[Several of the projects described in this story from Forbes incorporate vivid presence experiences into dining in creative ways (the first one and the last one, Kitchen Memories, sound particularly intriguing). But as one expert is quoted as saying, “No one has really cracked the code on how to apply VR in the world of food… this is only the rotary phone of what’s to come.” See the original version of the story for four more images and follow the links for more information. –Matthew] [Image: Diners await their first bite-size course during Epic.Now at New York’s Michelin-starred Icca. Credit:…

[A new chatbot from Sesame AI is evoking new levels of medium-as-social-actor presence. As noted in coverage by ZDNet, the company’s goal is “to achieve something called ‘voice presence’ or the ‘magical quality that makes spoken interactions feel real, understood, and valued.’” The first-person report from TechRadar below is typical of reactions in coverage from ZDNET, PCWorld, The Verge and Beebom. Several writers make comments like this one from Mike Elgan in Machine Society: “It’s the closest thing to a relationship AI, as in the 2013 Spike Jonze movie ‘Her,’ starring Scarlett Johansson and Joaquin Phoenix.” Read more about, and…

[The latest attempt to develop an effective and practical way to enhance presence by adding taste to mediated experiences is described in this story from Popular Science; see also the news release from Ohio State University and the new publication in Science Advances, which includes images and videos. –Matthew] [Image: Source: New Scientist] New device lets you taste food in virtual reality ‘e-Taste’ analyzes food flavor profiles and tries to copy it using a concoction of chemicals pushed through a gel. By Mack DeGeurinFebruary 28, 2025 Virtual reality can, in its own imperfect ways, transport a user into distant experiences.…

[Inside Higher Ed provides this concise and informative story about our colleague and friend Michigan State University professor Rabindra (Robby) Ratan and his work teaching about and with virtual reality. For more information, see Robby’s website, particularly the page about the classes he teaches. A 2:14 minute video is available on YouTube. For more about Slido, see the Slido for Education website. And for more about how Robby and other MSU faculty “find creative ways to integrate technology in the classroom to enhance student experience,” see a February 2024 story from the University’s College of Arts & Letters.…

[Researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology have developed a telepresence robot that provides the user with an immersive, intuitive control system that lets them embody and teleoperate a powerful, durable four-footed, two-armed robot that can be placed in a variety of environments that would be too dangerous for humans. The details in this report from IEEE Spectrum provide a good summary of the current capabilities of presence-evoking teleoperation robots; see the original version of the story for two more images and a 3:06 minute video (also available on YouTube). –Matthew] Dual-Arm HyQReal Puts Powerful Telepresence Anywhere IIT’s hydraulic quadruped…

[The exhibition of works of art for galleries, institutions and collectors around the globe consumes huge amounts of energy and generates pollutants that harm the environment; this story from The Art Newspaper explains how presence-evoking technologies are and can better be used to make art exhibition environmentally sustainable. See the original version of the story for two more images. –Matthew] [Image: Christie’s partnered with holographic communication company Proto to create a hologram of Edgar Degas’s Petite danseuse de quatorze ans. Credit: Courtesy Christie’s] How technology can help the art world take a big step towards sustainability A new report published…

[The story from Nottingham-Trent University below describes a potentially valuable application of presence-evoking technology to raise awareness about and prevent the hazards posed by driving tractors on rural roads. See the original version of the story for a 1:51 minute video; for more information, see the Esitu Solutions website, which features a 3:07 minute video (also available on YouTube). –Matthew] [Image: Source: FarmingUK] New VR test aims to boost road safety for tractor drivers A new virtual reality (VR) hazard perception test has been developed to address the training gap for tractor drivers, aiming to reduce road incidents involving agricultural…

[In the second of two posts today about presence and religion, this detailed story from Catholic World Report describes a disturbing form of “fake celebrity endorsement” in which Pope Francis and Cardinal Mark Ouellet are seen in presence-evoking deepfake videos promoting the sale of an “at best theologically dubious” product. –Matthew] [Image: Real and AI-produced images of Pope Francis and Marc Cardinal Ouellet. Credit: Screenshots courtesy of the author] Beware of the Deepfake Magisterium By M. V. DoughertyJanuary 27, 2025 The use of artificial intelligence to produce fake celebrity endorsements of dubious products is not new and is well-documented, and…

[In the first of two posts today about presence and religion, this AP story reports on the results of an interesting, and controversial, experiment in Switzerland in which people interacted with an “AI Jesus” in a Catholic chapel. See the original version of the story for five different images, and an earlier story by The Guardian for more details. A 1:37 minute video news report from Euronews is available on YouTube. –Matthew] [Image: Source: Euronews] ‘AI Jesus’ avatar tests man’s faith in machines and the divine By Jamey KeatenNovember 28, 2024 LUCERNE, Switzerland (AP) — Would you trust an “AI…

[This story from the Jacksonville University College of Law’s WAVE Magazine describes how one professor is leading the effort to create a comprehensive set of virtual reality simulations that provide “real world” learning experiences for students. See the Jacksonville University website for more information about the College and Professor DeVito. –Matthew] How Can Virtual Reality Translate to Real World Experience? By Katie GarwoodDecember 17, 2024 A key piece of any legal education is real-world experience — getting in the courtroom, going through the motions and learning by doing. That’s why Associate Professor of Law Scott DeVito includes real-world examples and…

[Faculty and students at the Rochester Institute of Technology have created a presence-evoking simulation of an important device in media history. The headline of this post that describes the project is from a EurekAlert! press release from RIT (the subhead is “Virtual reality technology is a tool for sharing cultural heritage objects”). See the original version of the story from RIT News for four more images. –Matthew] [Image: This screenshot from the 19th-century printing press VR app built by RIT students and faculty introduces users to a historical pressroom. Credit: Cary Graphic Arts Collection/RIT] RIT app on Steam brings 19th-century…

[Technology writer Mike Elgan writes in Computerworld about Apple’s research on how people perceive and respond to a non-humanoid robot that simulates human emotions and other internal states – essentially research on the social cues that evoke medium-as-social-actor presence. For more on Apple’s research see the Apple Machine Learning Research website and new article in arXiv; for more on the Luxo Jr. logo see the Pixar website. Elgan writes more extensively and emphatically about researchers’ habit of implying that robots actually have these internal states in his Machine Society substack (part of the post is behind a paywall). Excerpts from…