[From I Programmer, which features a 1:01 minute video also available here]

The cutting edge of touch – Slice

Written by Ian Elliot
Sunday, 03 April 2011

Slice is a breakthrough game that uses touch input in a new way. It is a game of skill coupled with a surprising negative feedback – you get it wrong and you get cut, virtually of course!

Virtual reality is a difficult thing to get hold of. When it works, an immersive virtual environment can suddenly become real – when it fails you just get a headache. Sometimes however you can be surprised when a design goes way beyond what you could have guessed and a game takes on a vivid reality – so it is with Slice.

Slice is an iPad game by Twitch Games, but it basically just makes use of touch input in a way that moves the game into a different league.… read more. “The cutting edge of touch – Slice your fingers with the iPad game”

[From CNET’s Crave blog]

[Image: The avatar me and the real me share a virtual karaoke moment. (Credit: Screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)]

3D Tunes: My life as a virtual karaoke star

Amanda Kooser
April 5, 2011

Karaoke scares the wits out of me. I can sing in front of a crowd with a guitar and my own songs without batting an eyelash, but something about karaoke makes me want to hide under the nearest table. The only time I’ve karaoked was in a backwoods bar called The Rose in Cuba, Mo. I barely survived a shaky rendition of “Jumping Jack Flash” just minutes before closing time.

My karaoke phobia has now taken a turn for the better, however, as I’ve gone virtual. Utherverse, a provider of virtual worlds along the lines of Second Life, has introduced 3D Tunes, the latest place where virtual reality, avatars, and online karaoke collide.… read more. “3D Tunes: My life as a virtual karaoke star”

[From The Guardian]

Berlin Philharmonic comes to British cinemas – in 3D

Concert conducted by Sir Simon Rattle will be shown in 140 UK cinemas as orchestras hope the technology will raise funds

Dalya Alberge
Monday 4 April 2011

When Sir Simon Rattle brought the Berlin Philharmonic to London for a series of rapturously received concerts in February, tickets rapidly disappeared. But fans who missed out will get another chance to see the acclaimed orchestra in cinemas next month, and for the first time in 3D.

Britain’s most celebrated conductor is aiming to reach new audiences by screening 3D concerts in hundreds of cinemas across the world, including 140 in Britain. The technology aims to give cinemagoers the sensation of not only sitting in the front rows but right among the orchestra, offering close-ups of the virtuoso players.… read more. “Berlin Philharmonic comes to cinemas – in 3D”

[From Singapore’s Today Online; more information is available here]

Of empty spaces filled with sound

Perhaps we are more influenced by technology that we’d like to think

by Melody Lee
Mar 29, 2011

A cacophony of jarring voices and sounds fill the ears, while upon a white wall, the shadows of visitors walking through the exhibit are projected. The sounds are recognisable as a mix of several local radio frequencies that somehow react to the visitors’ shadows.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is Frequency And Volume, an interactive art experience by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.

Interestingly enough, the entire space and structure of this art installation resembles that of a giant open laptop – the white projection wall is the screen while the floor, the keyboard. There are even digits running atop the white projection wall to resembles the familiar time, date, and other such icons we commonly see on laptop screens.… read more. ““Frequency And Volume” interactive art experience like entering a virtual world”

[From Wired’s Underwire blog, where the story includes more images and a 0:53 minute video; a second video is available here]

360-Degree Panorama Takes You Inside Prague’s Off-Limits Baroque Library

By Evan Rail
March 29, 2011

PRAGUE – On a brisk but beautiful February afternoon, Jeffrey Martin and his robotic camera stand inside one of the Czech capital’s most gawk-worthy attractions: the gloriously decorated Philosophical Hall, a Baroque reading room in the city’s 868-year-old Strahov monastery library.

Though he’s a photographer, the 34-year-old Martin doesn’t seem to notice the rare books, ornate marquetry or heroic statues in the recently restored hall. He doesn’t even glance at the historical figures in the massive fresco — depicting “the intellectual progress of mankind” — on the ceiling.

Instead, he is listening, carefully following the click-focus-click rhythm of his robot-controlled Canon 550D.… read more. “40 gigapixel panorama takes you inside Prague’s off-limits Baroque library”