[I’ve always been intrigued by fictional portrayals of presence and what they can tell us about ourselves and the possible roles and effects of technologies (see the Telepresence in Media Environments website); this opinion column from The New York Times uses “Westworld” and its portrayal of medium-as-social-actor presence to raise important philosophical questions. See also the current series “Humans,” and for a classic portrayal see the climactic courtroom scene (via YouTube) of the 1989 “Measure of a Man” episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” –Matthew] [Image: “Westworld” opened its second season Sunday night.…

[This story from Breaking Defense outlines the U.S. Army’s current efforts to create effective presence illusions to train soldiers. Note especially the “Four Parts” section. –Matthew] [Image: Army aviators train in a CH-47 Chinook simulator.] War Games: Army Deletes Bureaucracy To Get Sims Fast There is real uncertainty whether such things as robotic tanks and high-speed scout helicopters are possible on the Army’s timeline. But if there’s one area where a high-speed approach can work, it’s training simulations, where the Army can piggyback on the rapid development in commercial gaming. By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. April 20, 2018 FORT BELVOIR:…

[This first-person report on research conducted by Microsoft and the California Institute of Technology on haptic illusions and how to use them to create presence illusions is from Scientific American’s Observations blog, where it includes more images, a 1:14 minute video, and author bios. –Matthew] If (Virtual) Reality Feels Almost Right, It’s Exactly Wrong How adding touch to VR can lead to an “uncanny valley” of sensations—and what we can do about it By Mar Gonzalez-Franco, Christopher C Berger and Ken Hinckley April 19, 2018 We can all remember the crisply beveled edges of our cheery-yellow No. 2 pencil, the…

[This story from SoraNews24 describes an unusual example of presence; see the original version for more images and seven videos. For more information see the Leo Palace 21 website. –Matthew] Japanese company makes virtual shadow boyfriends to help protect women who live alone Silhouettes of karate fighters, bodybuilders, and domestically dedicated dudes make would-be criminals think you’ve got a live-in boyfriend. Casey Baseel March 31, 2018 Not only is Tokyo Japan’s largest city in terms of population, it’s also where you’ll find, by far, the most educational, economic, and artistic opportunities. Because of that, many young people head to Tokyo…

[All kinds of interesting presence experiences are available in Tribeca Immersive programming at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. This overview is from The Villager, where the story includes more images. –Matthew] [Image: The Tribeca Film Festival will have an early look at the recently announced “Shadow of the Tomb Raider” game. Image courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival] Tangible and social: Virtual reality at Tribeca Immersive April 18, 2018 By Charles Battersby The stereotype of Virtual Reality (VR) is an isolated person sitting alone in a room, their head sealed within a helmet, master of a lonesome utopia. Early efforts at…

[This interesting story reinforces the importance of medium-as-social-actor presence today and into the future. It’s from Politico and unlike a lot of the coverage of the issue isn’t sensationalized or simplistic; see the original version for more images. –Matthew] Europe divided over robot ‘personhood’ In letter to Commission, 156 experts from 14 countries warn against adopting EU Parliament proposal. By Janosch Delcker April 11, 2018; Updated April 13, 2018 BERLIN — Think lawsuits involving humans are tricky? Try taking an intelligent robot to court. While autonomous robots with humanlike, all-encompassing capabilities are still decades away, European lawmakers, legal experts and…