[From CNN GO Asia; the original version includes several additional images]

[Image: Inside the State Grid Pavilion]

Shanghai Expo 2010 pavilions: The best of the Puxi site

With less than three months left of the Shanghai Expo, head to these Puxi pavilions for some of the Expo’s best entertainment

By Christine Tan 17 August, 2010

One-time visitors to the World Expo tend to stampede toward the Pudong site’s national pavilions, leaving Puxi’s dazzlingly garish pavilions for last — or never. It’s time to change people’s 2010 Expo strategy.

Here are the best corporate pavilions that may entice new visitors into making the entertaining Puxi side of the Huangpu their first stop.

The State Grid Pavilion

The “Magic Box” movie is a 360 degree experience that’s not to be missed. It is the Expo’s ultimate lightshow.… read more. “Shanghai Expo 2010 pavilions feature 360 degree, 4D films and more”

[From The National (UAE); the original story includes a photo gallery]

[Image: Jonas Samson’s light emitting wallpaper. Photos by Roel Determeijer]

The plugged-in home of tomorrow

Yvonne Courtney
Last Updated: August 14. 2010

Technology and home furnishing have never been the easiest of partners – yet they are starting to converge in all kinds of exciting ways as digital technology starts to revolutionise design thinking.

Cue window blinds that glow or darken in response to light levels, tiles that light up your path as you touch them or wallpaper that changes colour according to how much energy your home is consuming. Some designs – such as a mirror that reflects your outfit from all angles – are highly practical. Others, like a chandelier that mimics outdoor weather conditions, or a chair that becomes the colour of your outfit, are more playful and experimental.… read more. “Telepresence and more in the digital tech home of tomorrow”

[From The University of Michigan Health System Newsroom]

[Image: Trauma room simulation (source: Yong Cao, Virginia Tech)]

August 09, 2010

Medical students believe video games can help them become better doctors

Survey of medical students at University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin-Madison shows strong interest in role-playing and strategy games for doctor training

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Today’s students were raised with a digital mouse in their hands.

So it should be no surprise that a majority of medical school students surveyed say video games and virtual reality environments could help them become better doctors.

A reported 98 percent of medical students surveyed at the University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin-Madison liked the idea of using technology to enhance their medical education, according to a study published online in BMC Medical Education.… read more. “Medical students believe video games can help them become better doctors”

[From The New York Times’ Wheels blog]

August 11, 2010

Recreating a Classic Video Game With Radio-Controlled Cars

By JONATHAN SCHULTZ

With apologies to “Gran Tursimo,” “Forza Motorsport,” “Project Gotham” and any number of hyperrealistic, console-based racing simulators and video games, arguably no title channels the visceral thrill of hurtling around a course like the futuristic “Wipeout” series. Now, a German art collective has rendered that thrill tactile, using defiantly analog components: cardboard, glue and vintage-video-arcade kitsch.

Called (with a wink) Racer 0.2, the project is the creation of three media artists collectively known as Sputnic.

The group envisioned a race simulator whereby a gamer sits inside an Out Run-style driver’s cockpit and feeds steering, braking and acceleration inputs to a radio-controlled, 1:28 scale racer positioned on an elevated cardboard course. The vehicle then projects its movements onto the game cockpit’s video screen via an onboard camera.… read more. “Racer: Recreating a classic video game with radio-controlled cars”

[From the MIT Technology blog Mims’s Bits]

Friday, July 30, 2010

Brain Scans Teach Humans to Empathize with Bots

Mirror neurons light up when we’re put in their shoes.

When we watch a human express a powerful emotion – anger, fear, disgust – big sections of our brains light up, including so-called “mirror neurons,” which are unique because they fire both when we produce a given action and when we perceive it in others. They are the basis of what neuroscientists call Resonance.

Resonance describes the mechanism by which the neural substrates involved in the internal representation of actions, as well as emotions and sensations, are also recruited when perceiving another individual experiencing the same action, emotion or sensation.

In order to test whether the sections of the brain that are activated when a human sees a robot expressing powerful emotions are the same as when a human sees another human expressing them, an international group of researchers stuck volunteers into an fMRI machine – which can, with limited spatial and temporal resolution, determine which parts of your brain are active at any given time – and played them clips of humans and robots making identical facial expressions.… read more. “Brain scans show humans can empathize with obviously mechanical robots”