[From Aggie Town Square (“Utah State University’s Meeting Place”)]

Aggies use virtual-reality programs for research

by Jesse Fowers
January 27, 2010

Several researchers at USU are collaborating with Intel Labs to conduct their research in a 3-D virtual environment.

Biology doctoral student Arron Duffy is using ScienceSim, a “virtual land-grant” program offered by Intel, to model how population genetics are affected by the unique life cycles of fern plants.

Intel hosts hundreds of virtual acres of land on its powerful servers through a Web application called OpenSim, which is an open-source version of the popular social media video game “Second Life.”… read more. “ScienceSim, Intel’s virtual land-grant program”

[From CISCO]

Duke University Extends Global Learning With Cisco TelePresence Lecture Hall

Custom-Built Virtual Lecture Hall Provides Fuqua School of Business Students With Access to World’s Most Influential Leaders and Extends Classroom Environment

DURHAM, N.C., and SAN JOSE, Calif. Feb. 10, 2010 — Duke University and Cisco today unveiled a first-of-its-kind virtual lecture hall for students enrolled in Duke’s Fuqua School of Business in Durham, N.C.  Custom-built using Cisco TelePresenceTM technology, the new lecture facility provides business school students with access to professors, business leaders and guest lecturers located around the globe, extending the in-person classroom environment across campuses and into the business world.

Cisco TelePresence provides students and professors with an immersive, lifelike communications experience that combines high-definition video and high-quality audio to realistically convey the body language and human elements that are critical to the interactive nature of a classroom. … read more. “Duke University extends global learning with Cisco TelePresence lecture hall”

[From The Washington Post]

Heavy Rain, the PS3 Exclusive That’s Not a Game

Matt Peckham
PC World
Sunday, February 14, 2010; 12:19 AM

Remember the phrase “interactive movie” tossed around in the 1990s when games like Myst and The 7th Guest and Gabriel Knight were in the headlines? Heavy Rain, Sony’s PS3-exclusive noir murder-mystery, may be the first game worthy of what those words actually mean.

As overused phrases go, “interactive movie” is a doozy, right up there with “virtual reality.” It’s also historically misleading. What we used to call an “interactive movie” looked nothing like an actual movie. Even the industry’s dalliance with full-motion video in the 1990s looked pretty awful compared to 35 mm film viewed on a standard sized movie screen. What we really meant when we said “interactive movie” was that those 1990s games were doing things in terms of dramatic sophistication that we’d never seen before in a video game.… read more. “Interacting and identifying with characters in Heavy Rain”

[From the Plastic Pals blog]

Wearable Robot Hitches A Ride on Human Meat-Puppets

Here’s an unusual robot project from the Tsumaki Telerobotics Laboratory (Yamagata University); a Wearable Robot. The experimental model (Telecommunicator T1) seeks to provide gestural presence that you don’t get from a cellphone conversation. A person connects to the small robot through the internet, controlling where it looks by simply tilting their head. Arm gestures, such as waving, are also possible though limited by the current hardware.

Anything the robot sees is transmitted to the operator via goggles, who can speak and hear through the robot’s speaker and microphone. Thus Telecommunicator T1 can be considered a small telepresence system.  Face-to-Robot conversations are facilitated by its position above the shoulder (roughly at eye-level), however the operator has no real control over where the robot goes, relying entirely on the choices of its human carrier. … read more. “Wearable robot hitches a ride on human meat-puppets”

[From Wired]

Game Changers: How Videogames Trained a Generation of Athletes

By Chris Suellentrop January 25, Wired Feb 2010

The situation was desperate for the Denver Broncos. On the first Sunday of the National Football League’s 2009 season, with only 28 seconds left in the game, they trailed the Cincinnati Bengals 7-6. The ball was on the 13-yard line — their own 13-yard line. On second down, Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton heaved the ball downfield, only to see a Bengals defender deflect the pass away from the receiver. And then something remarkable, close to miraculous, happened. Instead of falling to the ground, the ball popped into the air and landed in the outstretched arms of Broncos wide receiver Brandon Stokley, who started racing down the field. All across America, in living rooms and basements and sports bars, people broke into cries of wonderment and delight, heartbreak and disbelief.… read more. “Game changers: How videogames trained a generation of athletes”