International Society
for Presence Research

Author: Matthew Lombard

  • Call: 13th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2021)

    Published:

    CALL FOR PAPERS The 13th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2021) 10-13 November 2021 Singapore and Online Conference format: Hybrid with joint programme with the International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI 2021; https://hai-conference.net/hai2021/) www.colips.org/conferences/icsr2021 Submission deadline: 13th June 2021 GENERAL INFORMATION The 13th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2021) brings together researchers and practitioners working on the interaction between humans and intelligent robots and on the integration of robots into the fabric of our society. ICSR 2021 will take place in Singapore as a hybrid conference on 10-13 November 2021. Accepted papers will be included in the Proceedings…

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  • A safe space: Yale medical researchers use VR, presence to reach youth

    Published:

    [This story from Yale News describes many of the ways presence-evoking technologies are being used to help both patients and medical students. The original story includes two more images. –Matthew] [Image: A screenshot from the anti-vaping virtual reality game, Invite Only VR.] A safe space: Medical researchers use virtual reality to reach youth By Brita Belli May 7, 2021 For years, Dr. Asher Marks, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine and director of the Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Program at Yale New Haven Hospital, has urged his young patients to attend support groups. Meeting…

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  • Call: FLAT journal – Issue 0.2: Touch

    Published:

    Call for Proposals FLAT journal – Issue 0.2: Touch https://flatjournal.com/cfp/ Submission deadline: August 1st, 2021 To our readers, writers, and passersby, We are living with the unmistakably eerie feeling that perception has been broken down for parts and recombined into something else.  Something built for and by blue-light screens, tiny monophonic speakers, and just enough tactility to find the right key to press or swipe on a glass screen. For this year’s issue, we are looking for co-conspirators (despite the dangers of breathing together) to rebuild our understanding of touch and its necessity to perception, bodies, and being in the…

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  • Robotic ‘third thumb’ use can alter brain representation of the hand

    Published:

    [A new study from University College London (UCL) explores how we adapt to technological augmentation of our body, in this case via a mechanical ‘third thumb.’ Perhaps not surprisingly we adjust quite well, with the augmentation coming to feel like it’s part of our own body and with corresponding changes in the brain, a phenomenon that represents an interesting type of presence illusion. This story from UCL includes many of the details along with a 2:50 minute video (also available via Vimeo). Coverage in HealthDay adds this perspective: “Since the extra thumb forced people to alter the way they moved…

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  • Call: CONVERSATIONS 2021 – 5th International Workshop on Chatbot Research

    Published:

    Call for Papers: CONVERSATIONS 2021 – 5th International Workshop on Chatbot Research November 23-24, 2021 Online virtual event hosted by the University of Amsterdam https://conversations2021.wordpress.com Paper submission deadline: September 1, 2021 Chatbot researchers and practitioners are invited to join CONVERSATIONS 2021, a two-day workshop on chatbot research and design. This is the fifth CONVERSATIONS workshop, where researchers with an interest in chatbots and conversational user interfaces collaborate and share. The workshop is free of charge. Following from the pleasant experience of last year’s virtual event, also CONVERSATIONS 2021 will be fully online. Paper presentations and groupworks are important parts of…

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  • Police departments using VR and presence to teach de-escalation, implicit bias and more

    Published:

    [CNN reports on efforts to improve the training of police officers and prevent the kinds of tragedies we hear about so often. See the original version of this story for more images and a 2:55 minute video report. For related recent stories see How a new virtual reality system can help train Sacramento police for real-life encounters (The Sacramento Bee) Greenfield [Indiana] officers using virtual reality to help with de-escalation training (WTHR) New Voinovich Academy initiative offers Appalachian law enforcement training via virtual reality (Ohio University) –Matthew] With virtual reality police training, Sacramento tries to ‘get to a much better place’ By Emma…

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  • Call: Workshop on the Embodiment of Things (EoT 2021) at British HCI Conference

    Published:

