[This story from MIT Technology Review highlights the perils of presence – its value to those who want to use technology to fool people for nefarious purposes. The original story includes different images, coverage in PC Magazine provides more details including the fact that the creators of this new AI were inspired by the famous Eliza bot, and a story in Forbes reports on a phishing competition between a human and the AI (the AI wins). –Matthew] [Image: Source: PC Magazine] This AI Will Craft Tweets That You’ll Never Know Are Spam Machine-learning software could be used as effective cybercriminal…

[It never uses the terms presence or telepresence, but this story from The Atlantic carefully considers the key issue in all presence phenomena: how technology mediates our experience. –Matthew] [Image: A man tests a Zeiss VR One virtual reality headset in Barcelona, in February 2016. Albert Gea / Reuters] The Quest For the Next Human-Computer Interface What will come after the touch screen? Adrienne LaFrance Jul 11, 2016 A computer keyboard, at its most reliable, is barely noticeable to the person using it. It is designed to be felt, heard, and mostly ignored. Once you’re comfortable with the thing, you…

[As this story from Fast Company illustrates, the rapid evolution of technology is creating many niche markets for VR and presence. The original story includes more images and two videos. –Matthew] Virtual Reality Is Coming For Weddings “Imagine you had a grandmother who couldn’t make it to the wedding for some reason—now she could, with 360-degree goggles.” Rina Raphael 07.15.16 Destination weddings can be fraught with guest-list politics. Do I have to invite my second cousin’s inappropriate girlfriend? I’m inviting my high school best friend, but only because I’m sure she’ll decline. But now, literally anyone can attend your wedding—virtually,…

[This is a great example of the use of both social presence and medium-as-social actor presence to improve people’s lives. The story is from IEEE Spectrum, where it includes more images and the mentioned 2:16 minute video. –Matthew] [Image: SAM is a mobile telepresence platform that autonomously navigates from room to room in a nursing facility, allowing staff to check in on residents on a regular schedule. Credit: Evan Ackerman/IEEE Spectrum.] SAM Brings Much-Needed Robotic Assistance to Senior Living Facilities By Evan Ackerman August 2, 2016 Creating a successful robot company based around providing commercial services is not easy, although…

[Presence experiences can be enhanced when the mediating technology mimics human non-mediated perception. Foveated rendering allows this at least in part by using computer resources more efficiently. This story is from MIT Technology Review, and more information, including larger versions of these and other images and a 1:20 minute video, is available from NVIDIA. –Matthew] [Images: Sample image with no foveation (top) and with contrast-preserving foveation (bottom). Source: NVIDIA.] Nvidia’s Eye-Tracking Tech Could Revolutionize Virtual Reality A phenomenon first observed by Leonardo da Vinci is being used to make virtual images look more realistic. by Simon Parkin July 21, 2016…

[TV broadcasts with resolution 16 times full 1080p HD now have their own channel in Japan; this story from Tech Insider notes the limited but important contexts (including VR) in which this ‘Super Hi-Vision’ resolution will improve the viewing experience. For details on where to see the new channel’s offerings see NHK’s press release, and for an overview of the tech available for the Rio Olympics and likely to be available for the Tokyo 2020 games, see coverage in TechRadar. –Matthew] The world’s first 8K TV broadcasts are now live — here’s what that means for you Jeff Dunn August…