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Media Interface and Network Design (M.I.N.D.) Labs are a networked set of laboratories
at universities around the world which work together to advance research
in cognition and technology. The Temple University M.I.N.D. Lab, housed
under the IRIS Lab, focuses on phenomena related to the concept of presence.
Originally used to refer to teleoperation technology that provides the user
with a "remote presence" in a different location, the term now encompasses
perceptions of social richness (the "warmth" or "intimacy" possible via
a medium), realism (perceptual and/or social), transportation (the sensations
of "you are there," "it is here," and/or "we are together"), immersion (in
a mediated environment), social actor within medium (e.g., parasocial interaction),
and medium as social actor (e.g., treating computers as social entities).
In 1997 Lombard and Ditton incorporated all of these in a single conceptual
definition of presence: "the perceptual illusion of nonmediation." Research
at the Presence M.I.N.D. Lab will focus on topics including:
Explications of the presence concept
Development of presence evaluation/measurement methodologies
Identification of causes and consequences (effects) of presence
Presence phenomena in shared virtual environments and online communities
Social/affective interfaces, virtual agents, parasocial interactions
Social responses to technologies/media (e.g., computers)
Presence-associated technologies including immersive, interactive, multimodal displays; advanced
broadcast/cinematic displays (stereoscopic TV, HDTV, IMAX, OMNIMAX), and
virtual environments/simulators
Presence applications in education and training, medicine and therapy, entertainment, business and e-commerce,
communication, teleoperation, etc.
The role of presence in art and design
Presence and philosophical issues (e.g., the nature of 'reality')
The ethics of presence The Presence M.I.N.D. Lab work will be headed by Dr.
Matthew Lombard and will include research efforts by Dr. Andrew Mendelson.
Presence overlaps significantly with other initiatives of the IRIS Lab.
Presence and New Media Performance Laboratory:
The works created, presented and performed in the New Media Performance
Laboratory will represent experiences made possible by new and emerging
media technologies that increasingly operate with subtlety and sophistication;
a focus on presence phenomena, in which subtle and sophisticated technology
'fades' from the observer's perception, and research related to presence,
will serve as a resource for the designers and performers in the Lab, and
the materials and performances in the Lab will serve as important venues
for research regarding the causes, perceptions, and influences of presence.
Presence and Global Communications: Presence, the use of the combination
of technology and content to break down perceived barriers, whether physical
or psychological, is integral to the sharing of cultural - economic, political,
instructional, social - information in today's rapidly 'shrinking' world.
An understanding of the dynamics of presence-related psychological processes
will be applied in the design of virtual campuses to heighten the sense
of connection and exchange, and the connection and exchange in this and
other 'online' contexts will help us better understand presence.
Presence and Digital Culture: A key element in the changing nature of relationships
in the new digital culture concerns the degree to which people in different
places interact, interrelate, interpret, and change in technology-mediated
experiences in ways similar to and different from traditional relationships
that don't require or involve technology. If technology is to lead us to
a new type of relationship to other individuals, to technology-generated
'characters,' and to various communities, an understanding of presence,
particularly social presence, represents the mechanism through which this
will occur.
Presence and 'usability analysis/uses and effects': Media that
become dominant, popular, successful have an important attribute in common:
Using them is intuitive, easy, direct - in other words, the technology doesn't
'get in the way' of the experience and satisfaction it provides. This experience
with technology is presence, the illusion of nonmediation or the absence
of technology, and the NMIC provides an ideal venue for the combination
of the study of presence with the design and study of the uses and consequences
of current and especially new technology.
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