[From Co.Design, where the post includes additional images] A Mirrored Installation Lets You Crawl Up Walls Like Spider-Man “Bâtiment (Building)” uses simple mirrors instead of digital trickery to create a vertigo-inducing illusion. By John Pavlus Augmented reality! Kinect hacks! Enormous video projections! We’ve seen all kinds of wacky digital ways of making immersive, arty illusions. Here’s what we love about Bâtiment (Building) by Leandro Erlich: It just uses mirrors. To do what? How about float in midair, scale a building like Spider-Man, or defy gravity like someone in an Escher drawing (or David Bowie in Labyrinth).…

[Excerpts from an article in GQ; an audio interview with the author is available from NPR] [Image: Ari Hollander/Hunter Hoffman] Burning Man On his first tour of duty in Afghanistan, Sam Brown was set on fire by an improvised explosive device. He survived, only to find himself, like thousands of other vets, doomed to a post-traumatic life of unbearable pain. Even hallucinogen-grade drugs offered little relief, and little hope. Then his doctors told him about an experimental treatment, a painkilling video game supposedly more effective than morphine. If successful, it would deliver Brown from his living hell into a strange…

[From The Huffington Post] Petros Vrellis Makes Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ Interactive Posted: 02/10/2012 4:08 pm Imagine being Vincent Van Gogh. Imagine giving form to “Starry Night” with your hands. With the help of Petros Vrellis, playing the artist instead of the observer is now possible. The Greek artist created an interactive template of “Starry Night” — through the use of open source C++ toolkit openFrameworks, Vrellis made a touch interface that allows the viewer to repaint the piece of art.…

[From Geek-O-System via Telepresence Options;  a 4:55 minute video is available here] Man Plays With Dog From Work With Robotic Surrogate by Max Eddy | February 11th, 2012 Jordan Correa and his wife had a problem. Because they both worked full-time jobs, they weren’t able to spend time at home during the day with their new dog Darwin. Instead of painfully readjusting their lives, Correa did what any man with training in robotics and engineering would do: He built a telepresence robot surrogate that he could control from work to play with his dog. You know, the obvious solution.…

[From The Hindu] With the heart in your mouth Shilpa Nair Anand Kochi, February 1, 2012 A snake hissing in the face, feeling its breath on the back of the neck and wondering if it IS a snake near the feet…it is the ultimate ‘6D’ experience at the recently opened ‘Sixth Sense’ digital studio at Abad Nucleus Mall. It is an entirely different movie viewing experience. It is a heady mix for the senses. Twenty-four seats, 3D glasses, phones on mute, handbags on the aisle…why handbags? “It is safer,” says an attendant. Safer? Prudence questions, ‘this is just some short…

[From Wired’s Underwire blog, which includes videos and additional images] [Image: Keiichi Matsuda’s video “Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop” shows off his sci-fi view of the future] Sci-Fi-Infused Videos Show Off Keiichi Matsuda’s Vision of the Future By Matt Fisher January 19, 2012 We are living in the future — Keiichi Matsuda knows that. Working from London and Tokyo, the 27-year-old designer and filmmaker creates innovative videos that blend architecture, virtual reality, social networking and sci-fi, offering a glimpse into how augmented reality could play out in the coming years. His two most recognized films, “Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop” and “Augmented…