[From TechWeekEurope; the 3D Focus article includes detailed information] Glasses-Free 3D Teleconference Links UK And Russia Telepresence just got more immersive…. On March 26, 2012 by Max Smolaks A 3D teleconference that didn’t need the participants to wear special glasses linked London and Russia yesterday, in the first experiment of this kind in the world. It was possible due to a host of inventions by Russian company Triaxes Vision, based in the Siberian city of Tomsk. During the experiment, the guests of the 3D Storytelling conference, a broadcast and gaming industry event held in London, could see and talk to…

[From CNBC] [Image: Eon Reality’s virtual reality product, the Eon iCube.] Virtual Reality Technology Comes of Age Published: Tuesday, 27 Mar 2012 By: Joan Voight, Special to CNBC.com Scuba diving among the sharks along Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is a breathtakingly immersive experience. It’s also dangerous and expensive. But exploring a virtual ocean and coming nose to nose with a real-looking shark is a viable alternative. That, in a nutshell, has been the promise of virtual reality over the years — it could put us in an artificial environment that feels entirely real, without getting our feet wet. Movies like…

[From PhysOrg.com, where the story includes an additional image] [Image: The Naval Research Laboratory’s Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot (SAFFiR) is a humanoid-type robot being designed for shipboard firefighting. Credit: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory] NRL designs robot for shipboard firefighting March 8, 2012 By Donna McKinney (PhysOrg.com) — In both war and peacetime scenarios, fire in the shipboard environment is serious and frequently results in excessive damage and high repair costs because the fire is not detected or controlled adequately. To help further improve future shipboard firefighting capability, scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory have formed an interdisciplinary team to develop…

[From Mashable] With Augmented Reality, Wallit App Assigns Virtual Walls to Physical Places March 06, 2012 by Sam Laird “People have wanted to leave their mark since the beginning of humanity,” says Veysel Berk, creator of the mobile app Wallit. “Now they are going to be able to do that digitally using their smartphones.” Released Tuesday for iPhone and iTouch, Wallit is hailed by Berk as the world’s first “social augmented reality app.” Like Facebook, it enables you to interact with your friends. Like Twitter, it only lets you write in short 140-character bursts. Like Foursquare, its digital benefits are…

[From Scientific American’s Observations blog, where the post includes a video] [Image: Using a virtual reality maze and brain imaging system, Princeton researchers have detected a form of neural activity the formation of short-term memories used in decision-making. The panel shows the view of the virtual reality maze as seen by the mouse. A cue or sign indicates to the mouse to turn right to receive a water reward. (Image courtesy of Nature, Christopher Harvey and David Tank; more information from Princeton is here)] Animals Exposed to Virtual Reality Hold an Emergency Meeting [Video] By Ferris Jabr | March 22,…

[From FierceHealthIT] California hospitals bring telehealth into the NICU March 7, 2012 | By Sara Jackson The University of California-San Diego Medical Center has teamed up with nearby Tri-City Medical Center to bring telehealth into the hospital’s neo-natal ICU unit, the hospitals recently announced. The program offers full audio and video conferencing, which Tri-City physicians can use to consult with UCSD’s neonatal specialists on high-risk and emergency cases. The hope is to speed diagnoses and treatment plans for infants in distress, and possibly even reduce the need to transport fragile babies the 40 miles from Tri-City to UCSD, officials said.…