[As this story from VentureBeat reports, companies like Hour One and Synthesia are creating hundreds of thousands of “authorized deepfake” videos for thousands of businesses, which means encounters and interactions with digital “people” will become increasingly common.  –Matthew] [Image: Source: GRIT Daily] Why authorized deepfakes are becoming big for business By Sharon Goldman November 9, 2022 Natalie Monbiot, head of strategy at synthetic media company Hour One, dislikes the word “deepfakes.” “Deepfake implies unauthorized use of synthetic media and generative artificial intelligence — we are authorized from the get-go,” she told VentureBeat. She described the Tel Aviv- and New York-based…

[Mashable reports on how MSNBC’s real-time graphics team developed technology that let them be the “first to seamlessly transition from real life space into a digital one on live television” during coverage of the recent U.S. midterm elections. Note especially the comments at the end about planned future uses of the technology. See the original story for several other pictures and a 1:56 minute video “sample of the Capitol illusion in action.”  –Matthew] [Image: Screenshot from video in Mashable story] How MSNBC used tech from ‘The Mandalorian’ to bring election night to life Inside the beating, bustling, high-tech heart of…

[The continuing evolution of presence-evoking immersive technologies is enabling valuable use cases that enhance communication and users’ lives, as reported in this story from Futurism. See the original version for a different image, and for more details follow the link to the 14:28 minute video highlighted in the story. For more about Jenny and the Helping Hands community, see March 2022 coverage from Input.  –Matthew] [Image: Source: Input]   Sign Language in Virtual Reality Actually Looks Kinda Awesome Meta’s new finger tracking tech is actually pretty impressive. By Victor Tangermann November 1, 2022 Virtual reality isn’t all about legless avatars and…

[This first-person report from Here is Oregon describes what sounds like a very rich multi-sensory presence experience at the Portland Art Museum; see the original story for four more pictures and for more details and images, see coverage from OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) and the Portland Tribune, and visit the website of the Dutch design collective Polymorf. –Matthew] [Image: Participants take part in “Symbiosis,” an extended reality experience from Dutch design collective Polymorf that is making its international debut at PAM CUT in Portland. Credit: Ian Gillingham/Portland Art Museum] Extended reality experience ‘Symbiosis’ makes international debut in Portland By Jamie Hale…

[This story from Forbes reports on the first-place winner of the $10 million ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition, a team from the University of Bonn and their telepresence robot NimbRo; our colleague Jacki Morie is quoted extensively in the story. There’s more information in the EurekAlert! press release and especially on the NimbRo website, which features many pictures and videos. Coverage in SpaceNews provides this interesting context about the motivations for the competition sponsor, the largest airline in Japan: “’When we think about the world that we live in right now, where only about 6% of the population can travel over…

[This BBC News story describes efforts to use presence-evoking VR to prepare students for job interviews with prospective employers (who may also use VR to conduct interviews). Coverage from Inavate includes this: “Users get feedback on their answers, as well as how the answer was given, whether the interviewee is maintaining eye contact with the avatar as well as the participant’s posture throughout the interview. The trial will see more than 10,000 learners accessing the experience, with findings due to be published in January 2023. Sandwell College, a UK based school, took part in the programme, with 84% of participants…