International Society
for Presence Research

Author: Matthew Lombard

  • Call: Workshop on AI and AR/VR for Exergaming (AIVR4Exergame) at IEEE AIxVR 2025

    Published:

    Call for Papers Workshop on AI and AR/VR for Exergaming (AIVR4Exergame)Co-Located with IEEE AIxVR 2025Lisbon, PortugalWorkshop Date: TBDAIVR4Exergame: https://tars-home.github.io/aivr4exergaming2025/IEEE AIxVR 2025: https://aixvr.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/ Deadline for submissions: December 1, 2024 AI-enabled AR/VR-based exergames have the potential to enable a broader spectrum of users to participate in rehabilitative and fitness activities in immersive social environments that provide continual feedback to improve performance and incentivize continued usage. However, consumer grade AR/VR systems do not yet have the full capabilities needed to realize exergaming at scale. These challenges include, but are not limited to AI feedback algorithms that can run on untethered systems, long-term usage…

    Read more: Call: Workshop on AI and AR/VR for Exergaming (AIVR4Exergame) at IEEE AIxVR 2025

  • Easing patient fears of radiation treatment via virtual reality (and presence)

    Published:

    [An interdisciplinary team of professors and students at the University of Pennsylvania are developing an impressively useful, positive application of presence-evoking technology, as reported in this story from the Penn Medicine News blog. See the original version for more images. –Matthew] [Image: Peter Decherney (far left), professor of cinema and media studies in the School of Arts & Sciences, is the instructor of the undergraduate Virtual Reality Lab spring course. Credit: Courtesy of Penn Medicine News] Easing Patient Fears of Radiation Treatment, Via Virtual Reality By Daphne SashinOctober 24, 2024 For a patient facing radiation therapy for cancer, the process…

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  • Call: Chapters for “Modern Media Literacy: Generative AI, Social Media, and the News”

    Published:

    Call for Chapters Modern Media Literacy: Generative AI, Social Media, and the NewsTo be published by IGI Globalhttps://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/8263 Editors:Thomas Hallaq, Kansas State University, United StatesChristopher Groshek, Kansas State University, United States Deadline for submission of proposals: December 8, 2024Full Chapters Due: March 23, 2025 INTRODUCTION Overview of Media Literacy in the Digital Age Significance of Media Literacy for Critical Thinking and Responsible Digital Citizenship Role of AI, Social Media, and Mobile Media in Shaping Modern News Consumption Skills, Competencies, and Ethical Considerations in Media Literacy Skills, competencies, and ethical considerations in media literacy for the 21st century, particularly in the…

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  • UK phone provider deploys “state-of-the-art AI granny” to waste scammers’ time

    Published:

    [A clever application of presence in the UK represents a small but satisfying victory in the fight against phone scammers. Futurism describes it as “the rare noble application of AI chatbots, which have more often been used to perpetrate scams than fight them — a clever reversal that just might help the vulnerable people, including flesh-and-blood grandmothers, on whom scammers tend to prey.” Some of the details are reported in the story below from Creative Boom, and more details are in the Virgin Media O2 and VCCP London press releases. Visit the original versions of any of these reports for…

    Read more: UK phone provider deploys “state-of-the-art AI granny” to waste scammers’ time

  • Call: Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA) 2025 Conference

    Published:

    Call for Papers Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA) 2025 ConferenceTheme: “Breaks”June 7-10, 2025Montreal, Quebec and onlinehttps://gamestudies.ca/cgsa-acej-2025-breaks-arrets/ Deadline for submissions: December 13, 2024 The 2025 CGSA/ACÉJ annual conference will be a hybrid event co-hosted by the Technoculture, Art and Games Lab (TAG) at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec from June 7–10. This year’s chosen theme is “Breaks.” We invite submissions from all disciplines and researchers working on or around games, including digital and non-digital games. Graduate student submissions and submissions from scholars outside of Canada are welcome and encouraged! Please indicate in your abstract if you are a grad student and/or…

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  • EgoTouch tech lets VR users’ palms serve as touchscreen interfaces

    Published:

    [A new technique for enabling more natural and convenient (and thus presence-enhancing) touch interfaces in virtual reality is described in this story from New Atlas, based on a news release from Carnegie Mellon University. See the original story for a 30-second video demonstration (also available on YouTube). –Matthew] EgoTouch tech lets VR users’ palms serve as touchscreen interfaces By Ben CoxworthNovember 14, 2024 In the real world, you wouldn’t want to carry a handheld controller all the time, or have menus constantly popping up in front of your face – so why put up with those things in VR worlds?…

