Communication - Presence Roundtrip: Travelling along Theoretical, Methodological and Applicative Connections

The convergence between telecommunication, virtual reality and artificial intelligence technologies resulted in a dramatical increase and modification of the opportunities to experience the physical and social world. Their diffusion and integration into multi-user and multi-agent virtual worlds highlighted the relevance of addressing from a common psychological perspective the domain of communication and the domain of presence. New theoretical and practical questions are emerging, in the double intent to explain phenomena at the interplay between mind and technology and to design effective technological applications. This chapter has the goal to start an exploration of the links and reciprocal contributions between communication and presence, analyzed at theoretical, methodological and applicative level.