[The new Blended Learning Interactive Simulation Suite (BLISS) at the University of Central Florida uses a variety of presence-evoking technologies to train students and help patients, as reported by UCF Today. See the original story for a second image and a 40 second video (also available on YouTube) and for more coverage see local TV news coverage from WESH 2 and WFTV 9. –Matthew] [Image: A physical therapy student works with a manikin in the College of Health Professions and Sciences’ Blended Learning Interactive Simulation Suite.] New Immersive Simulation Suite Will Teach UCF Students, Help Patients The hands-on tech will…

[This is an entertaining and very meta conversation between a National Post columnist and ChatGPT that illustrates the power of this version of AI to evoke medium-as-social-actor presence. See the original story for two more images and excerpts of conversations with other ChatGPT personas. –Matthew] ‘I am not a human — but I am trying’: An interview with an AI chatbot Even while admitting that ‘she’ is just a collection of code, ‘Daisy Chatbot’ had columnist Chris Knight all but convinced there was a sentience behind her sentences By Chris Knight January 19, 2023; updated January 21, 2023 Artificial Intelligence…

[If the philosophical argument that we are all living in a giant computer simulation were true, all of our experiences would be presence experiences. Aside from demonstrating how technology-generated simulation is a dominant metaphor for how (many of us) live in the 21st century, the idea also prompts intriguing questions about religion, morality and mortality (see Jones, Lombard and Jasak, 2011). While it’s presumptuous to think we’d ever be able to change the simulation directly or otherwise, this New York Times article describes how a computer scientist explored how that would work and what changes we might request. See David…

[CTV News reports on a recent demonstration of presence-evoking technologies being developed to enhance the way fans, and players and coaches, experience sports. See the original story for more pictures and a short video. More details are in an excerpt from coverage by Yahoo! Sports that follows below; for more information see the SportsX website. In a related National Basketball Association press release, the NBA and Meta announced that they will provide “52 live NBA League Pass games – including five immersive 180-degree monoscopic live VR games in 2880 resolution – in ‘NBA Arena’ in Meta Horizon Worlds. Fans can…

[This abridged-but-still-long, example and link-filled blooploop story provides an overview of the many ways technologies are being used in the attractions industry to produce immersive, engaging and profitable presence experiences. See the original version of the story for 21 more images. –Matthew] Top 9 technology trends in the attractions industry for 2023 Find out more about this year’s top technology trends, from gamification to robots By Bea Mitchell January 12, 2023 Technology is advancing at an exponential rate. The attractions and entertainment sector is using many emerging technologies as tools to bring stories to life. Some of the top technology…

[This short Game Rant story describes a recent Warner Bros. patent submission for a social robot in video games (but logically soon for embodied robots) that analyzes “a person’s nonverbal social cues to detect things like emotional states and desires” and then interacts with the user based on this information, enhancing their medium-as-social-actor presence experience. Of course, as the story notes, the technology suggests dangers as well. You can see a second image in the original story and read the patent application at Patentscope. –Matthew] Warner Bros. Working on Virtual Robot to Interact with Players in Video Games By Chris…

[This story from Fast Company describes how a new service from Sony will let users feel like they’re in space taking photographs of Earth. The vision of an expanded set of experiences of remote locations that the author describes in the last paragraph is already coming true. See the original story for six different images and a 1:38 minute video (also available via YouTube) and for more details see coverage from Adorama (including a second video; also on YouTube) and the Star Sphere website. –Matthew] [Image: Source: Digital Camera World] Sony’s new space camera will help you feel like an…

[A “cat and mouse game” is taking place between computer scientists working to improve the ability of generative artificial intelligence software like ChatGPT to mimic human writing, and other computer scientists working to improve software that distinguishes machine- and human-generated text. But without sophisticated detection tools we’re all increasingly likely to experience a form of presence in which we overlook the role of technology in the creation of text we encounter, as teachers reading assignments or as consumers of news (and entertainment, etc. – e.g., see TheLatestBot). The story below from Inside Higher Ed explores the state-of-the-art and implications of the…

[Yet another positive application of presence-evoking technology is described in this story from the Midwest Messenger. See the original version for three more images and a 1:40 minute video (also available on YouTube). –Matthew] [Image: The virtual reality glasses and “Rollover Ranch” game, which instills farm safety, feels like the real thing as a student virtually drives a farm vehicle, while in the St. Edwards gymnasium. Credit: Submitted photo] Safety goggles: Virtual reality game teaches kids farm safety By Amy Hadachek January 18, 2023 Tractors and ATV rollovers are reported to be the biggest cause of farm-related deaths each year,…

[This short story from The Guardian provides a first-person report on a new application of presence-evoking virtual reality to teach users breathing techniques that control anxiety. See the original version for two more images and a 46 second video (also available via YouTube). For more on The Insight Project, the larger collaboration between the University of Cambridge and Ninja Theory, “an ambitious combination of technology, game design and clinical neuroscience brought together with the aim of treating mental suffering and encouraging mental wellbeing,” see a 6:41 minute video on the Ninja Theory or the Project’s website or via YouTube, and…

[This Time magazine story describes and assesses two virtual recreations of Martin Luther King delivering his 1963 “I Have A Dream” speech. Without using the terminology, it notes elements that enhance and detract from (or ‘break’) presence. The original version of the story includes a second image and a 27:41 minute video. See also a new 2:11 minute news report from NBC 4 in New York about how Long Island students experienced the speech in virtual reality for this year’s Martin Luther King holiday. For more context see the 2020 story “How TIME Re-created the 1963 March on Washington in…

[Rapidly evolving artificial intelligence tools are making it increasingly difficult for consumer to determine the extent and nature of the role of technology in the creation of images, text, voices, videos and now, as described in this story from Fast Company, presentation slides. See the original story for a one-minute video, a PR Newswire press release for more details and a 30-second video, and Tanya Smith’s getnoticedwithvideo TikTok account for a 2:30 minute demo video. –Matthew] New generative AI tool instantly builds PowerPoints and presentation decks Beautiful.ai launches a generative tool to help PowerPoint users overcome writer’s block and the…