open.substack.com/pub/melslate...

The Aliens are Amongst Us

Aliens and the Interface Theory of Perception

open.substack.com

On 5 November, we hosted a hands-on, HoloMIT SDK workshop at UPC as part of the PRESENCE project. Students, many new to Unity, built their first multi-user XR experiences and shared valuable onboarding feedback. 🚀 It was a great experience. presence-xr.eu/upc-workshop...

Having a great time at our @dagstuhl.de Seminar on virtual bodies, showing off @presencexr.bsky.social technology like this Gaussian splatting avatar, a scan of Frank Steinicke, fully rigged & animated, that Ke Li is demoing to Victoria Interrante. #GaussianSplatting #VirtualReality #Avatars

Researching XR, haptics, or intelligent virtual humans? Submit your work to our new Frontiers in Virtual Reality Research Topic: "Presence in Extended Reality." Deadline: Dec 27, 2026. Read the full scope and submit here: www.frontiersin.org/research-top... #XR #VirtualReality #Haptics #VR

Frontiers | Presence in Extended Reality: Holoportation, Haptic Interaction, and Intelligent Virtual Humans

The PRESENCE project envisions transforming the XR landscape by overcoming key technological limitations. This Research Topic is inspired by the project: htt...

frontiersin.org

🌐🫂We are proud to coordinate @presencexr.bsky.social, a @horizoneu.bsky.socialproject aimed at building a more human and effective #XR ecosystem that will reshape how we communicate by elevating the sensation of "truly being there" 🎥 https://f.mtr.cool/zmuvatgrlm #i2CATresearch

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

f.mtr.cool

open.substack.com/pub/melslate... Introducing a short XR drama, including a representation of me, with a variety of atypical virtual characters and including how they were created. Also a polemic about the impact of AI on society by a famous German speaker. For running in the Meta Quest browser.

There are two interesting and unusual conferences in mid-May. Human Rights and Immersive Realities, with the Council of Europe in Strasbourg: lnkd.in/e8y_jYpM Embodiment at the Biennale, Venice: ub.edu/eventlab/Venice Hope to see you there!

melslater.substack.com/p/weird-stuf...

Embodiment: 20 Years On: Beatrice de Gelder, Mavi Sanchez Vives, Olaf Blanke and I have put together a fantastic programme associated with the Biennale in Venice 21-22nd May, 2026. Please see www.ub.edu/eventlab/Ven... We hope you can join us!

European Metaverse Research Network (EMRN) Conference 2026: This year we have joined with the Council of Europe @coe.int "Human Rights in Immersive Realities (XR): Freedom of Expression, Justice, Children’s Rights and Well-Being" Call for contributions: rm.coe.int/call-for-pap...

Frontiers collection on 'A Metaverse for the Good: AI and the Metaverse' - see the call on www.frontiersin.org/research-top...

I used to do a blog post about our research on VR in the www.event-lab.org, but now I've started a Substack. I hope you find it useful. melslater.substack.com?utm_campaign...

For those interested in physics-based character animation in VR, I can recommend tomorrow's talk by my colleague Joan Llobera where he will detail the contribution from the Artanim Foundation (www.artanim.ch) in the @presencexr.bsky.social Horizon Europe project. Sign up now!

Joan Llobera@joanllobera.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Tomorrow (4th February 2026) I am giving a talk about physics-driven characters for Virtual Reality created with Deep Reinforcement Learning, and what cognitive sciences can learn from these. If this sounds interesting, you can attend following this link: presence-xr.eu/presence-a-t... It's free!

The PRESENCE Project is making XR more realistic than ever! 🌐 Join our 10-week webinar series starting Jan 21 to explore: ✨ Holoportation 🤚 Haptics (Digital Touch) 👥 Intelligent Virtual Humans Hear from experts like Mel Slater & Frank Steinicke. Register: presence-xr.eu/presence-a-t... #XR #Tech

A Machine Learning Agent for Social Harmony in Virtual Reality: The GuestXR project final event will take place physically in Brussels 28th November, 2025. It will also be online. Registration is open: guestxr.eu/final-event/

GuestXR - Final event

The GuestXR Final Event will present the most significant innovations, developments, and outcomes achieved within the GuestXR project.

guestxr.eu

Here is our new paper from 18 members of #EMRN (metaverse-research-network.info) : a multidisciplinary take on the metaverse—covering law, networking/distributed systems, AI, opportunities, challenges & social implications. doi.org/10.3389/frvi...

