[Sexual intimacy is a very logical application area for presence-evoking technology that scholars too often ignore, but it’s the focus of this Business Insider report about the work of Angelina Aleksandrovich. Coverage by Reuters includes these additional details: “In an industrial unit in North London two volunteers demonstrate her prototype experience combining virtual reality (VR), augmented reality and even smell, delivered through a collar worn around the neck, a head set, and hand-held sensors. The volunteers see each other as outline human forms through their headsets and can caress each other without ever actually touching. The experience involves haptic stimulators…

[This story from Florida International University describes an ambitious new international and interdisciplinary project that will investigate the impacts of using virtual reality (and presence) to bring people across the world together to learn languages and share cultures. –Matthew] FIU professors awarded Stevens Initiative grant to build virtual reality experience in support of second language acquisition By Alexandra Bassil April 7, 2021 With funding from a $543,439 grant awarded by the Stevens Initiative, FIU researchers will use virtual reality (VR) to create an English-Arabic language learning community: “Virtual Tabadul” (meaning exchange in Arabic). The Tabadul project will gather evidence-based research…

[You have to watch the 2:11 minute video to really appreciate Marc Teyssier’s anthropomorphic webcam, which purposely evokes uncanny valley responses to prompt us to think about a variety of issues related to our relationships with technology. This story is from IGN and much more information, including the video, photos and a link to a CHI 2021 paper, are available on Teyssier’s website. –Matthew] This Webcam Looks Like a Human Eye and Even Blinks at You A webcam with a mind, err, eye of its own. By Wesley LeBlanc April 14, 2021 A new prototype webcam looks like a realistic…

[This story from Florida State University News describes Professor Andrew Opel’s use of immersive media to teach Immersive Media Production and includes both his and his students’ impressions about the experience. See the original version of the story for two more images. If you have related experiences using presence-evoking media to teach, please add a comment to this post and/or send me an email at lombard@temple.edu –Matthew] [Image: Students in Professor Andy Opel’s Immersive Media Production class were issued Oculus Quest 2 headsets this semester and used virtual reality (VR) to simulate a classroom space. Using the EngageVR platform, students…

[A new study by Drexel University researchers explores the potentially valuable application of presence-evoking technology in treating inhibitory control deficits such as those in binge-eating disorder. The study is described in this story from PsyPost. The journal article by the researchers includes this: “Delivering ICT through virtual reality (VR) confers many important advantages over traditional ICTs. First, the more realistic imagery of VR better approximates encountering palatable foods in the natural environment. In samples of individuals with eating disorders (EDs), exposure to 3D images, compared to 2D images, induce greater desires to consume the food (Perpiñá et al., 2013). Additionally…

[The Boston Globe reports on the increased use of several types of presence-evoking technology in the medical sphere, driven in part by the pandemic. The focus is on Proximie’s “only as high-tech as it has to be” system that links surgeons to remote operating rooms and is in use at over 300 hospitals in the U.S. –Matthew] [Image: The virtual hand of a remote doctor was able to guide a surgical procedure thanks to Proximie’s software interface. Credit: Proximie] Telesurgery surges to meet pandemic needs. Think of it as Zoom for surgeons By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff March 23, 2021…

[This essay from ARPost summarizes some of the benefits of using virtual reality to visualize, analyze and present complex data; see the original story for three more images and links to related stories. –Matthew] How Virtual Reality Data Visualization Sets a New Standard for Big Data Virtual reality helps users to process large amounts of data, understand and act on multidimensional relationships, and more. Andy Maggio, Founder and General Manager of D6 VR, a subsidiary of The Glimpse Group focused on data analytics and presentation March 25, 2021 We live in an age of enormous data creation. The amount of…

[This story from Road to VR describes progress by the Swiss company CREAL in developing virtual and augmented reality headset technology with not only “near retina resolution” but the ability to adjust depth of field focus as we do in nonmediated experience. The original version of the story includes two more images and the 1:33 minute demonstration video mentioned (which is also available on YouTube). For more information see the company’s website and YouTube channel. –Matthew] New Video Shows Off CREAL’s Latest Foveated Light-field VR Headset By Ben Lang April 8, 2021 CREAL, a company building light-field display technology for…

[Although it doesn’t uses the terminology of presence, this essay from Inside Higher Ed is all about the evolution of technologies designed to evoke medium-as-social-actor presence and how they can be applied in the context of higher education.  –Matthew] [Image: Cecilia Santiago-González, left, assistant vice president for strategic initiatives for student success, left, and communications specialist Zoe Lance are managers of Billy Chat, an artificial intelligence text messaging bot for students at Cal Poly Pomona. Source: “Artificial intelligence meets real friendship: College students are bonding with robots,” Los Angeles Times. Credit: Irfan Khan] Our New Digital Colleagues and Friends By…

[The new augmented reality app CrimeDoor features augmented reality recreations of crime scenes, as reported in this Yahoo! story. A pre-Easter press release from the company via PR Newswire highlights the recreation of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ (and includes a video demonstration): “With billions of people around the world familiar with the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, AR allows app users to finally experience the moment that shaped history, directly in their own space. The innovation of Augmented Reality places the 3D scene in a user’s room, so they can physically walk into the space with a mobile device and…

[While we’re dealing with the difficult day-to-day realities of the pandemic it’s easy to overlook the speed, magnitude and significance of what will be lasting changes in how we live, many of which involve increases in presence. This essay from Chief Executive by the CEO of a technology company captures some of that big picture and what to expect as the world slowly recovers; as the author’s last line notes, “It’s a strange, but exciting, new (virtual) world.”  –Matthew] Three Lessons CEOs Can Learn From The Boom Of Virtual Experiences Our world likely will remain in a hybrid model well…

[This Meidum OneZero interview with author Kate Darling explores several interesting implications of medium-as-social-actor presence evoked by human-like robots, including insights from the history of our views about interacting with animals. –Matthew] How We Treat Animals Will Inform Our Future With Robots Evan Selinger in conversation with Kate Darling from MIT Media Lab By Evan Selinger April 1, 2021 [This is Open Dialogue, an interview series from OneZero about technology and ethics.] A few years ago, I read a fascinating paper by Kate Darling, a research specialist at the MIT Media Lab, that left a lasting impression. In “Extending Legal…