International Society
for Presence Research

Author: Matthew Lombard

  • London schools use VR to relieve pupils’ stress

    Published:

    [This widely cited story from The Guardian reports that schools in London are using presence-evoking virtual reality to reduce student anxiety around exams and other stressors. See the original version of the story for a second image, and the Phase Space website for more details and a 1:51 minute video (also available on Vimeo). –Matthew] [Image: A pupil using a Phase Space VR headset. Credit: Phase Space] London schools trialling VR to relieve pupils’ stress Phase Space pilot programme with NHS mental health trust used to calm anxiety around exams, ADHD and home troubles By Denis Campbell and Sinéad CampbellMay…

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  • Call: Space, Urban Studies, Cityscapes, and Virtual/Digital Spaces

    Published:

    [NOTE: The post of this Call in the Virtual-Reality listserv includes this from the journal’s assistant editor: “We would like to read about experience working on the topics related to virtual reality and educational technology, and believe that the perspectives and journeys of this group, through research, academia, and practice, can illustrate how theory and lived experience are intertwined, and add a unique dimension to the discourse we are trying to create through this Volume.” –Matthew] Call for Papers: Space, Urban Studies, Cityscapes, and Virtual/Digital SpacesFor the Forum section of a special volume in the journal Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary…

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  • Rethinking AR for children: USF study finds key design gap

    Published:

    [Motivated by the fact that children are increasingly using presence-evoking technologies in school (and elsewhere), researchers at the University of South Florida are investigating differences between how adults and children use augmented reality. The original version of this story includes five more images and this quote from USF Assistant Professor Julia Woodward: “If we are going to design for children, we need to consider all the elements. Children think about AR in terms of real-world objects and try to interact with them like physical items, with weight and force. We need to design with those expectations in mind.” –Matthew] Rethinking…

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  • Call: Re-sensitising the Image in the Postdigital Age

    Published:

    Call for Papers: Re-sensitising the Image in the Postdigital AgeInternational Film And Media Studies ConferenceNovember 26-27, 2026Centre for Cinematic Intermediality and Visual CultureSapientia Hungarian University of TransylvaniaCluj-Napoca, Romania [and online – see below]http://film.sapientia.ro/en/conferences/re-sensitising-the-image-in-the-postdigital-age Deadline for submissions: July 12, 2026 In our current postdigital condition, digital technology is so deeply embedded in everyday life that the distinction between technical and natural is becoming increasingly blurred and images have become mere byproducts of our embodied co-existence with digital media. At the same time, we see that visual forms are continuously rendered obsolete by the rapidly evolving algorithmic processes.…

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  • Praising and contemplating the future of the Apple Vision Pro

    Published:

    [This opinion piece from TechRadar by a long-time expert observer praises the presence-evoking capabilities of the Apple Vision Pro spatial computing device while providing a realistic assessment of its possible future and role in the evolution of presence technologies. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future] I don’t know if Vision Pro is alive or dead, but it is still the most sophisticated, powerful, and coolest hardware Apple ever built — and we can surely thank it for the glasses that will follow Will it survive the new leadership By Lance UlanoffMay 1, 2026 Rumor has it, Apple‘s pricey Vision…

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  • Call: Towards Ethical Deception in HRI at RO-MAN 2026

    Published:

    Call for Papers: Towards Ethical Deception in HRIA Workshop at RO-MAN 2026, the 35th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive CommunicationKitakyushu International Conference CenterAugust 24-28, 2024Kitakyushu, JapanWorkshop: https://sites.google.com/view/ted-hriRO-MAN 2026: https://ro-man2026.org Deadline for submission of papers: May 31, 2026 This workshop focuses on the ethical and pro-social use of deceptive and persuasive behaviours in social robotics, exploring how robots deployed in healthcare, educational, caregiving, and domestic environments can strategically employ techniques such as white lies, intentional errors, and selective information omission to improve user well-being and interaction effectiveness. As social robots evolve beyond reactive dialogue systems toward socio-emotionally aware…

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  • AR/VR program transforming technical and vocational education in Ecuador

    Published:

