[From SmartPlanet] World class robot art includes a telepresent ocean By Christie Nicholson | November 2, 2011 We are often followed by cameras as we go about our daily routines, getting cash, buying milk, throwing underwear into laundromat dryers, yet most of us routinely forget this fact. Want to get a more intense feeling of what it’s like to be tracked? Now through to December 18 you have your opportunity to let robots get closer to you at an art installation, Desire of Codes, at the InterCommunication Center in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. The artist Mikami Seiko set up walls covered…

[From The Wall Street Journal; a related article is available in THE Journal] [Image: Students at Monarch High School in Louisville, Colo., watch lessons in 3-D.] Coming Soon To Schools: Dissecting Frogs in 3-D By Michelle Kung September 7, 2011 When Maurio Medley, an eighth-grade math teacher at Ocoee Middle School in central Florida, wants to teach his students how to find the volume of a cylinder, he doesn’t turn to a textbook or chalkboard. Instead, he turns on a 3-D-enabled projector to rotate a virtual Euclidian solid. Schools are trying to keep up with the multiplex, keen to find…

[From The National Post] [Image: The “street lab” recreates the environment outside the hospital. Tyler Anderson / National Post.] Virtual danger: Toronto lab recreates the world — and may revolutionize research Tom Blackwell Nov 16, 2011 It looks like a typical, comfortably furnished one-bedroom condominium, with a few notable exceptions — the apartment has no ceiling, it is surrounded by a catwalk that lets scientists peer down at the occupants and the entire thing is situated in a downtown hospital. “Home lab,” as researchers at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute have dubbed their open-top apartment, is part of an impressive $36-million complex whose…

[From iTnews] Bell Labs builds telepresence ‘robots’ Nethead could reach market in two years. By Liz Tay on Nov 7, 2011   Videoconferencing ‘robots’ in development at Alcatel-Lucent’s research arm, Bell Labs, could give remote workers a more physical presence in office meetings within two years. Researchers are working on a low-cost camera and screen that swivels on a set of robotic shoulders, and sits at a meeting table with physical attendees. Each so-called ‘Nethead’ represents a remote participant, who appears by video on the screen, and can control the direction the robot faces by naturally turning his or her…

[From CNET’s Crave blog; more information, including images and a 1:31 minute video, is available at DigInfo TV] Giant robot cat mask purrfect for pesky mice by Tim Hornyak November 14, 2011 Japanese writer Natsume Soseki, author of the celebrated novel “I Am a Cat,” would have loved this one. Researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University’s Ideea Lab have developed a giant furry cat head that mimics the movements of its human wearers. The Neko Kaburu headpiece, aka the AnimatronInterface, consists of an inner mesh mask equipped with sensors that track eyelid, mouth, and muscle movements. These are reproduced in the…

[From scienceline]   [Image: A new existence awaits right inside our computer screens. Credit: Snooze] Virtually everything at stake A video game designer and a scientist explore the undeniable pull of virtual worlds By Kelly Slivka | Posted November 13, 2011 Lee Guzofski loves people, and that’s why he loves virtual reality. By the time I arrived to interview him at a coffee shop near Washington Square Park in Manhattan, he was already on a first-name basis with the baristo Leo, chatting with him like an old friend. “New York City is endlessly fascinating and authentic,” Guzofski told me after…