[Reuters reports on a new pop art show that allows viewers to be present via robot. See the original story for a 1:36 minute video, coverage in CGTN for a different 1:56 minute video, and Gulf News for 12 more pictures (including one with a Pepper robot welcoming visitors). Tatler adds this interesting detail about the artist: “‘I became an artist when I became a lobster,’ was something artist Philip Colbert – variously described as ‘the Crown Prince of pop art’ and ‘the godson of Andy Warhol’ – once said.” For more on the use of telepresence robots to view…

[The quest to evoke medium-as-social-actor presence continues with a new robot hand that lets users feel like they’re walking while holding hands with their girlfriend. The story is from SoraNews24, where it includes two different pictures and a one-minute video (also available via YouTube); follow the links at the end for more information (in Japanese). –Matthew] [Image: Source: Tech Times] Japanese inventors create robot girlfriend hand for lonely people to hold and walk with [Video] By Casey Baseel November 3, 2020 A ton of thought went into the clever device, which actually has some heartwarming goals. Few things in life…

[Here’s a short summary of a new Ericsson report on the future of presence-evoking technologies in the workplace; follow the link at the end to read the full 16-page, graphics-filled report. –Matthew] New report puts spotlight on the future workplace of 2030 The latest Ericsson IndustryLab report, The Dematerialized Office, brings insights about the sentiments of white-collar employees and their expectations for their future workplace. October 28, 2020 Before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in early 2020, the idea of working and socializing from home was mainly a theoretical proposition. But less than a year later, that reality is suddenly the…

[This short story from ARPost argues for more research on the negative effects of experiencing violence in virtual reality, especially as the technology becomes more effective at evoking presence. For more on this topic, see: ‘Real’ violence: Coming to grips with the ethics of virtual reality brutality (The Guardian, June 2019) Empathy and nausea: Virtual reality and Jordan Wolfson’s Real Violence (Journal of Visual Culture, April 2020) Death and violence ‘too intense’ in VR, developers admit (Wired, October 2015) Violent video games in virtual reality: Re-evaluating the impact and rating of interactive experiences (CHI PLAY ’18 Proceedings) Virtual reality will…

[This story from BBC News describes how virtual tourism is emerging as an important solution to the challenges created by travel restrictions during the pandemic as well as its value in easing our return to travel when the pandemic ends. See the original version of the story for seven more pictures. –Matthew] [Image: Microsoft Hololens VR glasses can show potential visitors six of Germany’s most famous castles. Credit: Microsoft/German National Tourist Board (GNTB)] Coronavirus: Is virtual reality tourism about to take off? Bernd Debusmann – Business reporter October 30, 2020 For many people, a trip to Germany’s fairytale-like Neuschwanstein castle,…

[As this BBC News story says, watching the streaming Bot Battle between Pandorabots’ Kuki and Facebook’s Blenderbot, running continuously through November 3, demonstrates the limitations of current AI, but we’ll likely look back on it as an early-days version of an even more ubiquitous and successful presence-evoking technology. See the original story for four more images and related links, watch the battle and read the press release on the Pandorabots website, and see a related CNN story from August 2020 titled “Robot friends: Why people talk to chatbots in times of trouble.” –Matthew] Robot Bores: AI-powered awkward first date By Jane…

[It’s still limited to the wealthy and famous, but as technology improves and becomes less expensive, will the “presence after death” technology described in this story from The Guardian become common in the future? The story includes the two versions of the video Kardashian West tweeted, the first with the text, “For my birthday, Kanye got me the most thoughtful gift of a lifetime. A special surprise from heaven. A hologram of my dad. It is so lifelike! We watched it over and over, filled with emotion.” The second tweet reads “I can’t even describe what this meant to me…

[Although we rarely think of them that way, common eye glasses are a presence-evoking technology because they mediate our experience of the world and we quickly forget their role in changing how we see. As a person with a non-correctable vision impairment (due to congenital nystagmus) I especially appreciate the value of the more advanced presence-evoking technologies to improve vision described in this New York Times story (see the original for two more pictures). –Matthew] [Image: Ammad Khan, chief executive of IrisVision, with the company’s device to help those with low vision see better. It uses a smartphone, virtual reality…

[The project described in this story from the Stanford University School of Medicine represents a very positive application of presence-evoking technology that involves sharing knowledge and experience across the planet. –Matthew] [Image: A virtual-reality-enabled anatomy class that Stanford Medicine educators taught to high school students over the summer. Credit: Matt Hasel] Educators will use virtual reality to teach anatomy This fall, Stanford Medicine educators will teach anatomy to medical students in Kenya using virtual reality. The effort is part of a pilot project to educate medical students in under-resourced schools. October 16, 2020 By Mandy Erickson Later this fall, Luqman…

[This National Geographic story from September 2020 describes the increasing prevalence and acceptance of robots, including telepresence robots, because of the pandemic; see the original version of the story for three more (typically vivid National Geographic) images, and for more on Spot see coverage (including a 1:03 minute video) from IEEE Spectrum. –Matthew] [Image: Spot, a dog-like robot developed by Boston Dynamics, allows health workers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston to interact with patients—and even to measure their temperature, pulse, and oxygen saturation—from a safe distance. Credit: Screen capture from video by Farah Dadabhoy/Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Video…

[Facebook Research Labs is working on technology that makes typing while in virtual or augmented reality more natural and intuitive, as reported in this story from Virtual Reality Times. Note the reference to the technology’s use in future “‘always on’ … standalone Augmented Reality headsets that users might wear anywhere including in the car, at home, at work and anywhere else.” See the original story for three short demonstration videos; more information is in a Facebook blog post and a UIST 2020 research paper (at the link at the end of the story). –Matthew] Facebook Researchers Develop Invisible Finger-Tracking Keyboard…

[In these stressful times, the topic of this story from Medical News Today is particularly important. The story describes a new study that compared the positive effects of experiencing nature via TV, 360 video and VR, with interesting results regarding the role of presence. The full article is available without subscription from the Journal of Environmental Psychology. See also a related April 2020 ISPR Presence News post. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Donald Iain Smith/Getty Images] Virtual reality nature boosts positive mood Watching nature on an ordinary television relieves boredom and negative emotions, according to a study. But interacting with nature in…