[From Kotaku]

I’ve Seen the Future of Virtual Reality, and It Is Terrifying

Toshi Nakamura
Sep 21, 2012

Experience the big-screen in private. That’s the sales pitch for head-mounted displays. One would think that the only real areas for technological advancement would be in the screen resolution and the actual weight of the device. Introducing the Prototype-SR (Substitutional Reality), a new take on the head-mounted display.

Based on Sony’s HMZ personal 3D viewer head-mounted display, the Prototype-SR mixes real-time video with prerecorded video to create what Sony hopes is a unique new entertainment experience. The Prototype-SR is currently on display at the Tokyo Game Show 2012, and I had a chance for some hands-on time with the device in an interactive demo. This is a prototype, and there are currently no plans to launch it. Can you put a release date on the future?… read more. “Prototype-SR: I’ve seen the future of virtual reality, and it is terrifying”

[From AP via The Huffington Post; a related 1:07 minute video is available on YouTube]

In ‘Kinect Sesame Street TV’ On Xbox, The TV Talks Back To Kids

AP  |  By Barbara Ortutay Posted: 09/18/2012

NEW YORK (AP) — Elmo, Big Bird and the rest of the “Sesame Street” crew have always talked to kids. Now, they’ll try to have a two-way conversation with their pint-sized audience using Kinect, the motion and voice-sensing controller created by Microsoft.

“Kinect Sesame Street TV,” out Tuesday, is not exactly a video game, though it runs on the Xbox 360 video game system. There are no winners and losers, no real rules to follow and no points to score. If you don’t want to play, that’s fine. Just sit back and watch “Sesame Street,” as kids have for the past 43 years. But if you do play, Grover will count coconuts you’ve thrown, the Count will praise you for standing still and Elmo will catch a talking ball if you throw it to him.… read more. “In ‘Kinect Sesame Street TV’ on Xbox, the TV talks back to kids”

[From redOrbit, where the story includes a video]

Researchers Aim To Boost Accuracy of Augmented Reality Technology

September 17, 2012
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

The same technology used to produce that first down line on television at an NFL football game is also being used to help future surgeons perform operations.

Augmented reality, or “AR,” is the computer-generated virtual objects that sports fans have grown to both love and hate over the years. While there have been AR successes like the yellow line in football, there have also been failures like that seen in the NHL when they tried to use AR to highlight the constantly moving location of the hockey puck on the ice.

AR has become familiar to a big slice of the American populace thanks to its use in televised sports, but new research backed by the National Science Foundation (NSF) is making the technology even more accurate.… read more. “Researchers aim to boost accuracy of augmented reality technology”

[From CBC, where the story includes a 1:43 video report; for more information about uGenius is available in an article in Fortune]

[Image: FirstOntario Credit Union in Ancaster is a bank with no tellers. (Kate Adach)]

Video banking makes robbery impossible

By Kate Adach, CBC News
Posted: Aug 27, 2012

How do you rob a bank that has no tellers?

“Oh, we have tellers,” says Mary De Sousa, marketing leader of an innovative banking system that provides virtual bankers through a computer screen. She points to a machine. “That’s our teller.” The machine looks like any ATM, but once activated, a smiling woman appears on the screen and asks “how can I help you?”

The “teller” is a live bank employee ready to serve you from her desk another city over. These virtual banking services – known as “PAT” (personal assisted teller) technology – can be found across the Greater Hamilton Area in several FirstOntario Credit Union branches.… read more. “uGenius replaces bank tellers with ‘PAT’ (personal assisted teller) technology”

[From Defense News]

[Image: The Augmented Immersive Team Training system superimposes objects, such as vehicles or munitions, on the real-life terrain that is viewed through a head-mounted display. (Office of Naval Research)]

Marines Get Virtual Explosions in the Real World

Sep. 13, 2012
By Michael Peck

The U.S. Marine Corps has unveiled a prototype training system that uses augmented reality to digitally superimpose objects upon a real landscape. This differs from the virtual reality used by programs such as the Army’s freshly fielded Dismounted Soldier Training System, which transports the user into a fake world.

The Marines recently demonstrated the Augmented Immersive Team Training (AITT) system, a five-year research project being conducted by the Office of Naval Research on behalf of the Marine Corps. AITT is a lightweight, portable training system that doesn’t require special virtual reality facilities.

The system includes a head-mounted display (HMD) with attached sensors tethered to a backpack computer.… read more. “Augmented Immersive Team Training (AITT) gives U.S. Marines virtual explosions in the real world”