International Society
for Presence Research

Author: Matthew Lombard

  • Astonishing NASA documentary “Apollo 11” evokes intense, inspiring presence

    Published:

    [Anyone who questions the ability of film to evoke an intense and multi-faceted sense of presence should read this IndieWire review of (and go see) a new NASA documentary called “Apollo 11.” If nothing else read the fifth paragraph (“Honestly, …”) below. I missed seeing “First Man” in an IMAX theater but a group of us here at Temple University saw an extended preview scene that made us viscerally feel like we were there in the capsule during the countdown and take-off. “Apollo 11” uses newly discovered and restored high resolution footage and audio recordings of the event along with…

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  • Call: “Robots for Social Good: Exploring Critical Design for HRI” – Workshop at HRI 2019

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    Call for Papers “Robots for Social Good: Exploring Critical Design for HRI” A half-day, hands-on Workshop at HRI 2019, the 14th Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction Daegu, Korea 11 March 2019 IMPORTANT DATES: Submission Date: 25 February 2019 Notification Date: 28 February 2019 Workshop Date: 11 March 2019 More information: https://sites.google.com/view/robots-for-social-good-hri19 Submission page: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=rsg2019 INVITED SPEAKERS Selma Sabanovic, Associate Professor of Informatics at Indiana University, Bloomington (USA) Chi Hyung Jeon, Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy, KAIST (Korea) Ana Paiva, Full professor at Instituto Superior Técnico and coordinator of the Intelligent and Social…

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  • Universal files patent to put guests on a virtual reality leash

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    [This short story from the Orlando Weekly describes (and links to) a new patent application for a combination of form (a tether system) and content (virtual obstructions like gates and fog) to manage the paths of multiple VR and AR users at theme parks. See the original for more images. –Matthew] Universal files patent to put guests on a virtual reality leash By Seth Kubersky January 28, 2019 Virtual reality has taken the location-based gaming industry by storm in recent years, with stand-alone VR attractions popping up all over Orlando. But one fundamental problem has kept the technology out of…

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  • Jobs: 4 postdoc positions in WEAVR R&D project at University of York

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    Vacancies: WEAVR recruiting four new post docs for esports research Role: 4 PDRA roles (see details and specific adverts below) Institution: University of York (United Kingdom) Closing date: 31/01/2019 Contract status: 2 years (fixed term) Salary: £32,236 – £39,609 Digital Creativity Labs at the University of York have four exciting PDRA vacancies related to the £5.8m WEAVR R&D project (http://weavr.tv/). WEAVR seeks to re-imagine the way audiences engage with the genre through hyper-personalised stories, interactive content, data-driven narratives and cross-reality experiences that seamlessly stretch across devices, technologies, and spaces. The WEAVR consortium includes key industry stakeholders and leading innovators across…

    Read more: Jobs: 4 postdoc positions in WEAVR R&D project at University of York

  • Instagram’s increasingly realistic virtual influencers

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    [The images of the Instagram CGI character Imma (roughly, “now”) in this story from Inverse are compellingly realistic and raise intriguing questions about the impacts of the “virtual influencer” trend. For more examples see ITP Live, and for information about a potentially important factor in the impacts see the 2014 story in Motherboard titled “Lonely People Are More Likely to Think Inanimate Objects Are Alive.” –Matthew] The Weirdest Trend on Instagram: Virtual Influencers Who Make Real Content By Danny Paez January 19, 2019 The sun may already be setting on the age of the ambiguously famous social media influencer. After…

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  • Call: The Challenges of Working on Social Robots that Collaborate with People – CHI 2019 Workshop

    Published:

    Call for Papers CHI 2019 Workshop: The Challenges of Working on Social Robots that Collaborate with People Workshop at CHI 2019 in Glasgow Saturday 4th May 2019 Workshop website: http://www.ittgroup.org/about-workshop IMPORTANT INFORMATION Submission Deadline: (on or before) 12 February 2019 Notification of acceptance: (on or before) 1 March 2019 Workshop day: Saturday, 4th May, 2019, Glasgow UK Submission template: CHI Extended Abstracts. Please use the appropriate template, available for both LaTeX and Word (Windows and Mac). Submission format: All submissions must be in PDF format and submitted through: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sirchi2019 Review process: Submissions will be peer reviewed based on their quality, relevance,…

