[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…

[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…

[MediaPost reports on a new tool available to anyone to create apparently real news anchors delivering apparently real news, which provides an excellent example of the potential perils of presence illusions. See the original story for a second image, read the press release in Yahoo! Finance, and watch a short demonstration video on the Hour One website. –Matthew] Human Avatar Developer Moves Into News, Enables Anyone To Have Their Own ‘Anchor’ By Joe Mandese August 23, 2022 At a time when many in the media industry are debating the authenticity of some sources of news and information, a developer of “virtual…

[An expert in deception and manipulation wrote this warning about the dangers of presence for The Washington Post; it concludes with recommendations to study and develop technology to counter them. For more about the author  see his LinkedIn page. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Matt Chinworth for The Washington Post] Opinion Facebook misinformation is bad enough. The metaverse will be worse. By Rand Waltzman, adjunct senior information scientist at the Rand Corporation August 22, 2022 Here’s a plausible scenario that could soon take place in the metaverse, the online virtual reality environments under rapid development by Mark Zuckerberg and other tech entrepreneurs:…

[This story from Wired describes two services that use social (co)presence (and in the case of the second, also spatial presence) to increase the productivity of people who work remotely. There’s no discussion of *why* it works, but the ‘About’ page of the Focusmate website includes this: “You choose a time to work, and Focusmate pairs you with an accountability partner for a live, virtual coworking session that will keep you on task. Research in psychology and behavioral science shows that regular human connection reduces the likelihood that a worker will procrastinate or become distracted. The Focusmate virtual coworking model…

[Despite the humorous description in this review by TonyVT (Skarredghost) in his excellent The Ghost Howls blog, and modern echoes of the Pet Rock phenomenon, “Rock Life: The Rock Simulator” is a real, apparently presence-evoking game for VR and other platforms. I see a sly but important message here about the ability of even simple, low resolution, limited interaction simulations to create effective, and in these stressful times, appealing, presence experiences. See the original blog post for more images, and a 7:28 minute video version of the review on YouTube; there’s also a 4:20 minute un-narrated gameplay video on YouTube.…