[From The Daily News of Newburyport, Massachusetts; more about the UMass Lowell SLICE program is available here and the detailed proposal for the sensory room is in a Word file here] A sense of reality New projects bring beach, ballpark to those with disabilities By Bruno Matarazzo Jr., Staff writer May 21, 2012 AMESBURY — The noise inside Coastal Connections’ Lower Millyard facility can be loud at times with all the activities happening at once. The open space at the nonprofit school in Amesbury bustles with energy as students with an array of disabilities work together with staff on different…

[From The Hollywood Reporter, where the story includes additional images and links to related stories] Peter Jackson Responds to ‘Hobbit’ Footage Critics, Explains 48-Frames Strategy Because the film clips shown at Cinemacon were not finished, he adds, “People haven’t experienced it yet in the way it should be experienced.” 4/28/2012 by Carolyn Giardina Shrugging off the mixed reaction that greeted ten minutes of unfinished footage from The Hobbit, which screened earlier this week at the Cinemacon exhibitors convention in Las Vegas, director Peter Jackson told the Hollywood Reporter, “It wasn’t particularly surprising because it is something new.” The Oscar-winning director…

[From DigitalAnalog; a 2:07 minute video is available here and more information is available from Mumbrella] Lynx Anarchy Promoted with ‘Invisible’ Videos May 9, 2012 Lynx, also known as Axe in many countries, comes up with campaigns that are risky and innovative. It’s hard to ignore them because of their sex appeal and the creative way in which the campaigns are executed. The campaign for Lynx Anarchy scored in both categories. ‘Invisible’ videos were used in Sydney to promote the brand. The windows of a building in Sydney were replaced with LCD screens. The visuals projected on these LCD screens were…

[From Design TAXI, where the story includes additional images a 3:51 minute video] Japanese Developer Creates Robotic Butt That Expresses Emotions 16 May 2012 Tokyo-based interactive developer Nobuhiro Takahashi has created a robotic butt that represents emotions in the form of visual and tactile responses. Called ‘SHIRI’, the human-like robotic butt expresses various emotions through organic movements of artificial muscles. SHIRI can twitch, protrude, and be tense—as reactions to a user’s touch, stroke, or slap.…

[From DigInfo TV, where the story includes many more images and a 3:39 minute video] Cocorobo intelligent vacuum cleaner robot communicates with its owner 8 May 2012 Sharp has developed a vacuum cleaning robot called Cocorobo, which uses the Cocoro Engine artificial intelligence capability. This product is the first in a planned series of robot appliances which can communicate with people. Cocorobo features a speech recognition engine developed by Raytron, so it can be controlled by voice, as well as using its buttons or the remote control. It has also been given the ability to say simple greetings, with the…

[From Fast Co.CREATE] Make Any Web Page 3-D With 3-D It! Developer Edan Kwan created a program that, when bookmarked, uses CSS to convert any website to glorious 3-D. Glasses optional. By Joe Berkowitz May 9, 2012 It started as a fun little experiment, in three dimensions. Edan Kwan, a developer at New York-based digital agency, Firstborn, had the thought that others might share his fascination with what websites would look like with a 3-D makeover. Lo and behold, pretty soon he’d created a program that uses CSS to do just that, turning 3-D into a verb in the process.…