[Suggesting a new meaning for the acronym CASA (car, rather than computer, as social actor), a new study from The University of Tokyo suggests that giving self-driving vehicles eyes that indicate the vehicle’s “attention” will improve how people interact with the vehicles and save lives. Note that the study itself was conducted via a presence-evoking experience in virtual reality. See the original story for more images, and follow the links at the end for more information (including a 1:52 minute video also available on YouTube). –Matthew] [Image: The Gazing Car. The cart was fitted with robotic eyes which could be moved…

[This news from Indiana University describes a creative and potentially valuable application of presence to help people recover from substance abuse disorders. See the new publication in Discover Mental Health for many more details.  –Matthew] [Image: Figure 1 from “Virtual reality intervention effects on future self-continuity and delayed reward preference in substance use disorder recovery: pilot study results”: Avatar rendering. The senior author’s A) Current Self avatar, and age-progressed 15 years, B) SUD Future Self, and C) Recovery Future Self] IU researcher creates virtual reality experiences to aid substance use disorder recovery October 19, 2022 Indiana University researchers are combining…

[This story from The Daily Beast is about efforts to simulate near death experiences and replicate some of the insights and perspective changes they can bring. See the original version for a seven minute video (also available via YouTube). For related stories about presence and death see “People Are Going Full ‘Black Mirror’ to Bring Back the Dead: What these businesses are doing for grieving and loss is what Uber did for taxis and buses: disrupting, innovating, and making things a whole lot more complicated” also from The Daily Beast, and “Technology that lets us “speak” to our dead relatives…

[A new room at the University of California, Davis is designed to evoke (spatial) presence to more accurately measure reactions to food and other products; see the original version of the story below from the University for more pictures and a 1:41 minute video (also available on YouTube).  –Matthew] [Image: Julien Delarue, associate professor in sensory and consumer science, in the new multi-sensory immersive room at UC Davis] New Sensory Immersive Room at UC Davis Simulates Real-Life Environments for Product Testing Space Features 360-Degree Video Experience With Variable Sounds, Smells and Air Conditions By Tiffany Dobbyn October 18, 2022 What…

[Deepfake videos are increasingly likely to cause viewers to overlook the role of technological manipulation in their media experience (i.e., experience presence), with dangerous consequences, but as this opinion piece from The Hill notes, shallowfakes – ”videos shared with misleading contexts or small edits” – pose a more immediate danger, and learning how to blunt their negative impacts will help prepare us to address the more sophisticated media manipulations to come. For much more information about this see a 90-minute video of a talk by the author on YouTube.  –Matthew] [Image: A woman in Washington, DC views a manipulated video…

[This story from Vice’s Motherboard reports on a political party in Denmark that is using artificial intelligence, personified by a (presence-evoking) chatbot called Leader Lars, to generate its policy platform. The idea goes beyond having a chatbot as a political candidate to allowing party members and others to shape the party’s platform by interacting with the AI. In addition to advocating political positions, a key goal is “raising more awareness about the role of AI in our lives and how governments can hold AI accountable to biases and other societal influences.” There are plans to expand the Party internationally. See…

[This Wired analysis of Meta’s latest virtual reality headset and the company’s plans to incorporate less immersive means of accessing shared virtual spaces considers two problems: The still-limited quality of nascent VR technologies and the metaverse (however it’s defined) means that only a minority of consumers and even workers want to use them, and when the minority of people who do use VR meet and collaborate in virtual spaces with the majority who don’t, it produces an undemocratic and potentially dysfunctional distribution of immersion and presence. Theoretically the first problem will be solved when the technology is (finally) ready for…

[The Toronto Star reports on how large-scale projection-mapped images and accompanying soundtracks are providing popular immersive entertainment experiences and challenging the definition of art. As one of the experts who hope the sector will turn to original, contemporary and even narrative-based source material says, “They’re barely touching on what this technology can do right now — the level of illusion and how it can create this sense of presence.” See the original story for a second image. –Matthew] Disney signs deal with Toronto’s Lighthouse Immersive to develop new projection art experience Projection-driven immersive exhibitions are revolutionizing the arts world and…

[The TV Guide review below of a new Amazon Prime Video series based on William Gibson’s novel The Peripheral and brought to the screen by the producers of HBO’s Westworld avoids major spoilers and makes clear that the series portrays, and addresses issues related to, advanced forms of presence. Not all the reviews are as positive (see The Hollywood Reporter and especially The Verge, but the program’s IMDb entry at this writing has an 8.3/10 rating). For more information and insights about the series see Wired’s interview with the producers. GeekWire’s coverage notes that series creator/producer/writer Scott B.…

[Initial evidence that the presence evoked by singing in virtual reality may have positive effects on health and wellbeing is discussed in this story from the University of York. In addition to the links within it, see a 15:49 minute talk by Professor Helena Daffern on YouTube. –Matthew Could virtual reality singing have mental health benefits? October 20, 2022 Researchers have created a virtual reality choir to understand whether virtual singing could have the same health and wellbeing benefits as group singing in real life. The team test the virtual reality singing experience in care homes. When in-person group singing…

[The short story below from ABC27 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and the press release from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections that follows describe an innovative use of presence-evoking virtual reality. –Matthew] [Image: Source: FOX 56] Virtual reality brings incarcerated Pa. parents closer to their kids By: Bryan Munoz Posted: October 17, 2022 / Updated: October 18, 2022 (WHTM) — The Department of Corrections is teaming up with Pittsburgh nonprofit Amachi for a one-a-kind initiative. “It’s an incredible opportunity for kids and parents to reconnect especially after a long period of no visitation,” said Anna Hollis, executive director for Amachi. It involves…

[This Motherboard story doesn’t use the term and isn’t about any traditional type of presence, but it describes a presence phenomenon in which humans overlook the key role of artificial intelligence technology in their mediated experience. See the original version for a Twitter post and link to an extended conversation, and Futurism’s March 2020 story “This Grad Student Used a Neural Network to Write His Papers.”  –Matthew] Students Are Using AI to Write Their Papers, Because Of Course They Are Essays written by AI language tools like OpenAI’s Playground are often hard to tell apart from text written by humans.…