[The story below from the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering reports on the latest efforts to make arguably the ultimate presence-evoking technology, Star Trek’s holodecks, a reality; see the original version of the story for three more pictures and three videos. –Matthew] [Image: USC researchers led by Shahram Ghandeharizadeh and Heather Culbertson (Center) are inching closer to creating a real-world holodeck, using swarms of tiny drones to create 3D objects. Credit: Cooper Brown.] International Conference on Holodecks: Five Key Takeaways Immersive technology researchers at USC and beyond are bringing us one step closer to making Star Trek-like…

[I’ve read, and posted, several encouraging stories over the years about how individuals have discovered, and formed organizations to utilize, the power of presence-evoking technologies to create new empathy and understanding, and hopefully behavior change, that counters harmful biases. The story below about Equity Commons is from Davidson College in North Carolina; the original version contains three more pictures, and there’s more information on the Equity Commons website. –Matthew] [Image: Aubrey J. Grant ’10, M.D.] Radical Empathy Through Virtual Reality: Tech Has Power to Transform the Patient Experience By Jay Pfeifer February 19, 2024 You are Tracy. You are a…

[This story from New Atlas makes a detailed and compelling case for the use of robots to serve in the valuable role of seeing eye dogs, with characteristics of the robots likely evoking medium-as-social-actor presence for their blind or sight-limited users. See the original version of the story for eight more images and three videos. –Matthew] [Image: The University of Glasgow has been working with the Unitree G01 platform for quite some time now, specifically to develop guide dogs for blind and partially sighted people. Credit: Glasgow University] The Seeing Eye Dog V2.0 is shaping up as a gamechanger By…

[The new innovative documentary Ibelin explores the rich relationships formed solely in World of Warcraft by a quadriplegic gamer. The very positive review from Variety below provides a vivid description of the film, which at this writing has a 100% rating from reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes (note that not all reviews are as glowing; Hollywood Reporter’s reviewer writes that “if you’re already aware that the virtual spaces created by networked gaming are, indeed, valid and even valuable ways of forging social relationships, there isn’t much additional insight”). –Matthew] [Image: Source: The Wrap] ‘Ibelin’ Review: A Shattering Documentary About a Gamer’s…

[This is the second of two related stories being posted today about the use of presence by people whose lives have been upended by tragedy and who are seeking action from leaders and legislators. The story is from The Times of Israel, where the original includes a second image and two videos.  –Matthew] [Image: A screenshot from a virtual reality scene called ‘Shlomi’s Glasses,’ created by the family of hostage Shlomi Ziv to portray the experience of hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023] Hoping to jar world leaders, hostage’s cousin rebuilds captivity in virtual reality ‘Shlomi’s Glasses,’ a…

[This is the first of two related stories being posted today about the use of presence by people whose lives have been upended by tragedy and who are seeking action from leaders and legislators. The story is from NPR, where the original includes two more images and an embedded Change The Ref post from X that contains a 1:15 minute video.  –Matthew] [Image: Flowers, candles and mementos sit outside one of the makeshift memorials at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida just days after the deadly shooting in 2018. Credit: Rhona Wise/AFP via Getty Images] Gun violence killed…

[Exploring what she and others say will become a common phenomenon, Spanish artist Alicia Framis will become the first woman to marry an artificially intelligent hologram, as reported in this story from Euronews. See the original version for two more images and a 2:06 minute video (also on YouTube), and for more details and images visit the artist’s website. For related stories, see El Pais and a 2019 ISPR Presence News post. –Matthew] Meet Spanish artist Alicia Framis: The first woman to marry a hologram The multidisciplinary artist from Barcelona Alicia Framis will be the first woman to marry a…