[A new system developed at MIT will make it possible to communicate more naturally with robots, in many different contexts, via medium-as-social-actor presence. The story is from MIT News, and a 2:25 minute video is available in coverage by Design News and on YouTube. –Matthew] Robot learns to follow orders like Alexa ComText, from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, allows robots to understand contextual commands. Adam Conner-Simons | Rachel Gordon | CSAIL August 30, 2017 Despite what you might see in movies, today’s robots are still very limited in what they can do. They can be great for…

[As this story from Forbes notes, we’re living in an era that “used to be science fiction” – the ‘Brainternet’ project raises a variety of interesting and potentially scary prospects for forms of presence enabled by networked brain-computer interfaces. For more details see the press release from University of the Witwatersrand and coverage in Motherboard, both of which include a 2:45 minute video. –Matthew] Are You Ready To Have Your Brain Connected To The Internet? September 24, 2017 David DiSalvo, Contributor (Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own) By now we’re all familiar with the “Internet of Things” and have…

[This story from the New Statesman describes both the benefits and ethical challenges of incorporating multiple types of presence, particularly medium-as-social-actor presence, in education. –Matthew] “Eton for all”: will robot teachers mean everyone gets an elite education? From Shakespeare holograms to mental health, how artificial intelligence could transform our schools. October 2 2017 By Lizzie Palmer There are a few certainties in this world: death, taxes, and that our jobs will eventually be taken by robots. However, some professions are under greater threat than others. Accountants and couriers should probably worry. But doctors and teachers will be fine, surely? Even…

[This story about the award-winning VR film “Bloodless” describes a media creator’s perspective on the important differences between film and interactive,  immersive virtual reality; it’s from the AP via Philly Voice. For more information, see coverage in the Korea Herald and the Gina Kim‘s website. –Matthew] [Image: Source: Samantha K. Kim] Director turns to virtual reality to tastefully show tragedy By Youkyung Lee Associated Press October 02, 2017 SEOUL, South Korea — For 25 years filmmaker Gina Kim wanted to make a movie about the true story of a South Korean sex worker killed by an American soldier, but struggled…

[This short story from PsyPost is about a logical and potentially valuable application of presence for accurately diagnosing social anxiety. Note: ISPR Presence News will be away on Thursday and Friday and return on Monday. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung] Virtual reality technology could be a powerful tool in diagnosing social anxiety disorder Eric W. Dolan September 23, 2017 A team of German researchers is hoping to use virtual reality technology to diagnose social anxiety disorder. Their initial results have been published in the scientific journal Computers in Human Behavior. “Most of the work done with VR so far (including from…

[As with other presence-evoking technologies, advertising in VR and AR can easily cause breaks in presence; this story from Venture Beat describes how one company is working to minimize the likelihood of this frustrating and counter-productive phenomenon (the CEO uses the phrase “breaking immersion”). –Matthew] Advrty brings native ads to virtual reality Stephanie Chan September 21, 2017 Advrty wants to offer a new avenue of monetization for virtual reality developers, which doesn’t involve full field-of-view pop-up ads. Instead, it’s a platform aimed toward designing and incorporating nonintrusive product placement. It’s in beta. “Initially, think billboards, posters and product placements using…