[ZDNet has more details about the PORTL hologram machine and a new partnership that will add AI to its capabilities, but I chose to post this TechRepublic story about the technology for its broader discussion, and because the company’s CEO-founder is quoted in it saying “We almost called this technology Presence, because it really does bring a real-life presence into the room.” A four minute demonstration video of the PORTL, and a thirty second video of the MINI PORTL, are available via YouTube. More information and many more videos can be found on the company’s website. –Matthew] Hologram virtual meetings?…

[It’s not unusual to speak of having a form of relationship with one’s car but the Chinese car company Nio embodies that relationship with the Nomi Mate smart digital assistant, as described in this short story from Electric Vehicle News. For more information, see: A 1:33 minute demo video from Nio via YouTube A (copy-protected) interview with the developer of Nomi Mate from Just Auto (with lots of indirect references to presence) A 3:23 minute video interview with Nio’s Engineering Director for Machine Learning from Auto Futures A 13 minute user demonstration video of interactions with Nomi via YouTube The…

[As the first, short story below from UploadVR reports, four VR experiences are nominated for Emmy Awards (from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences) this year. One is the particularly timely “The Messy Truth VR,” the focus of the second story, from Yahoo Entertainment. Note the comments of actor/producer Brie Larson about VR as “a step further” beyond film’s ability to create what sounds like presence. The original Yahoo story includes a 2:58 minute trailer and a 5:09 minute interview, and for more information see USA Today for a different short video and Deadline for another interview (which includes…

[This summary of how the pandemic has accelerated the “virtual experience economy,” which relies in great part on presence, comes from CNBC. Note: I’ve corrected a few typos and added some of the links. –Matthew] Op-ed: The “Experience Economy” is dead, driving a boom in virtual reality August 27, 2020 By Vikas Gupta, co-founder and CEO of the augmented reality company AVARA Media and a member of YPO It wasn’t long ago that many companies were doubling down on the “Experience Economy.” There was plenty of money to be made helping people check off items on their bucket list. Seventy-six…

[A new program based on virtual reality (and presence) is being launched to help women during their third trimester and the first two months after their baby is born. This story about it is from MobiHealthNews; the press release (“statement”) it refers to is available from Business Wire, and more information including a 1:19 minute video (also available via Vimeo) is available from the BehaVR website. –Matthew] Hoag Memorial Hospital and BehaVR launch VR program for expecting mothers NurtureVR was designed to be used at home as future moms enter their third trimesters to receive prenatal education, pain and stress…

[The US Army is developing technology to create robot-soldier teams for the battlefield; this story from the Army describes research on how an autonomous robot can detect changes in the environment and communicate them to a soldier via augmented reality. SyFy’s coverage summarizes it this way: “In a move that could’ve been cribbed straight from Hideo Kojima ‘s Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, the U.S. Army is exploring a human-robot buddy system that, like Snake’s setup in MGS4, will let soldiers voyeuristically spy from afar the more immediate dangers that lurk around their robot sidekick’s next corner.”…

[This Global News story explains why designer and engineer Ross Atkin created a new, inexpensive, build-it-yourself telepresence robot; the original story includes a second image and a 2:17 minute news report. Tom’s Hardware adds these details about the robot: “Smartipresence is a cardboard chassis robot that uses rubber bands and screws for a simple yet robust construction. Place your smartphone into the articulated holder and then connect it to the Smartibot NRF 52 series ARM Cortex-M4F control board via Bluetooth. Remote control is achieved by sending a ‘pilot link’ to another device and then we can stream video from the…

[Most of the coverage of Amelia, IPsoft’s AI-based digital employee, is about the benefits for businesses who hire ‘her’ services, but this interview with the CEO provides an introduction to the impressive capabilities of the technology and the likelihood of social presence experienced by those who interact with it. The story is from PC Magazine, where it includes a second image and two videos (one a 40 minute interview with the same person); see also a short video featuring IPsoft’s “chief cognitive officer” from CRN, and the IPsoft website. –Matthew] Meet Your Post-Pandemic Coworker: An AI Bot Ready to swap…

[The potential for hand-tracking to enhance social presence in virtual reality is clear in the video examples in this story from Virtual Reality Times. For an interview with Daniel Beauchamp and 13 short video examples of his creative work, and one longer one, see The Ghost Howls blog. For more examples from Jorge Gonzalez see his Twitter feed. –Matthew] [Image: Source: YesEyeSee] New Quest Demos Show Networked Hand Tracking Sam Ochanji June 14, 2020 There are two new Quest hand tracking demos that demonstrate just how hand and finger detection could have massive implications for social VR. When two people…

[The pandemic has increased interest in and speculation about the potential for virtual and augmented reality, and the social and spatial presence they evoke, to transform the work experience. While this story from Inverse takes a balanced view of the potential and challenges, the concluding comment of Spatial’s VP of Business Development and Strategy is noteworthy: “’There will be reasons to still go into an office. People will view it as a perk.’ But he predicts big changes driven by AR and VR coming in the next decade. ‘It will look very different in 2030 than 2020 in a profound…

[The day when our interactions with other people will be mediated by smart digital assistants (“my A.I. will call your A.I.”) is another step closer with the new artificially intelligent natural voice RobocallGuard, as described in this story from Digital Trends. Stopping robocalls is certainly a worthwhile goal for the emerging tech, which will need to evoke effective social presence for human callers and callees. For more information follow the link to the paper at the end. –Matthew] [Image: Source: New Scientist. Credit: Juj Winn/Getty Images] This clever new A.I. assistant will screen and block robocallers for you By Luke…

[One may need to be a power user to fully recognize the benefits, presence-related and otherwise, of interacting with spreadsheets in the 3D space of virtual reality as described in this story from VentureBeat. The original story includes the 6:56 minute video referenced, along with the full research report in ArXiv, at the end. –Matthew] [Image: The hierarchical pie menu is invoked in-place and navigated from bottom to top through in-air movements of the pen (a-c). An arc menu on the corner of the tablet controls visualization options (activated – solid color, non activated – semi-transparent) (d). Adding a trend-line…