[Will Facebook’s “social presence laboratory” create “convincingly human avatars within four years”? The prospects – and both positive and negative possible applications – are discussed in this story from Wired. See the original version for a 1:02 minute video and 4 large animated gifs that demonstrate the technology; CBS News has more coverage that includes a 3:07 minute video report. –Matthew] [Image: Research assistant Autumn Trimble sits inside “Mugsy,” one of the capture facilities Pittsburgh’s Facebook Reality Lab uses to create “codec avatars.” Credit: Lavender Leigh] Facebook Can Make VR Avatars Look—And Move—Exactly Like You Peter Rubin March 13, 2019…

[Here’s a very unusual example of presence. It’s from Grape, where the story includes many more pictures and the mentioned 9:37 minute video (also available via YouTube). –Matthew] Japanese Service Creates Wearable Super Realistic Replicas Of Your Pet’s Head February 27, 2019 Ultra-realistic animal masks seem to strike the surreal sweet spot between “terrifying” and “adorable”, as seen with Japan’s viral gigantic wearable felt cat heads, but the minds at creative planning office Shindo Rinka and modeling workshop 91 (pronounced kyuu-ii) is taking things a step further by making that creepy/cute blend a service. If you’re willing to pay, you…

[The inventors of Q want to let everyone experience the presence evoked by digital voice assistants, as reported in this Wired story; the original version includes a different image and a 1:01 minute video; for more information (and a longer video), see genderlessvoice.com. –Matthew] The Genderless Digital Voice the World Needs Right Now Matt Simon March 11, 2019 Boot up the options for your digital voice assistant of choice and you’re likely to find two options for the gender you prefer interacting with: male or female. The problem is, that binary choice isn’t an accurate representation of the complexities of…

[This is an important first-person report from Medium by an experienced presence-creator about the dangers of moving beyond the “uncanny valley” to the point where we lose the ability to suspend the belief that our experience is real (i.e., not created/mediated by technology). See the original version for a larger version of the figure below, 7 more images and 2 videos. –Matthew] There is a second valley past the Uncanny Valley or How developing an AR horror game put me in the hospital. Bryan Mitchell February 12, 2019 Background: I have been developing mobile games for 10 years. I have…

[The negative reaction to a San Francisco hospital’s use of a telepresence robot to deliver sensitive medical news is receiving international coverage; this story from The New York Times recounts the situation and considers some of the ethical issues. Hopefully the case will prompt both users and designers of the technology to figure out ways to avoid situations like this. An important question we should consider is whether even a future technology that could perfectly transmit all, or at least all visual and aural, social cues would be acceptable.  –Matthew] [Image: A doctor on a video conference explained to Ernest…

[As a railway enthusiast, I particularly like the example of presence in this story from The Telegraph & Argus. The original version includes a 0:46 minute video and 7 more images, and more information including pictures and resident reactions can be found in coverage by Carehome.co.uk and The Mirror. A 1:04 minute BBC video is available too – thanks to colleague Amela Sadagic for posting it in the ISPR Presence Community Facebook group! -Matthew] Gateway Care Home, Sticker Lane, unveils railway room for residents 23 February 2019 By David Jagger A dementia care home has unveiled a brand new room…

[Two recent stories highlight efforts to create more effective presence illusions based on the human voice; the first is from GeekWire, where the original version includes three 3 more videos that compare the WellSaid technology to reading by voice actors. The second, a Digital Trends story about Modulate’s “voice skins,” follows below and also includes a demonstration video. –Matthew] [Image: A screenshot illustrates how WellSaid’s voice synthesis platform could be used. Credit: WellSaid Illustration] AI2 gives birth to WellSaid, a startup that synthesizes amazingly realistic voices By Alan Boyle March 7, 2019 We’ve got Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Amazon’s Alexa…

[It’s adapted from a press release, but this story from designboom describes several presence-evoking elements of a new exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History and the original version includes many captioned images and a 2:26 minute video (also available via Vimeo). A trailer for the T. rex: Skeleton Crew VR experience is available on YouTube. For more information see the exhibition website. –Matthew] [Image: Visitors encounter a massive animated projection of a T. rex and its offspring in a late Cretaceous setting. The huge dinosaur will react to visitors, leaving them to wonder, “Did that T.…

[Medium-as-social-actor presence extends to the richly human context of religion in this story from The Diplomat (where the original includes two more images). A 1:42 minute video of the “android deity” is available from SankeiNews via YouTube. –Matthew] An Ancient Japanese Shrine Debuts a Buddhist Robot A high-tech twist hopes to offer Buddhist wisdom that’s easily understood by younger generations in Japan. By Thisanka Siripala March 05, 2019 Kyoto, Japan’s ancient former capital, is home to temples, shrines, and imperial gardens. As the birthplace of Japanese tradition, the city attracts some 53 million tourists every year. Recently, the famed 400-year…

[CNN has launched an app that makes its content available for users of the Magic Leap One augmented reality headset, as reported in this story from Next Reality; see the original version for 2 animated gifs and a 0:40 minute video (also available via YouTube). Two short excerpts from other coverage, providing additional information and cautionary notes, follow below. –Matthew] CNN Brings Its News Networks to Magic Leap One By Tommy Palladino February 28, 2019 News junkies who own the Magic Leap One received some good news on Thursday, as CNN has published an app for the headset to display…

[Check out some of the new websites linked in this CNN story to see how AI is making it increasingly difficult to separate fake from real. See the original story for a 1:37 minute video and a second image, and see coverage in SecurityIntelligence for a warning about how this technology poses a serious threat to biometric security. –Matthew] These people do not exist. Why websites are churning out fake images of people (and cats) By Rachel Metz February 28, 2019 San Francisco (CNN Business) – The young girl on the computer screen is adorable, with rosy cheeks, blue-gray eyes,…

[Creating virtual assistants that can evoke effective medium-as-social-actor presence currently requires a lot of  manual work by ‘conversational designers,’ but a new system will help automate the process, as described in this ZDNet story. See the original version for a second image and a 1:03 minute video. –Matthew] Nuance’s Project Pathfinder uses AI to build smarter virtual assistants Companies with large amounts of live chat and call centre transcripts should be able to replace laborious conversation-design processes with Nuance’s upcoming automated tool. By Charles McLellan for Product Central February 6, 2019 Conversational AI specialist Nuance has announced a new project…