[In a parallel to the movement from Computers Are Social Actors (CASA) to Media As Social Actor (MASA) presence, this story from The Conversation describes a new “Multimodal Turing Test” that evaluates not only whether a computer seems to have the intelligence of a human but whether a humanoid robot is “indistinguishable from a real human.” See the original version for three more pictures. –Matthew] [Image: Hanson Robotics’ android “Sophia.” Credit: Anton Gvozdikov/Shutterstock] Our Turing Test for androids will judge how lifelike humanoid robots can be July 30, 2019 Carl Strathearn, PhD Candidate, Staffordshire University Alan Turing was recently announced…

[This story from The Philadelphia Inquirer describes another potentially valuable application of presence; see the original story for a 4:24 minute video. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Teven M. Falk / Staff Photographer] People with autism face special risks dealing with police. This virtual reality program could help. by Rita Giordano July 30, 2019 Skylar Armstrong, a 17-year-old high schooler from North Philadelphia, has been fielding a lot of attention from police lately. Officers on the beat have been peppering him with all sorts of questions: “What are you doing here?” “Can you tell me your street address?” “Can you show me…

[I want to go to The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida – this story from Creative Loafing Tampa Bay describes how the museum has incorporated VR, AI and now AR to enhance the presence experiences of visitors. More information about the current AR exhibit is available from the museum’s website and for more examples of the use of VR and AR in museums see Blooloop. –Matthew] [Image: Salvador Dalí. Nature Morte Vivante (Still Life-Fast Moving), 1969-70, oil on canvas. Collection of the Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, FL (USA). Credit: Worldwide: ©Salvador Dalí, Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dalí (artists rights society), 2019.…

[In this story from The Conversation Newcastle University scholars compare two types of presence experiences for the care of dementia; see the original version for a second image and a video. –Matthew] [Image: Source: Mark Combs] ‘Time travel’ as dementia care is spreading, but the future may be more powerful than the past July 29, 2019 Kellie Morrissey, Research Fellow, School of Computing, Newcastle University James Hodge, PhD Candidate, Newcastle University The village of Hogeweyk in The Netherlands has been compared with the Truman Show. It is home to 152 people with dementia and is run by carers who maintain…

[This short IEEE Spectrum story describes a new telepresence robot with a “near lifesize” display; see the original story for another image and a 0:56 minute video. For more information, images and videos about several more robots being introduced by Toyota for the Olympics see the company’s press release, and for a 6:16 audio report see coverage by Voice of America. –Matthew] Toyota Research Developing New Telepresence Robot for 2020 Olympics Toyota’s T-TR1 offers a way for people to attend the Olympics without leaving home By Evan Ackerman 23 Jul 2019 With the Olympics taking place next year in Japan,…

[This South China Morning Post story reports on another social VR gaming attraction, including some of the design choices used to increase presence. See the original story for two different images, a 2:10 minute video, and a podcast episode. For more information see the Sandbox VR website and for detailed first-person reports on the player experience, see stories in Business Insider and The Next Web. –Matthew] [Image: Source: The Next Web] Here’s how Hong Kong start-up Sandbox VR built hyperrealistic virtual reality games A social media post of the VR game went viral and was shared over 10,000 times and…

[The interview with Suzanne Gildert below from PC Magazine is about human-like robots and medium-as-social-actor presence responses to them, embodiment, AI and machine learning, teleoperation and its after-effects, human-robot and robot-human cyborgs, the power of (science) fiction portrayals, and more. See the original version for 4 more pictures, and for more information, images and videos see Dr. Gildert’s website and her Singularity University faculty page. –Matthew] [Image: Dr. Gildert and Nadine play Connect Four. Source/credit: Daniel Marquardt and Sanctuary AI 2019)] These Human-Like ‘Synths’ Will Make You Do a Double Take Dr. Suzanne Gildert, Founder and CEO of Vancouver-based Sanctuary,…

[This story from The Salt Lake Tribune illustrates one of the most important applications of presence, helping people who need to be understood and those who need to understand others. See also a (very positive) review in The Utah Review and for more on “Hi, my name is Savannah” see coverage in Medium. –Matthew] [Image: Savannah, a 15-year-old LGBTQ activist, delivers the coming-out testimony she wasn’t allowed to give at her church meeting in Eagle Mountain in 2017, in the VR short film “Savannah,” which is being shown at the Damn These Heels LGBTQ Film Festival in Salt Lake City,…

[Here’s a clever way to evoke social presence with a houseplant; the short story is from Curbed, where it includes three different images. The Mu Design press kit notes that “Lua also includes a motion sensor that allows its eyes to follow the movements in front of them: it’s like Lua’s looking at you! Give a spark of life to your plants and evolve them into full-fledged pets with Lua!” See the Indiegogo page for more information including pictures and a 1:00 minute video (also available via Vimeo). See the Mu-Design website for information on the company’s first product: “Ulo…

[Discover reports on a new advance in haptic VR gloves that should enhance presence; coverage in Science includes an 8 second video and follow the link to the paper in Scientific Reports for much more information. For coverage of a related project, see an October 2018 post in ISPR Presence News. –Matthew] This New Virtual Reality Glove Lets You Grab Digital Objects By Bill Andrews July 18, 2019 Our squishy human brains are notoriously easy to fool. Whether it’s optical illusions or more advanced trickery, it doesn’t take much to exploit our mind’s weaknesses. But, that’s also what enables virtual…

[From privacy to mental health, a new (free) report examines the dangers of “extended reality” technologies. There’s a link at the end of this story from Forbes to a summary of the report and the full downloadable pdf version. The original story includes a 5:48 minute video, and the report summary includes several graphics, a different video and a 13-slide presentation. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Adobe Stock] The Important Risks And Dangers Of Virtual And Augmented Reality July 17, 2019 Bernard Marr, Contributor A recent report by Accenture highlighted the growing number of companies taking advantage of “extended reality” (XR) technology,…

[The U.S. military is considering how to use presence-evoking technologies to help prepare for difficult to imagine challenges, as reported in this story from Popular Mechanics; see coverage in Nextgov for additional details. –Matthew] The Pentagon Wants VR To Train for Nuclear War The tech would allow troops to train to counter nuclear and radiological weapons, including dirty bombs. By Kyle Mizokami July 9, 2019 The U.S. Department of Defense is considering using virtual reality technology to train military personnel who might someday come up against dirty bombs and other radioactive weapons. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which typically concerns…