International Society
for Presence Research

Author: Matthew Lombard

  • VOY Glasses makes adjustable prescription lenses for VR – new option for research, expos, and more

    Published:

    [As someone with low vision (i.e., even with corrective lenses), I have both personal and professional interest in this post from The Ghost Howls blog by Skarredghost (VR expert Antony Vitillo). The VOY Glasses product he describes is certainly not a complete solution to the discomfort, visual distortions and cost for the millions of people who need to wear glasses while using virtual reality headsets, but it sounds like a big step forward, especially for those who need to share headsets, including for expositions of various kinds and to conduct research. See the unabridged original post for a detailed hands-on…

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  • Call: Understanding Esports Audiences – Interdisciplinary Esports Seminar

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    Call for Papers Understanding Esports AudiencesInterdisciplinary Esports SeminarPart of the CoEsports-network event Esport Nexus JyväskyläJyväskylä, FinlandNovember 7-8, 2024https://www.jyu.fi/en/events/understanding-esports-audiences Submission deadline for abstracts: August 11, 2024 Esports are both mediated and performed by their nature. As such, they are always performed to someone: Imagined and real audiences are indistinguishable parts of esports and as long as there has been competitive gaming, there has been different forms of spectating play, both online and offline. Understanding esports and esports cultures requires understanding esports audiences.  For service providers and teams in the esports ecosystem, understanding audiences is likewise crucial, as viewership numbers, ticket sales…

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  • Immersive storytelling can spur people to environmental action

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    [Our colleague Daniel Pimentel studies the potential of presence-evoking immersive media experiences to change attitudes, perceptions and behaviors regarding the environment. He and some of his work are featured in this story from The University of Oregon’s Around the O. For a related story, see “(Under) Sea Change: Virtual Reality and Aquatic Exploration: Professor Betsy Stoner’s immersive VR videos offer Bentley students a unique — and unforgettable — way to learn about marine ecosystems” from Bentley University. –Matthew] [Image: Professor Daniel Pimentel (right) works with a student using a VR headset] Storytelling in the metaverse can spur environmental action By…

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  • Call: “Death and the Digital Realm” Workshop/Conference

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    Call for Abstracts “Death and the Digital Realm” Workshop/ConferenceCo-sponsored by the International Association for the Philosophy of Death and Dying (IAPDD), Leiden University, and the Australian Research Council project “Digital Death and Immortality”October 11-12, 2024Leiden University, Netherlandshttps://www.philosophyofdeath.org/leiden-oct-2024-death-and-the-digital-realm/ Submission deadline: July 22, 2024 A legacy of today’s digitally driven world is the increasing number of ‘digital remains’ a person leaves behind after they die, such as audio and image files, social media accounts and emails. How to deal with these digital remains has become an increasingly significant and costly problem for individuals, families, organisations, tech companies, and governments.…

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  • Visualizing and learning mathematics in virtual reality

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    [This first-person story from San Jose State University provides another example of how even simple, abstract immersive virtual environments can evoke spatial presence and increase learning. The original version of the story includes a second image, and for much more information on the NSF-funded project (including the VR modules), follow the link at the end below. –Matthew] [Image: An image from the virtual reality classroom featuring three vectors. Credit: Photo courtesy of Ferdie Rivera] Math Adventures in Virtual Reality by Cassie MyersJune 6, 2024 I haven’t taken a math class since 2009 and I’m about as frightened of virtual reality…

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  • Call: Symposium on Humanistic AI (free online June 19, 2024)

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    Call for Participation Symposium on Humanistic AIJune 19, 2024In-person: University of Gothenburg (Humanisten, Renströmsgatan 6, Gothenburg, Sweden)Online: On Zoomhttps://dh.gu.se/humanisticai The Gothenburg Research Infrastructure in Digital Humanities (GRIDH), University of Gothenburg, and The Swedish School of Library and Information Science (SSLIS), University of Borås, are delighted to invite you all to attend the symposium on ‘Humanistic AI’ to be held as a hybrid event at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, June 19. The symposium is co-sponsored by the national research infrastructures Huminfra, Swe-Clarin, and InfraVis. The purpose of this symposium is to conduct a first inventory of the…