    Call for Papers The Workshop on the Embodiment of Things (EoT 2021) Co-located with the 33rd British Human Computer Interaction Conference 19th July, 2021 Online https://hci2021.bcs.org/workshop-1/ Submission deadline: 15th June, 2021 The Workshop on the Embodiment of Things (EoT 2021) will be held online on the 19th July and is co-located with the 33rd British Human Computer Interaction Conference (https://hci2021.bcs.org) INTRODUCTION The goal of this workshop is to bring researchers and practitioners from national and international cultural heritage (CH) organisations together with those from across HCI and related fields. We aim to establish how an alertness to tertiary embodiment (mind-body-artefact)…

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  • Experimental 3D hyper-telepresence: Google’s Project Starline

    Published:

    [I’m sure many of us would like to try out Google’s new prototype system for social presence called Project Starline, described in this first-person report from Wired. See the original story for two looping mini-videos and see Google’s 1:50 minute video on YouTube. –Matthew] Google’s Project Starline Videoconference Tech Wants to Turn You Into a Hologram Our reporter tests out a “video booth” to glimpse the future of telepresence. By Lauren Goode May 18, 2021 Over the past several years, Google has been working hard to craft software experiences that make you feel like you’re present with another human being,…

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  • Call: “Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Human-Computer Interaction” issue of Big Data and Cognitive Computing

    Published:

    [Important note: I have avoided posting Calls for Papers that involve the requirement that authors pay a fee for submission and/or publication but will now do so when the topic is particularly relevant to the presence community. In these cases, as with the Call below, I will add an explicit note near the top of the post specifying the fee. For more information about these fees, see AJE Scholar’s “Understanding Submission and Publication Fees” and Wikipedia’s entry on Article Processing Charges. –Matthew] Call for Papers “Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Human-Computer Interaction” A special issue of Big Data and Cognitive…

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  • Meet virtual reality, your new physical therapist

    Published:

    [Although there’s much more research to do, particularly on the specific role of presence, this New York Times story suggests another positive application of presence-evoking technology. See the original story for a second image and a 2:52 minute video (also available via YouTube). –Matthew] [Image: Michael Heinrich, who lost the use of the lower half of his body after an accident, undergoes virtual reality therapy. “From an emotional standpoint, coming off an injury where I lost the majority of the use of my body, V.R. pushed the boundaries of what I thought was possible,” he said. Credit: Michigan Medicine] Meet…

    Read more: Meet virtual reality, your new physical therapist

  • Call: Amazing Folks in Tech: VR in the Medical Field – Free online LA SIGGRAPH event

    Published:

    Call for Participation Amazing Folks in Tech: VR in the Medical Field A free online event from LA ACM SIGGRAPH June 8, 2021 https://lasiggraph.org/event/amazing-folks-tech REGISTER FOR FREE WITH ZOOM until May 26, 2021 PRESENTERS: Andrew Melchior, Founder, 3rd Space Agency JohnLeah, Founder, 3rd Space Agency Greg Ruthenbeck, Director, Exagen Oy Daish Malani, Founder, Technical Director, Add Life Technologies Kyle Carlin, Moderator DESCRIPTION: As medical professionals strive to use VR with accuracy: learn from three medical professionals using VR. VR in the Medical Field will be LA ACM SIGGRAPH’s June 8th event. Join us here at LA SIGGRAPH for a magical…

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  • “Artificially intimate” technologies are changing the way we interact

    Published:

    [This link-filled story from The Conversation summarizes some of the presence-related themes of the author’s new book Artificial Intimacy: Virtual friends, Digital Lovers and Algorithmic Matchmakers. See the original story for two more images. –Matthew] Sex bots, virtual friends, VR lovers: Tech is changing the way we interact, and not always for the better By Rob Brooks, Scientia Professor of Evolutionary Ecology; Academic Lead of the University of New South Wales Grand Challenges Program, UNSW May 2, 2021 Twenty-first century technologies such as robots, virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) are creeping into every corner of our social and…

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