[He doesn’t use the terms social presence, CASA or medium-as-social-actor presence, but this piece from the Shelly Palmer blog includes some interesting insights and questions about them (and some relevant science-fiction references). –Matthew] I’ve Talked to the Future and It Talked Back by Shelly Palmer May 21, 2016 I love Alexa, the Natural Language Processing (NLP) system in my Amazon Echo. She wakes me up every morning, she knows my schedule, she can control many of my z-wave and Zigbee compatible devices (switches, outlets, etc.), she can tell me the temperature and weather forecast, she can play any piece of…

[This story from SFGate describes what may become one of the most valued applications of presence technology, the recording of precious experiences and people; it also highlights the way applications are often discovered inadvertently. –Matthew] [Image: Ashley Scott and daughter Reese at the 8i studio.] Virtual reality archives memories By Benny Evangelista Friday, May 27, 2016 Virtual reality could become the archive of personal memories. From a new mom tearfully re-experiencing her infant daughter six months later, to Paul McCartney remembering what led him to write a hit song, virtual reality startups have uncovered how the new technology can store…

[This new telepresence robot – even though it’s just a torso and arms – is capable of impressively natural human movement and suggests another step toward rich social presence, including medium-as-social-actor presence. The video and images included with this story from Gizmag remind me of the interactions in the 2015 film Chappie, but of course those were created with special effects (see coverage in /Film). –Matthew] [Image: The hybrid robot playing patty cake (Credit: Disney Research)] New hybrid system gives robot arms human-like grace and precision David Szondy May 13, 2016 Disney Research has come up with a glockenspiel-playing robot…

[The legal justice system is another application area for presence; this story is from BBC News, where it features more images and a video. For more information see the Digital Forensic Archaeology Project page and coverage in The Wall Street Journal. –Matthew] [Image: Dr Caroline Sturdy Colls said jurors would be transported into a “virtual world”] Juries ‘could enter virtual crime scenes’ following research Virtual reality technology used in the gaming industry could be adapted to recreate crime scenes for juries, researchers have claimed. 24 May 2016 A Staffordshire University project has experimented with technology and techniques to “transport” jurors…

[Microsoft is working on a new ‘telepresence experience’ technology (will the use of the term ‘experience’ help clarify that presence is a property of the perceiver?). This story is from InAVate; the patent is available from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. –Matthew] Microsoft patents ‘telepresence experience’ Charlotte Ashley May 11, 2016 Microsoft continues to work on creating virtual environments that facilitate face-to-face communication with those who can’t make it to a meeting or gathering with it’s recently patented ‘telepresence experience.’ The patent details a system which appears to create the effect of talking through a glass to the other…

[This story from SVG Europe describes the many technologies being utilized to evoke presence for remote and in-person audience members for this year’s French Open tennis tournament; for more information about the Virtual Reality and the on-site RG Lab, see pages on the RolandGarros.com website. –Matthew] Virtual Reality at the heart of France Télévisions Roland-Garros 2016 set up By Catherine Wright Friday, May 20, 2016 As Roland-Garros organisers prepare for the French tennis tournament beginning May 21, France Télévisions is again showcasing the group’s latest technology developments at the RG Lab, under the supervision of its Head of Innovations Bernard…

[IMAX is entering the out-of-home consumer VR market; this story is from The Wall Street Journal; the IMAX press release is available from PRNewswire, and Outer Places has details on the IMAX-Google VR camera. –Matthew] [Image: Starbreeze showed its virtual-reality headset at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this month. IMAX, in partnership with the Swedish technology developer, plans to launch VR experiences in locations such as multiplexes and malls. Photo: Alexander Sandvoss/DPA/Zuma Press] IMAX Plans Foray Into Virtual Reality IMAX and Google are to develop a camera that will capture 360-degree images to be experienced on VR headsets By Ben…

[The new short film Hyper Reality explores a possible future when presence via augmented reality has saturated our lives; the information below about the entertaining and thought-provoking film is from http://hyper-reality.co/, where you can find many more screenshot images and watch the film via Vimeo. Highly recommended. –Matthew] Hyper-Reality By Keiichi Matsuda Hyper-Reality (total runtime approx 6 minutes) is a concept film by Keiichi Matsuda. It presents a provocative and kaleidoscopic new vision of the future, where physical and virtual realities have merged, and the city is saturated in media. It is the latest work in an ongoing research-by-design project…

[Google just announced a series of presence-related technologies, including a voice-control virtual assistant incorporated into new products and services; the developments seem likely to move us closer to being able to interact with information, people and companies more naturally and easily, but this story from Slate’s Future Tense blog points to some important dangers too. See also “Google Is Blurring the Line Between Humans and Software” in Inc. And for more of the Google presence news, see the story in Wired about the incorporation of VR into the Android OS and the story in  The Verge about how the new…

[I have long thought parasocial interaction and relationships are one of the most interesting, and also most common, presence phenomena; this story from New York Magazine provides a useful updated discussion of the topic. Going a step further, how will vivid, interactive virtual and mixed reality fiction affect these experiences?  –Matthew] It’s Okay to Think of the Gilmore Girls As Your Real Friends By Cari Romm April 19, 2016 Like roughly a zillion other mother-daughter pairs in the early 2000s, my mom and I were deeply devoted to Gilmore Girls, the television show chronicling the close relationship between 30-something Lorelai…

[This is a smart and welcome move by Oculus to encourage positive uses of presence. The story is from Digital Trends. –Matthew] Oculus VR aims to do some good with virtual reality through new social initiative By Kevin Parrish — May 16, 2016 Facebook-owned Oculus VR on Monday launched a new initiative called “VR for Good.” It’s a platform that seeks to build a better reality through the use of VR, and starts with two pilot VR film programs that the company hopes will inspire the next generation of VR content creators. With these programs, Oculus VR is targeting high…

[This story from The New Yorker never explicitly mentions presence but includes several thoughtful analyses about its causes, nature and consequences in the context of virtual reality. –Matthew] [Image: In games like Crystal Rift, virtual-reality creators are beginning to explore how to harness the medium’s darker side without causing psychological harm. Courtesy PSYTEC.] The Coming Horror of Virtual Reality By Simon Parkin May 15, 2016 If Kitchen, a five-minute virtual-reality demo created by the Japanese studio Capcom, were a short film, few viewers would be moved to panic by its misery of horror-movie clichés. In the demo, which has been…