[As reported by The Register, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working to protect military users of virtual and mixed reality technologies from ‘cognitive attacks.’ As outlined in more detail by Sociable,

“Such attacks can include information flooding to increase equipment latency and induce physical illness, planting real-world objects to overwhelm displays, subverting a personal area network to sow confusion, injecting virtual data to distract personnel, using objects to overwhelm a user with confusing false alarms, assessing user status through an eye tracker, and other potential attacks. Apart from military applications, DARPA’s new ICS program could provide us with a glimpse into the future of the commercial metaverse and how bad actors could manipulate mixed reality environments in nefarious ways.”

 –Matthew]

[Image: Source: Sociable. Credit: rawpixel.com on Freepik]

DARPA worried battlefield mixed reality vulnerable to ‘cognitive attacks’

Hacks, physical tricks could turn headsets into vomit extractors, but tests already show no ops needed for that

By Brandon Vigliarolo
October 12, 2023

DARPA is launching a program to head off “cognitive attacks” for mixed reality headsets that could, in theory, cripple future warfighters when deployed.… read more. “U.S. military worried battlefield mixed reality is vulnerable to ‘cognitive attacks’”

[A potentially useful introduction to lessons and discussions about presence, this opinion piece from The Hill provides a big-picture perspective on the history and future of immersive technologies and their significant benefits and dangers. –Matthew]

A new era of virtual reality brings many promises for the future — and perils

By Roger Cochetti, an Opinion Contributor who has served as a senior executive with COMSAT, IBM, VeriSign and CompTIA. A former U.S. government official, he has helped found a number of nonprofits in the tech sector and is the author of textbooks on the history of satellite communications.
October 10, 2023

While the world’s hi-tech policy attention (including mine) has been focused on generative artificial intelligence (AI), the closely related technology of advanced virtual reality — I’ll call it Total Electronic Immersion, or TEI — has continued to move forward, raising both promises and perils.… read more. “A new era of virtual reality brings many promises for the future — and perils”

[More research is needed to demonstrate its efficacy but in a clever application of presence-evoking technology, a small Stanford Medicine study suggests that the use of virtual reality simulations of decluttering has the potential to improve treatment for hoarding disorder.  –Matthew]

[Image: A virtual reality simulation of a patient’s home. Credit: Carolyn Rodriguez Lab]

Virtual reality helps people with hoarding disorder practice decluttering

A first-of-its-kind study by Stanford Medicine researchers lets patients practice letting go of treasured objects in simulations of their own homes.

By Nina Bai, a science writer in the Office of Communications
October 17, 2023

Many people who dream of an organized, uncluttered home à la Marie Kondo find it hard to decide what to keep and what to let go. But for those with hoarding disorder — a mental condition estimated to affect 2.5% of the U.S.… read more. “Virtual reality simulations of decluttering may help treat patients with hoarding disorder”

[In a world of more and increasingly convincing presence illusions, incidents like the one reported in the Business Insider story below are likely to become more common. Coverage by Inside Edition includes a 2:02 minute video report and begins this way:

“Americans have always been told that if we ‘see something, say something,’ and one New York resident did exactly that when he saw what he thought was an apartment on fire.

Kieran Murry was looking outside of his window when he thought he saw out-of-control flames in a Manhattan high-rise across the street.

‘I used my smartphone to zoom in and it was unmistakably a fire and I was like, this is an emergency,’ the photographer tells Inside Edition. ‘I called 911 and within minutes the streets were echoing with fire engines.’

Turns out what Murry thought were flames was a Yule log video being played on a big-screen TV, a cozy clip many people watch during the winter holidays.… read more. “New York photographer reports fire that turns out to be Yule Log video on neighbor’s big TV”

[Although the topic seems very far from, and ironic in the context of, the grim realities of war in the news, this very thoughtful essay from Boston Review uses speculative fiction and thought experiments to illustrate some of the many complex psychological and behavioral processes and ethical considerations involved as we (at least those with the resources) consider how we should use technologies that create “lifelike models of real people” that evoke medium-as-social-actor presence. –Matthew]

[Image: A still from “Be Right Back,” a 2013 episode of Black Mirror in which a woman digitally resurrects her deceased boyfriend.]

Our Avatars, Ourselves

Generative AI has made it possible to create lifelike models of real people. Should we?

By Mala Chatterjee
September 29, 2023

In 2013 an episode of the British TV show Black Mirror imagined a harrowing possibility: that technology might allow us to recreate the dead.… read more. “Generative AI has made it possible to create lifelike models of real people. Should we?”