[This story from Carnegie Mellon University describes the origins and development of a novel project designed to evoke spatial, and especially social, presence in the form of a mixed reality pet. The original version of the story features nine different images and a 2:57 minute video about the CMU Entertainment Technology Center that highlights the project (at 0:51; the video is also available on YouTube). For more details, see coverage from TribLive that includes a 1:30 minute project demonstration video (which is also available on YouTube). –Matthew] [Image: Joy Lim holding the prototype she created by testing different types of…

[A new wearable haptic system developed at the University of Southern California (USC) provides both a sense of physical presence for multiple virtual reality users as they each interact with objects and social presence as they interact with each other, whether the users are in the same physical location or thousands of miles away from each other. Some of the details are in this news release from USC, where the original version includes two more images. For more information, follow the links to the researchers’ new publication (in the second paragraph) and video. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Premankur Banerjee] New USC…

[A former CNN journalist has interviewed an AI-powered avatar created by the parents of one of the teenagers killed in a school shooting, attempting to evoke a sense of their son’s presence after death. The details are presented in the story from Variety below, followed by some reactions (which may or may not be representative) in excerpts of coverage from Futurism. You can watch for yourself via the Variety story or on YouTube. –Matthew] Jim Acosta Interviews AI Version of Teenager Killed in Parkland Shooting: ‘It’s Just a Beautiful Thing’ By Ethan ShanfeldAugust 5, 2025 Jim Acosta, the former CNN…

[Here’s a first-person report from one of a group of reporters from Billy Penn at WHYY on the group’s visit to Philadelphia’s new Sandbox VR amusement center location. The author describes their generally positive experience playing “Squid Games,” and describes related available and soon-to-be-available presence experiences (many of which will make good venues for class field trips). See the original version of the story for four more images and two videos (also available on YouTube here and here). –Matthew] [Image: Billy Penn staff try out the Squid Games virtual reality experience at Sandbox in Center City, Philadelphia. Credit: Kimberly Paynter/WHYY]…

[A Stanford University professor of electrical engineering and his colleagues are using 3D holograms and artificial intelligence to create mixed reality displays that are lighter to wear, produce more realistic images, and are more immersive. As the lead author of the group’s new publication notes in the story below, the goal is to pass a “visual Turing Test [in which the user] cannot distinguish between a physical, real thing as seen through the glasses and a digitally created image being projected on the display surface.” –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Nathan Matsuda] A leap toward lighter, sleeker mixed reality displays Using 3D…

[Reflecting the evolutionarily based nature of presence perceptions and responses to media, this story from Euronews describes new research that demonstrates that our immune systems respond to the potential health threat of visibly sick people even when those people are merely avatars in virtual reality. Beyond the interesting demonstration, these responses have the potential to complement vaccines by helping to activate our immune systems to better prepare them to act. See the researchers’ article in Nature Neuroscience for more details. –Matthew] [Image: A woman wears a virtual reality headset. Copyright:  Canva] Virtual reality could train our bodies to fight off…

[The publisher of XR Today writes forcefully about how Meta research on some still-major limitations in the form characteristics of virtual reality provides not only an explanation for the decades-long delays in widespread adoption of the technology but some straightforward guidelines regarding how to best design educational and entertaining experiences that maximize presence and the sustained adoption of VR in the workplace (and beyond). Of course, as this and related technologies evolve and the limitations are addressed, we’ll need to adjust the guidelines accordingly. –Matthew] [Image: Source: Meta Developer’s blog] Why Meta’s 20-40 Minute Rule Is About to Revolutionize Workplace…

[A new study by University of Exeter researchers identifies not just distraction but perceived presence as having a key role in reducing perceived long-term (chronic) pain. Follow the link at the end below for the study, and for context see the article “Virtual Reality Interventions and Chronic Pain: Scoping Review” in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR). –Matthew] VR nature scenes reduce sensitivity to pain – especially for those who feel present during the experience By Louise VennellsJuly 27, 2025 Immersing in virtual reality (VR) nature scenes helped relieve symptoms that are often seen in people living with long-term…

[Meta has developed an ambitious project and resource to enhance the potential for medium-as-social-actor presence responses to human avatars, as described in this story from App Developer Magazine. –Matthew] Modeling natural conversational dynamics As Meta researchers push the boundaries of virtual interaction, modeling natural conversational dynamics with seamless interaction emerges to redefine how humans and AI connect through lifelike gestures, expressions, and immersive conversational dynamics. By Austin HarrisJuly 25, 2025 Meta’s Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) team has introduced a family of audiovisual behavioral motion models designed to advance human connection technology. These models generate facial expressions and body gestures based…

[This Psychology Today summary of a new study by researchers in Switzerland touches on many of the things about presence and its promise and peril that I find interesting and important. Note the indirect references to several different types or dimensions of presence (e.g., as described in the ISPR definition), and the discussion of the potential of presence-evoking experiential media to both provide compelling entertainment and education but also to ethically or unethically persuade and manipulate, in this case in the increasingly fraught area of politics. –Matthew] [Image: Source: University of Zurich, Department of Geography blog post “#110: I see…

[Here’s a story from The Catholic Weekly about a new virtual reality experience created by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia to use spatial and social presence to introduce young people to the life and faith of Carlo Acutis, the “first millennial saint.” See the original version of the story for three more images and a 1:58 minute video (also available on YouTube); more coverage is available from Aleteia. –Matthew] [Image: Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP and Fr Benjamin Saliba trying out the Carlo Acutis VR experience. Credit: Giovanni Portelli Photography] Into the mystery: How virtual reality is reimagining Catholic evangelisation…

[This CBS story uses the results of a new study by the nonprofit group Common Sense Media and several additional interviews to describe important trends in how young people use and are affected by  AI companions that evoke medium-as-social-actor presence. See the original version of the story for a 4:11 minute video report, and see the Common Sense website for the organization’s press release and to read and download the report. –Matthew] More teens say they’re using AI for friendship. Here’s why researchers are concerned CBS/APJuly 23, 2025 No question is too small when Kayla Chege, a high school student…