Author: Matthew Lombard


  • Ex-footballer and University develop VR app to tackle harassment of women and girls

    [A former footballer is leading a team developing a virtual reality app designed to use presence to help users understand what sexual harassment feels like and thereby prevent disturbing incidents of harassment, abuse and violence. Details are in the press release below from the University of Staffordshire; see also a story from BBC News. It’s interesting, and apparently unfortunate, that closely related projects on this and other topics develop independently (for example, see the May 2025 ISPR Presence News post “Step into her shoes: VR highlights sexual harassment on trains” and the January 2026 post “Men embodying women in VR…

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  • Call: BritCHI 2026, British Computer Society Interaction Specialist Group Conference

    Call for Papers: BritCHI 2026, the British Computer Society’s Interaction Specialist Group’s 39th ConferenceBrunel UniversityLondon, UKNovember 1-3, 2026https://www.britchi.uk/authors/ Deadline for submission of full papers: May 21, 2026Deadline for submission of short papers: July 16, 2026 We are delighted to announce the Call for Submissions for BCS BritCHI 2026! The British Computer Society Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (BritCHI) is the UK’s leading annual conference in human-computer interaction, bringing together researchers, practitioners, designers, industry leaders, and doctoral students to share innovative research and practice in HCI. The conference is the home of British HCI: a place to meet, share ideas, network, build…

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  • Future presence: A hands-on evaluation of Google Beam and the HP Dimension

    [While convenient and commonly used video conferencing systems such as Zoom, FaceTime, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet provide moderate levels of social presence, efforts continue to create and refine  technology that provides extremely convincing social presence illusions that cause users to feel like they’re together and interacting in real time in the same physical space. This story from India’s The Economic Times Panache Magazine provides a first-person report on a demonstration of the latest version of the high-end telepresence system Google Beam. The author of another participant from Australia’s TechGuide had a similar reaction (see that story for more pictures…

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  • Call: ACM GOODIT 2026 Conference on Information Technology for Social Good

    Call for Papers: ACM GOODIT 20266th ACM International Conference on Information Technology for Social GoodSeptember 2-4, 2026Pisa, Italyhttps://goodit2026.di.unipi.it Deadline for submissions: May 17, 2026 The ACM 6th International Conference on Information Technology for Social Good (GoodIT 2026) is a premier international forum for researchers, practitioners, and educators to present and discuss the latest innovations, trends, and challenges in leveraging technology, data, and interdisciplinary approaches for Social Good and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The conference welcomes contributions that explore the intersection of technology with fields such as social sciences, healthcare, environmental studies, and public policy—highlighting the broader impact of digital…

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  • Interdisciplinary team develops and learns from World of Wonder VR app

    [A diverse team of scholars, researchers, creators and students at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee is creating a presence-evoking educational and prosocial virtual reality adventure game for young people. See the original version of this story for a second image, and follow the links for more information and to download the app from Meta; there’s also a 12:12 minute video on YouTube. For more about project lead Lindsay Persohn, visit her USF faculty page; her dissertation, which inspired the project, is available from USF’s Digital Commons. –Matthew] Step into a World of Wonder — curiosity leads the way in…

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  • Call: Unloop: Symposium On Interaction and Computational Media Design

    Call for Abstracts: Unloop: Symposium On Interaction and Computational Media DesignPorto, Portugal + OnlineJune 26, 2026https://frictiondesign.fba.up.pt/unloop/ Deadline for submission of abstracts: March 29, 2026 (extended) Unloop symposium explores the friction, inconvenience, and playfulness in the interaction with computational media as inducers of meaning, reflectiveness and higher-order thinking. Unloop aims to question the dominant paradigms of Human-Centred Design, that centre on flow and user satisfaction and that, despite having been contributing to the production of usable artefacts, have also been leading users into hedonistic loops that reinforce automatic, familiar, and repetitive behaviours. Unloop takes place in the context of the Break…

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  • The risks and rewards of XR documentary

