International Society
for Presence Research

Author: Matthew Lombard

  • Call: “AI Aesthetics” issue of SEMEIOSIS

    Published:

    CALL FOR ARTICLES Journal SEMEIOSIS – Special Issue on “AI Aesthetics” https://semeiosis.com.br/special-issue About the Journal: https://semeiosis.com.br/about-semeiosis Guest Editors: Alexander Gerner (amgerner@fc.ul.pt) Renata Souza (renatynhass@usp.com) Vinícius de Aguiar (vjdaguiar@fc.ul.pt) Submission deadline: June 15, 2023 “For it is evident that it is in esthetics that we ought to seek for the deepest characteristics of normative science, since esthetics, in dealing with the very ideal itself whose mere materialization thickens the attention of practices and of logic, must contain the heart, soul, and spirit of normative science.”  Peirce (1906, CP 5551). The question of the mere ontological (im-)possibility of “the” creative machine does…

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  • First-person report: Spacetop, the first augmented reality laptop

    Published:

    [This first-person report from Popular Mechanics describes a new laptop computer that has a large augmented reality display rather than a physical monitor. Particularly noteworthy quotes that refer indirectly to presence include that “it feels surprisingly natural to use, with the potential to usher in a new era of personal computer”; “Spacetop feels like it’s a physical display truly present in the space with you”; and “I enjoyed taking a Teams video call using the giant screen and the conversation felt incredibly immersive, like the effect you get from going to a movie theater.” The original version of the story…

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  • Call: ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST 2023)

    Published:

    Call for Papers/Posters/Demos VRST 2023 ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology Christchurch, New Zealand / In-person only October 9-11, 2023 https://vrst.acm.org/vrst2023/ Submission deadlines: Abstracts: June 12, 2023 Papers: June 19, 2023 Posters and demos: July 2, 2023 The 29th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST) will be held in Christchurch, New Zealand, from Monday-Wednesday, 9-11 October 2023. The event is sponsored by ACM SIGCHI and SIGGRAPH. VRST is a premier international symposium for the presentation of new research results, systems, and techniques among researchers and developers on virtual, augmented and mixed reality (VR/AR/MR, XR for…

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  • ReMotion telepresence robot: Your remote proxy automatically mirrors your movement and body language

    Published:

    [Researchers at Cornell have developed a telepresence robot that automatically mirrors a user’s physical movements and body language, which appears to enable “a heightened sense of co-presence and behavioral interdependence.” The story below is from the Cornell Chronicle; the new paper describing the project appears in the CHI 2023 Proceedings and features three videos, including a 4:51 minute presentation also available on YouTube. See lead author Mose Sakashita’s website for more interesting presence-related work. –Matthew] [Image: Mose Sakashita, a doctoral student in the field of information science, with the ReMotion robot] I, robot: Remote proxy collaborates on your behalf By…

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  • Call: AI and Fandom – Special issue of Transformative Works and Cultures

    Published:

    Call for Papers AI and Fandom Special issue of open-access journal Transformative Works and Cultures https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/announcement/view/131 Submission deadline: January 1, 2024 Due in part to well-publicised advancements in generative AI technologies such as GPT-4, there has been a recent explosion of interest in – and hype around – Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. Whether this hype cycle continues to grow or fades away, AI is anticipated to have significant repercussions for fandom (Lamerichs 2018), and is already inspiring polarised reactions. Fan artists have been candid about using creative AI tools like Midjourney and DALL-E to generate fan art, while fanfiction writers…

    Read more: Call: AI and Fandom – Special issue of Transformative Works and Cultures

  • Wendy’s, Google testing AI Chatbot as drive-through order taker

    Published:

    [The fast-food chain Wendy’s plans to replace human order-takers for its drive-through service with a more efficient AI chatbot, creating a medium-as-social-actor presence illusion in which “You won’t know you’re talking to anybody but an employee.” Most of the press coverage draws on this story from The Wall Street Journal. Fortune adds these details: “Opinions on what AI will mean for workers and companies vary greatly, from massive disruption to marginal change. In the view of Presto Automation, which offers an AI ordering platform for restaurants, the technology will shake up the industry. ‘I don’t think in three years, there’s going…

    Read more: Wendy’s, Google testing AI Chatbot as drive-through order taker

  • Call: New Perspectives on Joint Attention – Special issue of Topoi

    Published:

