[The pandemic has increased interest in and speculation about the potential for virtual and augmented reality, and the social and spatial presence they evoke, to transform the work experience. While this story from Inverse takes a balanced view of the potential and challenges, the concluding comment of Spatial’s VP of Business Development and Strategy is noteworthy: “’There will be reasons to still go into an office. People will view it as a perk.’ But he predicts big changes driven by AR and VR coming in the next decade. ‘It will look very different in 2030 than 2020 in a profound…

[The day when our interactions with other people will be mediated by smart digital assistants (“my A.I. will call your A.I.”) is another step closer with the new artificially intelligent natural voice RobocallGuard, as described in this story from Digital Trends. Stopping robocalls is certainly a worthwhile goal for the emerging tech, which will need to evoke effective social presence for human callers and callees. For more information follow the link to the paper at the end. –Matthew] [Image: Source: New Scientist. Credit: Juj Winn/Getty Images] This clever new A.I. assistant will screen and block robocallers for you By Luke…

[One may need to be a power user to fully recognize the benefits, presence-related and otherwise, of interacting with spreadsheets in the 3D space of virtual reality as described in this story from VentureBeat. The original story includes the 6:56 minute video referenced, along with the full research report in ArXiv, at the end. –Matthew] [Image: The hierarchical pie menu is invoked in-place and navigated from bottom to top through in-air movements of the pen (a-c). An arc menu on the corner of the tablet controls visualization options (activated – solid color, non activated – semi-transparent) (d). Adding a trend-line…

[All things being equal, presence responses are more likely when technology is unobtrusive or hidden; a new transparent TV display accomplishes this and is said to offer an “ultra-immersive viewing experience.” This story is from BGR, where it includes the mentioned videos and two more images. A longer (1:25 minute) HD video from Argus World is available on YouTube. CNET points out that “Comparable technology has been around since at least 2015, when Samsung showed a transparent OLED display panel for commercial use. LG also showed one at CES 2016” and as noted by BGR and in a 2016 ISPR…

[This story from MacRumors describes intriguing presence-evoking technology in a new patent filing from Apple. As the author notes, “[g]iven the complexity and outlandish nature of this filing, it is very unlikely that any of the features outlined in it will come to market any time soon. Nonetheless, it offers insight into Apple’s current areas of research and development.” The original version of the story includes two different images. For more details see coverage from Patently Apple, and for information about a related patent, see “Apple wants to bring Zoom-like background replacement to ‘Apple Glass’” from Apple Insider. –Matthew] [Image:…

[TechCrunch reports on how teams of volunteers are working to take the Burning Man event online because of the pandemic and in the process, participate in some “avant garde imagineering for what the future of human online interaction looks like.” In addition to the links to the separate projects, the original story includes six more images and links to related content. –Matthew] Digitizing Burning Man How indie developers are re-imagining social apps to save the iconic off-the-grid event Lucas Matney August 12, 2020 For decades, Burning Man has represented an escape from the current reality. An event for free-er spirits…