[A press release from Altadyn via Market Wire; background information including role of “sense of presence” is available at the Altadyn web site here] ALTADYN® Adds Third Dimension to Facebook® IRVINE, CA–(Marketwire – Apr 27, 2012) – Social Movie Watching in Your 3D Virtual Home, Social Photo Viewing of Your Holiday Pics During a Facebook® Hangout With Friends and 3D Immersive Social Gaming Are Among Enabled Apps, Thanks to ALTADYN®‘s Patent Pending Platform ALTADYN® the leading provider of 3D web technology, today announced a new development platform. Offered in PaaS mode (Platform as a Service) on the cloud, the new…

[From Gizmodo] These Creepy Dolls Are Actually Real Humans By Sam Biddle Apr 20, 2012 Even if these were toys, [they’d] be super, super unsettling to look at. The dead eyes. The bleached skin. The lack of any discernible genitalia. But they’re flesh and blood humans, transformed into terrifying figurines [the photos are at the “Portraits & Fashion” link]. Photographer Hayden Wood’s brilliantly strange new project “Living Dolls,” shows off his career as an advertising and photo manipulation pro. Only now he’s advertising the Uncanny Valley instead of… things. Barbie and Ken, the quintessential image of friendliness and love, are…

[From Wired’s Danger Room blog] Darpa to Troubled Soldiers: Meet Your New Simulated Therapist By Katie Drummond April 20, 2012 The Pentagon hasn’t made much progress in solving the PTSD crisis plaguing this generation of soldiers. Now it’s adding new staff members to the therapy teams tasked with spotting the signs of emotional pain and providing therapy to the beleaguered. Only this isn’t a typical hiring boost. The new therapists, Danger Room has learned, will be computer-generated “virtual humans,” used to offer diagnostics, and programmed to appear empathetic.…

[From The Institute for Creative Technologies; a 1:09 minute video is here] Out of the Box: USC Researchers Debut Smartphone 3-D Virtual Reality Viewer Made Out of Cardboard Easy-to-assemble fold-out viewer transforms smartphones into portable immersive virtual reality systems. First 100 do-it-yourself VR viewers being distributed at IEEE Virtual Reality Conference in Orange County, March 4 – 8 March 05, 2012 Smart phones have endless applications that keep users connected to the real world. But researchers from the Mixed Reality (MxR) Lab at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies are developing ways to use these ubiquitous devices…

[From Fast Company’s Co.Design, where the story includes several images and a 2:38 minute video] Heady Gadget Lets You Simulate An Out-Of-Body Experience If the soul left the body, what would that feel like? Many religions claim that the body is just a vessel for the soul. And at death, the soul doesn’t die, but it leaves the body to go somewhere else. How would that moment feel? Obviously, there’s really no way to know. Or is there? Faith Condition, by Lukas Franciszkiewicz, is an ongoing project that explores the role of technology in the future of faith. His initial…

[From Jason Godfrey’s blog Big Smile No Teeth at The Star Online] The final frontier? When models have to compete with video game characters for jobs, it’s time for a re-think. By Jason Godfrey Sunday April 22, 2012 It’s tough being a model and it only gets tougher. Not only is competition among models for jobs incredibly fierce, but now models are competing against computers too. Yep, this could be to modelling what Deep Blue beating Kasparov was to chess, but way less mentally straining. April’s issue of Arena Homme features Prada’s new spring/summer collection as modelled entirely by characters…