The @GuestXR project is running a final day of events in Brussels on 28th November, 2025. It would be excellent if you could attend. Please see the details on: guestxr.eu/final-event/

GuestXR - Final event

The GuestXR Final Event will present the most significant innovations, developments, and outcomes achieved within the GuestXR project.

guestxr.eu

Metaverse for the Good Alicante 11-12/6 updated web page: catedrametaverso.ua.es/ii-internati... * deadline 25/4 * two keynotes swapped days * pre-registration docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS “TOWARDS A RESPONSIBLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METAVERSE”

catedrametaverso.ua.es

A Metaverse for the Good 2nd conference - Alicante, Spain 11-12th June, following the enjoyable and productive 2024 one in Barcelona. This provisional program, will be updated to give the deadline as 25/4 (to avoid holiday issues). Hope to see you in Alicante! catedrametaverso.ua.es/ii-internati...

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS “TOWARDS A RESPONSIBLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METAVERSE”

catedrametaverso.ua.es

The #EU-funded environMENTAL Project aims to reduce the impact of major environmental challenges on mental health. Made up of 24 partners, we are excited to join BlueSky and share our journey with you! Click here to see our recent research activities: mailchi.mp/b3e80b892761... #HorizonEurope

Climate change past, present and 2 possible futures in #VirtualReality #VR @panxueni.bsky.social Justyna Swidrak, Yuke Pi www.frontiersin.org/journals/vir... www.youtube.com/watch?v=q53i...

Frontiers | Embodied time travel in VR: from witnessing climate change to action for prevention

This study explores the impact of embodied experiences in Virtual Reality (VR) on individuals’ attitudes and behavior towards climate change. A total of 41 p...

frontiersin.org

sciencemediahub.eu/2024/12/11/i...

Interview with computer scientist Mel Slater on the future of virtual and augmented reality - ESMH

Professor Mel Slater is a Distinguished Investigator at the University of Barcelona and the coordinator of the European Metaverse Research Network. He is

sciencemediahub.eu

Here is a comparison of 360 #VR video and 2D video in the context of documentary journalism. www.frontiersin.org/journals/com... First author is Emma Award winner Raúl Gallego Abellan.

Frontiers | Immersive documentary journalism: exploring the impact of 360° virtual reality compared with a 2D screen display on the responses of people toward undocumented young migrants to Spain

The term ‘MENA’ refers to ‘Menores Extranjeros No Acompañados’ (‘unaccompanied foreign minors’) who are child immigrants to Spain who entered alone without l...

frontiersin.org

I'm looking forward to speaking at "MindXR - Shaping the Future of Mental Health Care", which takes place 📆 June 25-27, 2025, in📍Berlin MindXR aims to bridge fundamental, clinical & #HCI research, & 📣abstract submission is now open 🔗 mindxr.info (the organizers don't seem to be on bsky, yet)

Mind XR Conference

Discover the exciting possibilities of Virtual Reality in mental health at MindXR conference. Meet experts from psychology, psychiatry & technology.

mindxr.info

#PyMC the probabilistic system in Python is wonderful for Bayesian analysis. I intend to use it from now on for analysis of data from our #VR #experiments.

I spent the day #programming and learning together with an #AI #LLM who was polite and helpful and sometimes gracefully incorrect. By the end of the day I felt a strange invisible #presence with me.

At www.event-lab.org, we are studying how to reduce stress of social media content moderators (CM). If you are now or have been a CM and are interested in participating, contact rmontsjo@gmail.com. Note that we will not ask you to break your job’s confidentiality.

I was very happy to meet my first ever PhD student again after several decades -Tony Tsung-Yueh Lin. Topic link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Tue Event Lab, Institute of Neuroscience University of Barcelona is starting a new European Research Council Proof of Concept grant 1/24. We are looking for postdocs in Virtual Reality with strong Unity experience. Further details on euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/160753