more images and four videos.

The author of a Jewish News report on Triumph of the Spirit provides a separate first-person description of what it was like to watch the 360 degree video, including this:

“After 50 minutes, the great, bitter-sweet irony of being able to remove the headset. To step away. And breathe. At last, it had stopped.

The room was absolutely silent. Guests rubbed their eyes. Some looked dazed. Others left the room. I sat and I cried. On a table with people I had never met.

Powerful; evocative; visceral. Those images will be seared into my brain for the rest of my life.… read more. “Three Orthodox Jewish women take 70,000 on virtual visit to Auschwitz”

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Call: 2023 OkIP International Conference on Advances in Health Information Technology (AHIT)

By Matthew Lombard | Published: April 18, 2023

Call for Abstracts and Papers

2023 OkIP International Conference on Advances in Health Information Technology (AHIT)
October 2- 5, 2023
Tiako Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA and Online
https://eventutor.com/e/AHIT003

Submission deadline: May 23, 2023

Oklahoma International Publishing (OkIP) is pleased to host the 2023 International Conference on Advances in Health Information Technology (AHIT). The conference aims to bring together scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds to emphasize the dissemination of ongoing research and development in the field. Proposals describing original works in the areas (see Scientific Track areas below) and related technologies are solicited. AHIT will include a peer-reviewed program of technical, industrial, and poster sessions.

Accepted and presented full papers from the tracks below will be published by OkIP and submitted for indexation in major abstract and citation databases of peer-reviewed literature.

Extended versions of the best papers will be considered for journal publication in the inaugural volume of the International Journal of Health Information Technology.… read more. “Call: 2023 OkIP International Conference on Advances in Health Information Technology (AHIT)”

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In-car personal assistants: MINI introduces animated bulldog, GM adds ChatGPT

By Matthew Lombard | Published: April 18, 2023

[“MINI hopes to ‘invigorate’ the emotional connection between people and its cars” with Spike, a new virtual assistant that goes beyond voice to take the form of an animated English bulldog. The short story from Carscoops below has some of the details; the original version includes several more pictures and a 1:36 minute video (also available on YouTube) and the press release is available from BMW’s blog. A related story from Inverse says “GM Thinks ChatGPT Should Be the Future of In-Car Virtual Assistants”:

“Unlike the current applications of ChatGPT, the version that GM is working on won’t just be a simple chatbot. In an example, [Scott] Miller [vice president of software at GM] told  Semafor that you would be able to ask the in-car AI assistant how to change a tire and it would show you a how-to video on the display.… read more. “In-car personal assistants: MINI introduces animated bulldog, GM adds ChatGPT”

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Call: ISMAR 2023 – IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality

By Matthew Lombard | Published: April 17, 2023

Call for Papers

ISMAR 2023: IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality
October 16 to 20, 2023
Sydney, Australia [and online]
https://ismar23.org/

Abstract submission deadline: June 5, 2023
Paper submission deadline: June 12, 2023

OVERVIEW

We invite you to the 22nd IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), which will be held from October 16 to 20, 2023 in Sydney, Australia.

IEEE ISMAR is the premier conference for Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR), which attracts the world’s leading researchers from both academia and industry. ISMAR explores the advances in commercial and research activities related to AR, MR, and VR by continuing the expansion of its scope over the past several years. The conference is planned to include two days of workshops, tutorials, and contests, and three days of presentations of scientific papers, posters, and demonstrations.… read more. “Call: ISMAR 2023 – IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality”

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Psychedelic replications in virtual reality show potential in treating depressive symptoms

By Matthew Lombard | Published: April 17, 2023

[Researchers are exploring the use of presence-evoking virtual reality to produce the therapeutic effects of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, as reported in this story from PsyPost. See the new published article and the Psyrreal website for more information (and to download the software). –Matthew]

Psychedelic replications in virtual reality show potential in treating depressive symptoms

By Eric W. Dolan
April 15, 2023

Researchers at the University of Tartu in Estonia have developed a virtual reality (VR) experience that seeks to simulate the subjective effects of psychedelic drugs. They hope that replicating psychedelic experiences within VR will produce similar therapeutic benefits to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Their latest findings, published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, provide preliminary evidence that such VR experiences might help to alleviate depression.… read more. “Psychedelic replications in virtual reality show potential in treating depressive symptoms”

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