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  • Call: BEHAVE AI Workshop at ACM IUI 2025

    Published:

    Call for Papers BEHAVE AI WorkshopCo-located with the 2025 International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (ACM IUI 2025)Cagliari, Italy BEHAVE Workshop:Date TBDhttps://www.hcai.eu/behave-ai/ ACM IUI 2025:March 24-27, 2025https://iui.acm.org/2025/ Deadline for submission of papers: January 9, 2025 This workshop aims to address the unique challenges posed by proactive systems, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers and practitioners. Topics include: Identifying unique challenges in designing proactive AI systems. Sharing best practices in the design and evaluation of proactive systems. Developing tailored evaluation metrics and methods for human-AI interaction. Case studies on the implementation and assessment of proactive AI in various domains.…

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  • Is digital technology leading us to the ‘extinction of experience’?

    Published:

    [The new book The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World highlights key debates about the psychological and sociological impact of presence-evoking technologies. The critical review below from The Washington Post emphasizes the importance of using clear and precise definitions, explications and arguments based on relevant evidence and consistent logic in these debates. A review in Reason is similarly critical. For a more favorable take – and some important academic context – see the review in Public Discourse. Reviews in the conservative Wall Street Journal and National Review are behind paywalls. You can listen to a 31-minute interview…

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  • Call: Chapter proposals for Routledge Companion to Media and Memory

    Published:

    Call for Papers Routledge Companion to Media and Memoryhttp://commlist.org/archive/all/2024-all/msg01638.html Deadline for submission of abstracts: December 15, 2024 We are seeking chapter proposals for the Routledge Companion to Media and Memory, edited by Joanne Garde-Hansen and Red Chidgey. With over 50+ global contributions, this volume will create an essential resource for engaging with established, emergent and future directions in media and memory research. Covering diverse media, cultural and communication forms, practices and discourse, the /Companion/ will include chapters on cinema, television, music, gaming, social media, journalism, as well as museums, heritage, fan-made texts, digital innovation and advanced global media production.…

    Read more: Call: Chapter proposals for Routledge Companion to Media and Memory

  • Interprofessional team at Illinois State U. use VR environments to improve rehabilitation and aging-in-place

    Published:

    [A team of professionals from diverse fields at Illinois State University are collaborating to use virtual reality (and presence) to improve aging-in-place therapies. See the original version of this story from the University for a second image. –Matthew] Interprofessional collaboration and design in virtual reality environments for rehabilitation and aging-in-place By Lauren HagyNovember 12, 2024 The effectiveness of individualized aging-in-place practices and therapeutic services often relies on a collaborative and integrated approach. Interprofessional practice, which involves the collaboration of professionals from various fields, has emerged as a best practice in elevating the quality and outcomes of care. This article delves…

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  • Call: “Virtual Sex: Pornography, Immersion, and Erotic Environments” issue of AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images

    Published:

    Call for Papers Virtual Sex: Pornography, Immersion, and Erotic EnvironmentsIssue of the online open access journal “AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images”https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/libraryFiles/downloadPublic/198 Edited by Ihsan Asman, Giovanna Maina, and Roberto P. Malaspina Deadline for submission of full articles: March 15, 2025 In a letter published in 1969 on Architectural Design, Donald Kenzotaki from the Bio-Cybernetic Institute of Tokaida, Japan, details the marvels of his research team’s latest invention. This ground-breaking device, known as “Cybersex,” is engineered to record the multimodal expressions of a sexual encounter, store them on a hard disk, and reproduce the experience for distribution to anyone seeking a…

    Read more: Call: “Virtual Sex: Pornography, Immersion, and Erotic Environments” issue of AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images

  • Virtual reality meets music in an inventor’s cosmic dream

    Published:

    [The current iteration of inventor and musician Bill Sebastian’s “Outerspace Visual Communicator” combines a music synthesizer with virtual reality to create a unique presence-evoking immersive media experience, as described in this story from WBUR. Visit the original version to listen to the story and for a second image and three videos. For more about the OVC, visit the Visual Music Systems website. –Matthew] [Image: The audience experience at the Boston Immersive Music Festival with Julian Loida performing with Bill Sebastian. Credit: Courtesy Rose Sebastian] Virtual reality meets music in an inventor’s cosmic dream By Amelia MasonOctober 17, 2024 On an…

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