    Call for Papers New Perspectives on Joint Attention Special issue of Topoi: An International Review of Philosophy https://www.springer.com/journal/11245/updates/23781996 Guest editors: Anna Bloom-Christen (University of California, Los Angeles, abc22@g.ucla.edu) Michael Wilby (Anglia Ruskin University, Michael.Wilby@aru.ac.uk) Deadline for manuscript submission: May 31, 2023 INTRODUCTION: Joint attention has generated a lot of discussion within a range of areas, most notably developmental psychology and philosophy (Eilan et al 2005; Seemann 2011; Metcalfe and Terrace 2014; Seemann 2021). It is often thought to be deeply implicated in our understanding of other minds (Heal 2005; Schmitz 2014, Martens 2021), our understanding of communicative utterances (Campbell 2019;…

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  • Google’s Project Starline Is an ambitious cure to my remote worker loneliness

    Published:

    [Here’s a first-person report from Gizmodo on a demonstration of the latest version of Google’s Project Starline telepresence system, which was initially a large booth and is now reduced to a large flat screen monitor. See other first-person reports from Engadget and TechCrunch. The TechCrunch story includes a technical description: “Quoting from a Google research publication on the technology: ‘Our system achieves key 3D audiovisual cues (stereopsis, motion parallax, and spatialized audio) and enables the full range of communication cues (eye contact, hand gestures, and body language), yet does not require special glasses or body-worn microphones/headphones. The system consists of…

    Read more: Google’s Project Starline Is an ambitious cure to my remote worker loneliness

  • Call: CONVERSATIONS 2023 – 7th International Workshop on Chatbot Research, Applications and Design

    Published:

    Call for Papers CONVERSATIONS 2023 – 7th International Workshop on Chatbot Research, Applications and Design University of Oslo, Norway and online November 22-23, 2023 https://2023.conversations.ws/ Submission deadline: September 10, 2023 Welcome to CONVERSATIONS 2023, a two-day workshop on chatbot research, applications, and design. This is the 7th CONVERSATIONS workshop. With the surge of interest in chatbots powered by large language models over the last few months, the workshop is possibly more relevant than ever before. Join in for sharing and collaborating between researchers and practitioners in the field. The workshop is located in Oslo, Norway. However, to accommodate for participation…

    Read more: Call: CONVERSATIONS 2023 – 7th International Workshop on Chatbot Research, Applications and Design

  • Music could be key to curbing cybersickness

    Published:

    [A new study supports the use of joyful and calming music to reduce cybersickness caused by virtual reality experiences. The study is described in this news release from The University of Edinburgh. In the researchers’ published article, they write that the results “support the notion that pleasant music is efficient in mitigating cybersickness due to distraction from stimuli, as well as an elicitation of positive emotions.” and “In summary, the implementation of music appears to be a cost-effective, suitable (i.e., without preventing other interactions or breaking the immersion), and efficient technique for mitigating cybersickness in immersive VR.” –Matthew] [Image: Credit:…

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  • Call: Designing Map-based Interfaces and Interactions (MAPII 2023) – INTERACT 2023 Workshop

    Published:

    Call for Papers Designing Map-based Interfaces and Interactions (MAPII 2023) INTERACT 2023 Workshop 28 August 2023 York, UK [and in remote or hybrid mode if necessary] Workshop: http://avcd.aalto.fi/mapii2023/ INTERACT 2023: https://interact2023.org Submission deadline: May 29, 2023 ABOUT THE WORKSHOP Maps, in their many forms, have long been used to guide and coordinate different human activities, ranging from local to global, and small scale to large scale. As such, maps continue to play a central role as the basis for a wide variety of interactive tools and applications in our modern digital age as well. This workshop aims to bring together…

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  • Embodied AI: Big tech is developing powerful AI brains for real-world robots

    Published:

    [Not only are researchers linking conversational AI to digital avatars (as in an ISPR Presence News post last week), making them more likely to evoke medium-as-social-actor presence, they’re using AI to make embodied robots more capable of human-like behavior and interactions. Here are highlights of a March 2023 VICE story titled “Big tech is now developing powerful AI brains for real-world robots. Building on recent AI advancements to allow robots to complete tasks autonomously in the real world is a ‘major step forward,’ researchers say.”: Researchers at Google and the Berlin Institute of Technology have released an AI model called…

    Read more: Embodied AI: Big tech is developing powerful AI brains for real-world robots

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