[From Diginfo.TV, where the story includes additional images]
Simulating The Sensation Of An Object Passing Through Your Hands
14 September 2011
The Kajimoto research group at the University of Electro-Communications is developing a device that simulates the sensation of something passing through your hand. It is proposed to improve the sense of realism in games, and uses a vibration mechanism to create the illusion. Read more on Simulating the sensation of an object passing through your hands…
[From The Korea Times, where the story includes additional images]
[Image: Musicians in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, perform with players in New York, shown in the screen in the background, in a real-time telepresence concert on Monday morning or Sunday evening in the United States.]
Telepresence inspires new cross-border music-making
By Lee Hyo-won
09-27-2011
ANSAN, Gyeonggi Province ― Cross-border music-making traditionally meant artists embarking on worldwide tours to reach audiences or musicians from different corners of the world gathering in one place to collaborate.
But in this digital age, a live rock concert in London can attract full-house audiences in Sydney via satellite transmission (just as David Bowie did in 2003) or the principals of telepresence videoconferencing, widely practiced for international business transactions, can be applied to the performing arts.
It was 10 a.m. on Monday in Ansan ― or 9 p.m., Sunday in New York ― but for audiences at both ends it was time for a concert. Yet this was no ordinary performance; the other half of musicians due to perform appeared in real time via an in-person video solution. Think of a super sophisticated version of Skype applied to the live stage: three large screens were installed before the players to transmit what was going on in New York and audio from both sides were heard simultaneously through speakers. Read more on Telepresence inspires new cross-border music-making…
[From Science]
[Image: Deus in machina. A semiautonomous robot can be controlled with the brain waves of paralyzed patients. Credit: José del R. Millán]
Disabled Patients Mind-Meld With Robots
by Sara Reardon on 6 September 2011
They’re not quite psychic yet, but machines are getting better at reading your mind. Researchers have invented a new, noninvasive method for recording patterns of brain activity and using them to steer a robot. Scientists hope the technology will give “locked in” patients—those too disabled to communicate with the outside world—the ability to interact with others and even give the illusion of being physically present, or “telepresent,” with friends and family. Read more on Disabled patients mind-meld with telepresence robots…
[From The Red & Black, the independent student newspaper of the University of Georgia]
[Image from Angry AP]
3D will plague screens for years to come
By MEGAN WHITE on September 25, 2011
My first televised encounter with the third dimension occurred at Disney World’s MGM Studios when I was only six years old. In order to fully embrace the tacky tourist experience, my parents had decided to take my sister and me to see “The Muppets” in the park’s high tech, state-of-the-art 3D theater. For a six-year-old in the 90s, anything involving the Muppets was instantly appealing, so with loaded fanny packs and wound-up disposable cameras, we set off for MGM’s three-dimensional extravaganza.
Within 20 minutes, I was in tears. Having a larger-than-life Fozzie Bear come flying out of the screen not only scared the living daylights out of me, but also brought along waves of nausea, a lifelong fear of puppets, and an automatic and deep-seeded disdain for anything in so-called “3D.” Read more on The power and limitations of 3D…
[From MIT’s Technology Review]
Augmented Reality Meets Gesture Recognition
A new app superimposes imagery over your smart-phone view, and lets you interact with it via hand gestures.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
By Tom Simonite
To make its business software more effective, HP recently paid $10 billion for Autonomy, a U.K. software company that specializes in machine learning. But it turns out that Autonomy has developed image-processing techniques for gesture-recognizing augmented reality—the type of technology that could be more attractive to consumers than IT managers.
Augmented reality involves layering computer-generated imagery on top of a view of the real world as seen through the camera of a smart phone or tablet computer. So someone looking at a city scene through a device could see tourist information on top of the view.
Autonomy’s new augmented reality technology, called Aurasma, goes a step further: it recognizes a user’s hand gestures. This means a person using the app can reach out in front of the device to interact with the virtual content. Read more on Augmented Reality meets gesture recognition…
Call: Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image (SCSMI 2012)
Call for Paper Proposals
The Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image announces its call for proposals for the 2012 SCSMI Conference, June 13-16, 2012, at Sarah Lawrence College (June 13-15) and New York University (June 16) in New York. The Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image is an interdisciplinary organization made up of scholars interested in cognitive, philosophical, aesthetic, neuro-physiological, and evolutionarypsychological approaches to the analysis of film and other moving-image media.
Members of SCSMI seek to understand, among other things, the ways in which perceptual, psychological and neural processes relate to spectators’ affective responses, to their comprehension of narratives and other film forms, and to the saliency and effects of particular stylistic features of films. Members also raise questions about how artistic strategies, such as narrative construction, audio-visual technique, and the creation of emotional responses, may be amenable to naturalistic explanations in a cognitive framework. Members are likewise interested in the implications of empirical findings for film theories, as well as philosophical theory-building and conceptual clarification. Read more on Call: Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image (SCSMI 2012)…