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  • Presence as social realism: Pillow is a VR game with real audio logs from real people

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    [The author of this review from TheGamer describes how anonymous recordings of real people in the virtual reality game Pillow evoke presence as social realism (though he doesn’t use that term). The experience is reminiscent of a series of websites and apps that provide a forum for anonymous messages and interactions such as PostSecret, Whisper, Secret, YikYak, Omegle, and others. –Matthew] Pillow Is A Virtual Reality Game With Real Audio Logs From Real PeopleBy Mike DruckerJune 6, 2024 I’ll be honest, the mixed reality game Pillow came out late last year. In fact, I bought it a few months ago…

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  • Call: Action in Perception 2024: Presence, Art, Making, Life

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    Call for Participation Action in Perception 2024: Presence, Art, Making, LifeSeptember 5-6, 2024University of Helsinki, Finlandhttps://www.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/action-perception-2024 Registration deadline: August 20, 2024 WELCOME TO ACTION IN PERCEPTION 2024! On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Alva Noë’s Action in Perception, a seminal work in enactivist theory, this conference brings together leading international scholars to explore enactivist themes, reassess the theory’s current position, and stimulate future research. “Perception is not something that happens in us; it is something we do.” This is the leading idea of Noë’s distinctive version of the enactive approach laid out in Action in Perception.…

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  • MIT chatbot simulates your future self to help you make better decisions

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    [As this story from Singularity Hub notes, thinking about the connection between our present self and who we may be in the distant future can have a variety of positive psychological and behavioral impacts. A project at the MIT Media Lab has provided a presence-evoking experience to encourage this reflection by using an AI chatbot to simulate a conversation with a future version of oneself. As the story says, “It’s not hard to imagine a far more realistic version of [the simulation] in the near future,” one that would be even more effective. In a related quote from the linked…

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  • Call: Imagining Technologies / Technologizing Imagination(s) issue of I Castelli di Yale [The Castles of Yale]

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    Call for Abstracts Imagining Technologies / Technologizing Imagination(s)Theme section, Vol. XII, No. 2, 2024I Castelli di Yale [The Castles of Yale]https://cyonline.unife.it/pages/callforpapers Edited by Annabelle Dufourcq, Agostino Cera and Andrea Zoppis Submission deadline: June 25, 2024 The proliferation of technology in our daily lives has a huge impact on our sensibilities and capacity to imagine the world we live in. Technology increasingly affects institutions, communication and behavior in the anonymous imaginary field that haunts us and our reality. As a result, according to many scholars, technology should be considered our current oikos, sphere or ‘(neo)environment’. Looking at the latest technological developments,…

    Read more: Call: Imagining Technologies / Technologizing Imagination(s) issue of I Castelli di Yale [The Castles of Yale]

  • The CEO of Zoom wants AI clones in meetings

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    [In an interview with The Verge’s Decoder podcast, the CEO of Zoom describes a future in which users send AI-based digital versions of themselves, indistinguishable from the users except with authentication software, to Zoom meetings. I’ve included the relevant portions of the interview transcript below, but you can listen to the full 1 hour and 5 minute interview and/or read the full transcript at the original story. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Photo illustration by The Verge / Photo: Zoom] The CEO of Zoom wants AI clones in meetings Zoom founder Eric Yuan has big ambitions in enterprise software, including letting your…

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  • Call: Journal of Interactive Narrative (JIN)

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    New Journal and Call for Papers Announcing the first issue of the ARDIN Journal of Interactive NarrativeAmsterdam/Atlanta Association for Research in Digital Interactive Narratives, https://ardin.onlineMay 24, 2024https://ardin.online/2024/05/24/journal-announcement/ Introducing the Journal of Interactive Narrative – The First of Its Kind We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Journal of Interactive Narrative (JIN) – the world’s first academic journal dedicated entirely to the growing field of interactive narratives. As storytelling evolves in our digital age, JIN will provide a vital platform for researchers, creators, and scholars to share groundbreaking work at the intersection of narratology, game design, artificial intelligence, media studies,…

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