    Read more: Call: The Challenges of Working on Social Robots that Collaborate with People – CHI 2019 Workshop

  • RealityVirtually: These developers are trying to make virtual reality more useful

    Published:

    [The RealityVirtually Hackathon at MIT sounds like a fascinating, fun and valuable event where people gather to bring creative ideas for presence applications to life. This story from The Boston Globe (where it features a different image) describes many of the projects at this year’s event; for much more information about them see the Winners page on the RealityVirtually website. –Matthew] These developers are trying to make virtual reality more useful By Scott Kirsner, Globe Correspondent January 24, 2019 If you’ve seen a set of virtual reality goggles — in person or otherwise — you may have jumped to a few…

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  • Call: 2nd Body as Starting Point (BAaST) Workshop on Inbodied Interaction at CHI 2019

    Published:

    Call for Papers 2nd Body as Starting Point (BAaST) Workshop on Inbodied Interaction: Applying Inside Body Knowledge for Inbodied Design Sunday May 5 At CHI2019, Glasgow https://bodyasstartingpoint.tumblr.com/ Submission deadline: February 21; you’ll hear back from us by February 28 BAaST – that’s Body As a Starting Point. That starting point is for interactive technology design, and our question is: if we start designs that will touch bodies from an understanding of how those bodies operate (from macro processes like sleep to micro processes like hormonal signalling of metatonin) how might this knowledge inform/change our designs for health and wellbeing, for…

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  • NYPD VR program to help teens de-escalate gang confrontations

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    [PoliceOne reports on a new application of VR and presence to help teens learn how to avoid conflicts with gang members in New York City. For more information see NY1’s coverage that includes a 2:07 minute video report and the official press release via PR Newswire. –Matthew] [Image: Source: Officer.com] NYPD virtual-reality program to aid children with tough situations Police are putting teens through computer simulations to help them de-escalate gang confrontations January 23, 2019 Anthony M. Destefano, Newsday NEW YORK — The NYPD is using virtual reality to help teenagers deal with real life on the street.…

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  • Call: CHIRA 2019 – 3rd International Conference on Computer-Human Interaction Research and Applications

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    Call for Papers CHIRA 2019 – 3rd International Conference on Computer-Human Interaction Research and Applications September 20 – 21, 2019 Vienna, Austria http://www.chira.scitevents.org/ Submission Deadline: April 29, 2019 CHIRA is sponsored by INSTICC – Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication CHIRA 2019 will be held in conjunction with icSPORTS 2019 and NEUROPhyCS 2019. Registration to CHIRA allows free access to the icSPORTS and NEUROPhyCS conferences (as a non-speaker). SCOPE The purpose of the International Conference on Computer-Human Interaction Research and Applications (CHIRA) is to bring together professionals, academics and students who are interested in the advancement…

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  • MASA presence: Why do we hurt robots?

    Published:

    [“Paradoxically, our tendency to dehumanize robots comes from the instinct to anthropomorphize them” – this interesting story from The New York Times explores the reasons for human attacks on robots and other technologies; medium-as-social-actor (MASA) presence is both a cause and apparent solution to the problem. For more about this see a June 2018 story in The Boston Globe. –Matthew] Why Do We Hurt Robots? They are like us, but unlike us, and both fearsome and easy to bully. By Jonah Engel Bromwich Jan. 19, 2019 A hitchhiking robot was beheaded in Philadelphia. A security robot was punched to the…

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  • Call: PLAY/PAUSE Symposium – Immersion | Dissonance

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    Call for Abstracts PLAY/PAUSE Symposium Theme: Immersion | Dissonance 22 May 2019 University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK http://playpauseuob.wordpress.com Deadline for submissions: 15 March 2019 For our second annual symposium, PLAY/PAUSE is looking for 20-minute papers that interrogate the continuum between immersion and dissonance within videogames and virtual reality. We therefore welcome papers from any disciplinary background that relate to (but are not limited to) the following topics: New immersive media (Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality) Embodiment and virtual environments Glitches and breaking immersion Flow and gaming expertise Identification and social gaming Constructed authenticity Queerness and the player body Detail,…

    Read more: Call: PLAY/PAUSE Symposium – Immersion | Dissonance

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