[The author of this story from Forbes reports on her experience chatting with a new AI-enabled digital twin of K-pop singer/songwriter Mark Tuan. It’s early days for the technology, but the author writes that “’Once he gets going,… it’s easy to forget you’re not bantering with a human. I even caught myself nodding and saying ‘um hmm’ a few times. I guess I wanted Digital Mark to think I was a polite listener.” See the original story for a second image and a 25-second video (also on YouTube). The Soul Machines press release is available from PR Newswire, and you…

[Below you’ll find first a short description of the new VRoxy (VR-driven robotic proxy) telepresence system being developed by teams at Cornell and Brown Universities, and then a more detailed description of how the system works. The first story is from New Atlas (based on a report from Cornell), and the second is from Brown University (where the original version includes three different pictures and a five-minute demonstration video that’s also available on YouTube). As Cornell’s coverage notes, VRoxy is a refined version of ReMotion, which was featured in a May 2023 ISPR Presence News post. –Matthew] [Image: Screenshot of…

[I was anxious about donating blood and never did so, until I was diagnosed with the rare chronic blood cancer Polycythemia Vera, which required me to regularly go through the same procedure (a phlebotomy). So I’m particularly interested in two new applications of presence-evoking technology being used to reduce anxiety, educate, and persuade people about giving blood. The first application, described in the story from Fierce Pharma below, involves using mixed-reality headsets during donations. See coverage from KWQC in Davenport, Iowa for more details and a 1:50 minute news report, and an ImpactLife press release for a 1:00 minute video…

[Despite the headline of this New York Times story, increasingly convincing and accessible generative AI makes the depressing confusion about the role of technology in images related to the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Hamas wars predictable and unsurprising. Two particularly distressing comments come at the end of the story: an executive at the cybersecurity firm Sophos says, “Proving what’s fake is going to be a pointless endeavor,” and the director of the Poynter media literacy program MediaWise says, “People will believe anything that confirms their beliefs or makes them emotional… It doesn’t matter how good it is, or how novel it looks,…

[News of the latest enhancements to the Boston Dynamics robot dog Spot seems perfectly timed for Halloween: As this story from The Verge notes, the 8:27 minute demonstration video (in the original story and on YouTube) is “somewhat unsettling.” That seems like an understatement, but in any case the addition of AI and a rich human voice to a robot dog raises questions about the roles of rich social cues in evoking medium-as-social-actor presence. –Matthew] Boston Dynamics turned its robot dog into a talking tour guide with ChatGPT The company used ChatGPT to train its four-legged bot to answer questions…

[It’s apparently too late (and too expensive), but Madame Tussauds is offering a unique presence experience for Halloween, as described in this story from DesignTAXI; see the original for more images, and the Madame Tussauds press release for more information. For much more on presence-evoking Halloween experiences this year, and a new Las Vegas attraction that will be open all year, see a recent story in Blooloop. –Matthew] Madame Tussauds Opens ‘Subway Station’ Where You Sleep With Nightmarish Figures By Mikelle Leo October 17, 2023 It’s time to go to bed with one eye open, and maybe keep a bulb…

[This CNN story describes the rapid evolution of virtual K-pop stars. Among other interesting details (e.g., the ironic title of the virtual band Eternity’s first track, “I’m Real”), note the description of parasocial relationships in the last section about the “future of K-pop.” See the original story for three more pictures and a 3:21 minute video news report.  –Matthew] [Image: Members of the AI-generated K-pop group Eternity.] ‘The only thing we can’t do is sign autographs’: The rise of virtual K-pop bands By Jake Kwon and Ivan Watson, CNN October 4, 2023 In the music video for their latest single…

[NPR’s WUWM in Milwaukee, Wisconsin reports on a new simulation tool designed to help anyone learn to identify and treat a potential concussion. Visit the original version of this story to listen to a 12:11 minute interview with Dr. Cindy Fenske of the Center for Simulation and Innovation at Concordia University and to watch a one-minute video (also available on YouTube). –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Center For Simulation & Innovation / Concordia University] Field Assessment Simulator uses virtual & augmented reality to help identify, treat concussions By Audrey Nowakowski and Robert Larry October 24, 2023 No matter how you interact with…

[A new decision by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is set to expand the opportunities for a wide variety of presence experiences, as reported in this story from CNBC. The press release is on the FCC website. –Matthew] [Image: Man wearing Meta Quest 3 VR headset. Credit: Todd Haselton / CNBC] Meta, Apple and Google cheer FCC ruling that could pave the way for new AR and VR applications By Lauren Feiner October 19, 2023 The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday agreed to open a band of spectrum for some devices in a move that could help pave the…

[As reported by The Register, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working to protect military users of virtual and mixed reality technologies from ‘cognitive attacks.’ As outlined in more detail by Sociable, “Such attacks can include information flooding to increase equipment latency and induce physical illness, planting real-world objects to overwhelm displays, subverting a personal area network to sow confusion, injecting virtual data to distract personnel, using objects to overwhelm a user with confusing false alarms, assessing user status through an eye tracker, and other potential attacks. Apart from military applications, DARPA’s new ICS program could provide…

[A potentially useful introduction to lessons and discussions about presence, this opinion piece from The Hill provides a big-picture perspective on the history and future of immersive technologies and their significant benefits and dangers. –Matthew] A new era of virtual reality brings many promises for the future — and perils By Roger Cochetti, an Opinion Contributor who has served as a senior executive with COMSAT, IBM, VeriSign and CompTIA. A former U.S. government official, he has helped found a number of nonprofits in the tech sector and is the author of textbooks on the history of satellite communications. October 10,…

[More research is needed to demonstrate its efficacy but in a clever application of presence-evoking technology, a small Stanford Medicine study suggests that the use of virtual reality simulations of decluttering has the potential to improve treatment for hoarding disorder.  –Matthew] [Image: A virtual reality simulation of a patient’s home. Credit: Carolyn Rodriguez Lab] Virtual reality helps people with hoarding disorder practice decluttering A first-of-its-kind study by Stanford Medicine researchers lets patients practice letting go of treasured objects in simulations of their own homes. By Nina Bai, a science writer in the Office of Communications October 17, 2023 Many people…