[As reported in the press release below, Dr. Marjorie Zielke has won the Tech Titans’ 5G Challenge with a proposal to develop an Emergent Virtual Teacher Platform (EVTP); she and her team at the Center for Simulation and Synthetic Humans at the University of Texas at Dallas “see a future society of synthetic and real humans working together.” For information about Dr. Zielke’s 2020 NSF grant “to explore how augmented reality can help medical students prepare for interactions with real patients” see the UTD website; the UTD Office of Research website hosts a 52 minute video of a seminar by…

[It’s not clear whether dogs wearing augmented reality goggles experience superimposed visual elements as part of their nonmediated reality but the project reported in this story from APG News suggests that both dog and human handler using the technology may experience spatial, and social, presence. The original story includes a second image. See also the August 2020 ISPR Presence News post “US Army robo-teammate can detect, share 3-D changes in real-time using AR.” –Matthew] Augmented Reality Dog Goggles Could Help Protect Soldiers By CCDC Army Research Laboratory October 14, 2020 RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Military working dogs often scout…

[Here’s a story from TechCrunch about Amazon’s new use of augmented reality, just in time for Halloween. See the original version for more pictures and a 38 second video (also available on YouTube), and a related ISPR Presence News post about Amazon’s “Distance Assistant” AR that helps warehouse workers stay socially distant. –Matthew] Amazon launches an AR app that works with new QR codes on its boxes Sarah Perez October 12, 2020 Amazon has quietly launched a new augmented reality application that works with QR codes on the company’s shipping boxes to create “interactive, shareable” AR experiences. Called simply “Amazon…

[The invention described in this story from the Cornell Chronicle has clear potential to improve social presence during mediated communication, especially with the limitations imposed by the pandemic. For more details and demonstrations, see the 4:22 minute video in the original story (it’s also on YouTube). –Matthew] [Image: Captured video of a user’s facial expression (left), with a 3D model predicted by C-Face.] Earphone tracks facial expressions, even with a face mask By Melanie Lefkowitz October 12, 2020 Cornell researchers have invented an earphone that can continuously track full facial expressions by observing the contour of the cheeks – and…

[Researchers at Cambridge University collaborating with a 3D image analysis software company, have created software that lets users explore super-resolution microcopy data in virtual reality. This passage particularly struck me: “Anoushka Handa – a PhD student from Lee’s group – used the software to image an immune cell taken from her own blood, and then stood inside her own cell in virtual reality. ‘It’s incredible – it gives you an entirely different perspective on your work,’ she said.” For more information and a 5:07 minute walk-through video (also available via YouTube), see the LUME VR website. –Matthew] [Image: DBScan analysis…

[It’s often enlightening to see how various types of presence phenomena are dramatized in movies and television programs (e.g., the Telepresence in Media Environments project). A new 10-episode Fox TV event series that debuted last week is the latest example. The Chicago Sun-Times review below begins with the familiar example of a child speaking with (a fictional version of) Alexa that takes a creepy turn. For more information about the thinking behind the show see an interview with its creator from CBR. In an intriguing related development, Fox hired a “tech-focused creative shop” to develop an AI that then created…