    [This story from the Canada Media Fund uses examples and comments from a panel discussion at the Montreal International Documentary Festival to explore the potential positive and negative psychological impacts of documentaries that utilize presence-evoking extended reality technologies. For more on Traces: The Grief Processor, see a March 2025 ISPR Presence News post. –Matthew] [Image: Traces: The Grief Processor. Credit: Couzin Films.] The risks and rewards of XR documentary For several years, extended reality (XR) documentaries have been offering immersive experiences by dropping audiences directly into stories via virtual or augmented reality. How is the genre faring today? By Philippe…

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  • Call: SOcial and Cultural IntegrAtion with PersonaLIZEd Interfaces (SOCIALIZE) 2026 Workshop

    Call for Papers: SOCIALIZE Workshop @ UMAP 2026Sixth Workshop on SOcial and Cultural IntegrAtion with PersonaLIZEd Interfaces (SOCIALIZE 2026)Co-located with the 34th ACM International Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (UMAP) 2026Gothenburg, Sweden SOCIALIZE WORKSHOP:June 8, 2026https://socialize2026.di.unito.it/ UMAP 2026:June 8-11, 2026https://www.um.org/umap2026/ IMPORTANT DATES:Submission deadline: April 9, 2026Decision notification: April 28, 2026Camera-ready: May 7, 2026Workshop date: June 8, 2026 OVERVIEW The SOCIALIZE workshop aims to explore user modeling, adaptation, and personalization techniques that foster the social and cultural integration of diverse user populations. We specifically intend to attract research that addresses the interaction challenges faced by different groups, with a…

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  • Fiction author on parallels between dissociative disorders and VR, social media

    [The author of this personal essay from the literary website CrimeReads describes parallels between her experiences due to Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder (DPDR) and the use of presence-evoking virtual reality and social media, and how those experiences are illustrated in her latest novel. For more information, visit Kelsey Day’s website. –Matthew] Kelsey Day on the Dissociative Horrors of Virtual Reality and Social Media The author of The Spiral Key unpacks the derealization inherent in modern tech By Kelsey DayMarch 19, 2026 I visited in the winter of 2024, when the Manhattan streets were sickly gray. The front door glittered, glass sprayed with…

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  • Call: 28th ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction

    [NOTE: Visit the conference website for more Calls and other information. –Matthew] Call for Papers: 28th ACM International Conference on Multimodal InteractionTheme: Context and Cultural Awareness for Multimodal InteractionOctober 5-9, 2026Napoli, Italyhttps://icmi.acm.org/2026/ Deadline for submissions of abstracts: April 13, 2026 (full papers: April 20, 2026) The 28th International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI 2026) will be held in Napoli, Italy. ICMI is the premier international forum for advancing research at the intersection of multimodal artificial intelligence (AI) and social interaction to create technically innovative, effective, and human-centered multimodal interactive systems. A unique aspect of ICMI is its multidisciplinary nature, bringing…

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  • Study finds 3D VR anatomy education lightens students’ cognitive load

    [Supporting arguments about the benefits of presence, a new study by researchers in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University demonstrates that students have a lower cognitive load when learning about complex anatomy structures using three-dimensional rather than flat, two-dimensional images in virtual reality. Follow the links in the story for more information. –Matthew] [Image: The HP Omnicept virtual reality headset, equipped with biometric sensors, was used to measure participants’ cognitive load while viewing instructional anatomy content. Credit: Photo courtesy of the Clapp lab.] New study finds 3D virtual reality anatomy education lightens students’ cognitive…

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  • Call: Playing Between The Lines: The Pleasures (and Despair) of Real and Virtual Football

    Call for Contributions: Playing Between The Lines: The Pleasures (and Despair) of Real and Virtual FootballA Workshop at DIGRA 2026, the 17th Annual Digital Games Research AssociationJune 14-18, 2026Maynooth, Irelandhttp://commlist.org/archive/all/2026-all/msg00450.html Deadline for submissions: April 10, 2026 OVERVIEW With the FIFA World Cup 2026 overlapping with DiGRA 2026 this workshop invites researchers, designers, and critics to explore intersectional pleasures and despair within real and virtual football. Football videogames are forms of play that exist between performance and simulation, fandom and labour, identity and escapism. This can take the form of photorealistic simulation sports games such as EA FC, eFootball, and Football…

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