[This story from CNBC highlights the need for robot designers to carefully consider the range of responses, including medium-as-social-actor presence responses, their creations will evoke. For more on this topic see the recent story in Psychology Today’s blog “How do We Read Emotions in Robots? Of social robots, innovation spaces, and creatively trying things out.” –Matthew] Next-gen robots: The latest victims of workplace abuse Robots must contend not just with internal flaws and bugs but with humans. Recent introductions of robots to everyday scenarios have led people to initiate some intriguing forms of interaction. Knightscope’s security bot, for example, has…

[This short interview from the Vive blog is about the use of virtual reality and presence to explore a universal experience in a visceral, first-person way. The original blog post includes a second image; for a text and audio report on the experience that includes more images see coverage by Southern California Public Radio (SCPR); and a 0:39 minute trailer is available on YouTube. –Matthew] Take a trip to The Other Side in Flatline Stephen Reid August 3, 2017 What happens at the exact moment of death? Religion and science disagree, but many survivors of near-death experiences have similar stories…

[This story from New Scientist highlights negative consequences of presence-based advertising; while it focuses mostly on competition between advertisers, the larger concern is unwanted clutter in augmented/mixed reality, as illustrated in the Kevin Matsuda short film Hyper-Reality. The original story includes a 0:35 minute video and a different image. –Matthew] Augmented reality graffiti will lead to advertising ambush wars By Matt Reynolds 4 August 2017 Imagine looking up at the sky and seeing every cloud crammed full of adverts. High above a fast food restaurant, a competitor has scrawled its own cheeky pitch, urging shoppers to eat their burgers instead.…

[This disturbingly timely story from Yale News describes a new exhibition about the blurring of the real and artificial in our representations and understanding of war. The original includes five more images, and more information and images are available at the Gallery’s website. –Matthew] [Image: A detail from An-My Lê’s Film Set (“Free State of Jones”), Battle of Corinth, Bush, Louisiana, 2015. Inkjet print. Courtesy STX Entertainment] Exhibit features photographic portrayals of war, real and staged July 21, 2017 “Before the Event/After the Fact: Contemporary Perspectives on War,” an exhibition that brings together a range of contemporary approaches to the…

[In addition to describing the company’s new brain-controlled VR game, in this interview from IEEE Spectrum the CEO of Neurable argues that the brain-computer interface will “be the interaction method that allows for ubiquitous VR and AR”; the original story includes four different pictures and a 0:42 minute video. –Matthew] [Image: From Diorama, where coverage includes a 2:08 minute demonstration video] Startup Neurable Unveils the World’s First Brain-Controlled VR Game By Eliza Strickland Posted 7 Aug 2017 Imagine putting on a VR headset, seeing the virtual world take shape around you, and then navigating through that world without waving any…

[The tools available to creators allow increasingly sophisticated manipulations of mediated reality; this story from the UC Santa Barbara Current describes an interesting new one; follow the links at the end for more information, examples and a 5:18 minute video, and see coverage in DIY Photography for an explanation of how this new tool compares to others. –Matthew] Picture Perfect UCSB and NVIDIA researchers develop a new technique that enables photographers to adjust image compositions after capture By James Badham Monday, July 31, 2017 When taking a picture, a photographer must typically commit to a composition that cannot be changed…

[From Roomba to Kuri to sophisticated and adorable future companion robots that take care of us, we can’t help perceiving machines as independent, sentient social actors – i.e., experiencing media-as-social-actor presence. This interesting story from Wired considers some key design choices and ethical challenges. See the original for a 5:12 minute video. –Matthew] Companion Robots Are Here. Just Don’t Fall In Love With Them Matt Simon August 2, 20.17 “Hey, Kuri,” I say. “I love you.” Pause. I brace for rejection, but then the robot lets out a balooop and shimmies back and forth. This, I am to presume, means…

[I always enjoy visiting attractions that provide views from high above (e.g., Philadelphia’s One Liberty Observation Deck) but The Shard in London has taken things further, as reported in this story from the Evening Standard (where it includes several more pictures). For more information, Business Insider has a 1:31 minute summary video and Londonist has a story featuring a 2:30 minute viral video of a woman on the Slide attraction. Details and tickets are available directly from The View From The Shard’s website. Information about an earlier VR experience of the same building is available from Visualise. –Matthew] You can…

[This story from Gizmodo is as interesting for the presence result it reports – “The performance of [Facebook researchers’] best negotiation agent… matched that of human negotiators” – as for what it says about our fears of technology-based social actors. See the original story for an animated graphic and the Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research blog post for a detailed explanation of the research (a key quote: “Interestingly, in the FAIR experiments, most people did not realize they were talking to a bot rather than another person”). –Matthew] No, Facebook Did Not Panic and Shut Down an AI Program That Was…

[As the author of this intriguing article notes, it’ll be fascinating to see, and we should work to shape, how the uses of in-home telepresence robots evolve. The article is from IEEE Spectrum., where it includes links to related stories. –Matthew] [Image: The Beam remote presence system, from Suitable Technologies, allows you to “beam in” and visit family members from anywhere. Social roboticist Heather Knight argues that such technology could become a valuable co-parenting tool. Credit: Suitable Technologies] Why Co-Parenting With Telepresence Robots Could Be a Fantastic Idea By Heather Knight Posted 31 Jul 2017 There’s always something heart-wrenching when…

[Here’s a clever use of VR and presence to replace the boring blackenss of the windows during train trips under the English Channel. The press release is from Eurostar and “brand experience agency” AKQA, and more information including two videos can be found on the Eurostar website. –Matthew] Eurostar unveils world’s first onboard virtual reality experience: ‘Eurostar Odyssey’ Taking travellers on an adventure to the depths of the sea bed, with immersive smartphone headsets available throughout the summer 12 July 2017 Eurostar today announces ‘Eurostar Odyssey’, the first virtual reality experience designed to enhance a journey through an immersive onboard…

[An extremely positive use, and the limitations, of presence are described in this story from CNET, where the original includes a 3:52 minute video and a photo gallery. –Matthew]   [Image: A grandmother in Iztapalapa, Mexico, used a Samsung Gear VR to spend the afternoon with relatives in the US she hasn’t seen in almost two decades. Credit: Family Reunions Project] VR’s new mission: Reunite immigrants with family back home The Family Reunions Project uses 360-degree videos and VR headsets to reunite families separated by borders they cannot cross –except in virtual reality. by Laura Martínez July 27, 2017 Marleny,…