[This Washington Post story reviews some of the available and soon-to-be available technologies for meeting via holograms. See the original story for an additional image and a 1:10:49 minute video of the “First Holograminar organized by WISeKey and ARHT Media Inc” on YouTube. DVE Holographics also enables holo-meetings, and for a related technology see the website of IKIN Inc. –Matthew] [Image: ARHT Media brought holographic speakers from Australia, Greece and Germany together on one stage. Credit: ARHT Media/Imverse] Will holograms be the next innovation in the post-pandemic workplace? Start-ups are introducing next-generation virtual meeting software By Dalvin Brown February 9, 2021…

[This interesting story from EdSurge explores young children’s presence responses in the context of a new, and apparently effective, application of interactive AI designed to help them learn. See the original version of the story for three more images. –Matthew] [Image: Children’s explanations of what they think lives inside a smart speaker. Left: A drawing indicates there is a person living inside the speaker. Right: A depiction of the smart speaker as a girl. Credit: Courtesy of the Digital Learning Lab.] When the Animated Bunny in the TV Show Listens for Kids’ Answers — and Answers Back By Rebecca Koenig…

[Too often we ignore the power of audio alone to evoke spatial and social presence. This story from The Verge reports on iHeart Media’s new expansion into immersive audio; the company’s press release (also available via Business Wire) makes the connection with presence clear: “Binaural, or 3D audio, creates a sense of movement, location and triggers other senses, enhancing listening experiences and providing a new way for people to hear high quality, surround sound, immersive content, and reproducing real-life experiences, much like virtual reality has done for video, right in their own homes. […] This is virtual reality for the…

[An upcoming adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream into a global, interactive real-time experience demonstrates both the evolution of presence-evoking technologies and storytelling and the creative innovation necessitated by the pandemic. The story below is from The Guardian, where it includes an additional image. More information and a video trailer are available at https://dream.online/ –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Stuart Martin/Royal Shakespeare Company] Is this an avatar I see before me? Audience takes to stage in virtual Shakespeare play Video game software enables actors to interact with viewers in real-time fantasy By Dalya Alberge 7 February 2021 Playhouses may be dark,…

[As described in the story below from The Conversation, Clubhouse is a new audio-only, real-time only (no recordings), social media platform designed to evoke social presence. Other coverage includes these additional details: From CNN: “[Founders Paul] Davison and [Rohan] Seth, who are both well connected in the tech industry from previous roles at top companies, said their goal with Clubhouse ‘”was to build a social experience that felt more human — where instead of posting, you could gather with other people and talk.’” From Vogue: “A dizzying bringing together of live podcast-style conversations, panel discussions, networking opportunities (some savvy people…

[A Florida company’s technology designed to motivate exercise and other healthy behavior creates a real-time (presence-evoking) reflection of a person modified (e.g., based on their heart rate) so that they appear “with up to a 30 percent increase or reduction in weight or muscle mass.” Details are reported in this story from The Washington Post; visit the EnvisionBody website for more information including a one-minute video (an extended version of the video is available in an earlier press release via PR Newswire). A negative opinion about the effects of the technology can be found in Input Magazine. –Matthew] [Image: EnvisionBody…

[This story from Mississippi State University is about an interesting new application of presence-evoking technology that helps students safely and quickly learn about processes that in the real world are both high-risk and slow. See the first link at the end for more information including two earlier articles (here and here) and a slide set. –Matthew] [Image: Prototype of virtual greenhouse in development. Credit: Pulseworks, LLC] MSU virtual reality initiative to help future growers navigate high risk ag enterprise Contact: Vanessa Beeson February 1, 2021 STARKVILLE, Miss. – Learning how to maneuver the high-risk aspects of the agriculture industry is…

[As Newsweek reports, Hanson Robotics is set to produce thousands of Sophias and three other robot models starting this year; see the original story for three different pictures and a short video. For other interesting news about medium-as-social-actor presence with robots see a Yale University story about research by the Interactive Machines Group that explores how a robot can use eye gaze and humor to set photography subjects at ease and an earlier study of how a group of bystander robots with sad facial expressions can stop humans from abusing another robot. –Matthew] [Image: Sophia in lab. Source: Reuters, where…

[As Valve CEO Gabe Newell says in this story from New Zealand’s 1 News, some of the company’s ideas about brain-computer interfaces are “indistinguishable from science fiction,” and many of them involve the promise and peril of presence. See the original story for two more images and two videos including a 12:22 interview with the CEO. –Matthew] [Image: Open BCI’s Galea BCI headset design. Credit: OpenBCI] Gabe Newell says brain-computer interface tech will allow video games far beyond what human ‘meat peripherals’ can comprehend The head of US gaming company Valve Corporation says a future is fast approaching where video…

[The technology described in a new patent filed by Sony would allow other people to not only watch but directly alter the real-time experience of a VR user. This widely cited story is from IGN, where it includes a 3 minute video. For a related development see a Comicbook story about a different Sony patent that involves “Placement of User Information in a Game Space.” –Matthew] PlayStation Files Patent For Technology That Lets Spectators Mess With You in VR “Spectators have given you a soup ladle.” By Jordan Oloman 29 January 2021 PlayStation has filed a patent for technology that…

[This new story from Psychology Today links the fundamental idea of perceptual illusions with both the polarization of views about political and other issues and a potentially valuable intervention to reduce it. See the original story for two short videos about optical illusions. Another illusion that I find compelling (and which we just discussed in my Psychological Processing of Media class) is presented and discussed in a 2016 story in The Verge, and for an example of the effects of our perceptions about the world, see “6 Photographers Invited to Photograph 1 Man Reveal the Power of Perspective” from My…

[It’s common to point out how designers working in (presence-evoking) emerging media like virtual reality are forced to experiment because there’s no received history outlining which design attributes are most effective for users across individuals, contexts, genres, etc. This Washington Post story explores the process for VR game developers, including what happens when designers break the existing rules. See the original version for three more images and links to related stories. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Mallory Brangan/The Washington Post] Virtual reality has real problems. Here’s how game developers seek to delete them. By Derek Swinhart January 21, 2021 From a distance,…