    [This interview from the World Bank Group describes how a carefully planned, industry-academic collaborative program that uses presence-evoking technologies to train students in Ecuador’s Technical and Technological Institutes is improving how students learn auto mechanics. See the original version of the interview for three different images, and for more information (and a video) about the Active Training Using Virtual Reality Program (ACTIVaR) see an earlier World Bank Blog post. –Matthew] [Image: Source: World Bank Blog] Augmented and Virtual Reality Program Transforming TVET in Ecuador April 27, 2026 Job creation is the ‘North Star’ of the World Bank Group’s work, and…

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  • Call: Dyadic: A Research Platform for Online Chat Studies

    Published:

    Call for Use and Feedback: Introducing Dyadic: A Research Platform for Online Chat Studieshttps://telegra.ph/NEW-PROGRAMS-Introducing-Dyadic-A-Research-Platform-for-Online-Chat-Studies-04-30 April 30, 2026 Hi all — I wanted to share a tool I’ve been developing that may be of interest to scholars who run online chat studies. Dyadic (Log In — Dyadic) is a research platform designed for dyadic and small-group online conversations, supporting both human-to-human and human-to-AI interaction paradigms. Here is what Dyadic currently supports: Creating experimental and observational studies with configurable conditions (chats with text, chats with audio) Deploying AI confederates alongside (or in place of) human participants, and deployment of AI suggestions in…

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  • Character.AI feature lets you step inside your favorite classic novels

    Published:

    [Expanding presence for literary texts, a new feature from Character.AI lets users “step inside a classic novel – not just read it, but play it.“ A quick summary is provided in this story from Quasa, where the original version includes four more images. A story in Mashable takes a deeper dive, and one in Digital Trends focuses on user safety. For more information and to access the Books feature, see the company’s announcement on the Character.AI blog. –Matthew] Character AI Launches “Books” — Now You Can Step Inside Your Favorite Classic Novels By Viacheslav VasipenokApril 24, 2026 Character.AI…

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  • Call: Inclusive AI workshop at ICMI 2026

    Published:

    Call for Papers: Inclusive AIA workshop at ICMI 2026,  the 28th ACM International Conference on Multimodal InteractionOctober 5, 2026Naples, ItalyWorkshop: https://sites.google.com/view/inclusive-aiICMI 2026: https://icmi.acm.org/2026/ Deadline for submission of extended abstracts: June 15, 2026 We invite submissions to the inaugural Inclusive AI workshop at ICMI 2026. This workshop aims to rethink AI-based multimodal interaction through the lens of inclusivity, with a focus on diverse and underrepresented user populations. As AI systems increasingly engage in social interaction, they often rely on normative assumptions about communication, behavior, and language. These assumptions can lead to exclusion, misrecognition, and interaction breakdowns, particularly for individuals with disabilities…

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  • AI researchers want AI to fake “thinking”

    Published:

    [In this post from his Machine Society Substack, technology writer Mike Elgan describes new research that demonstrates what we would call medium-as-social-actor presence. The researchers find that when an AI chatbot takes longer to respond to queries, it is perceived as taking longer to think of the answer. Elgan puts it this way: “people judge AI the way they judge people. If people give a slower response, we tend to assume it’s a more thoughtful one.” Elgan argues that deliberately slowing AI response times to manipulate user perceptions in this way is unethical and encourages dangerous delusions regarding the true…

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  • Call: Generative AI Companions: What They Are and Why That Matters

    Published:

    Call for Papers: Generative AI Companions: What They Are and Why That MattersA special issue of the journal Philosophical Studieshttps://link.springer.com/collections/iiaagcacje Deadline for submissions: June 1, 2026 The special issue aims to explore the ontological status of Generative AI companions and the moral upshot of entering into a relationship with these entities. Guest Editors: Marianna B. Ganapini — [email protected] Kesavan Thanagopal — [email protected] Robert Clowes — [email protected] DESCRIPTION The pervasiveness of Generative AI (GenAI) companion apps and the ease with which one can use them to create companion chatbots to interact with, have raised some concerns among the general public.…

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