[From the MIT Technology Review blog Mims’ Bits] Are Physical Interfaces Superior to Virtual Ones? Humans have enormous capacity for spatial memory. Why don’t our user interfaces take advantage of that? Christopher Mims 03/02/2011 Something’s been bothering me ever since I started reading books, especially non-fiction, on my Kindle: I can’t remember where anything is. Physical books are full of spatial reference points; an especially beloved book is a physical topography in which we develop a vague sense of which chapters contain relevant information; even where, on a page, a particularly striking sentence or diagram lies. Ebooks have none of these…

[From Engadget, where a 7:34 minute video and two other videos are available] Emotiv EEG headset hacked into VR trapeze act, lets you fly like Superman (video) By Sean Hollister posted Mar 1st 2011 Last year, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students built a virtual reality contraption that let them soar through the sky, held aloft by a trapeze harness and seeing through HMD-covered eyes. This year, they’re controlling it with the power of their minds. For his master’s thesis, project leader Yehuda Duenyas added an Emotiv headset — the same one controlling cars and the occasional game — to make the…

[From Gizmag] [Image: Edwina Portocarrero from Bove’s group, decked out in tunic and wig, stood in for Carrie Fisher and re-enacted the famous holographic message, which was captured and displayed in real-time.] Consumer holographic TV creeps closer to reality By Paul Ridden January 30, 2011 Despite a relatively tepid consumer take-up, the buzz surrounding 3D television is still quite intense. But even the viewing improvements offered by stereoscopic technology may pale by comparison to the holographic goings-on at MIT. Researchers are taking the first steps toward making holographic technology a reality for consumers. Using primarily off-the-shelf components, the team has…

[From CanadaEast’s New Brunswick Business Journal] [Image: Darren Piercey in UNB Fredericton with a screen shot from his phobia app. Photo: Keith Minchin/For the Telegraph-Journal] Professor’s app helps allay fears Innovation: Phobia sufferers benefit from NBIF Breakthru finalist’s work Published Monday February 28th, 2011 Jennifer Campbell For the Telegraph-Journal For some, a spider is a source of amazement – the way it weaves its beautiful web – and for others, a spider is a source of sheer horror. It’s estimated that half of women and 10 per cent of men have some level of arachnophobia, or fear of spiders. Three…