[From The Free Press]

[Image: Students in Jean Humphries’ nursing research class are virtually in two places at once, connected through life-size and life-like high-definition video and audio technology.]

MSU connects classrooms with cutting-edge technology

By Amanda Dyslin Free Press Staff Writer
September 23, 2012

MANKATO – When adjunct nursing professor Jean Humphries shows up to her Friday morning class in Edina, 11 of her students are there and waiting.

The other 29 show up a moment later, all at the same time, when Humphries touches a screen and connects over the new Cisco TelePresence TX9200 system with a classroom in Wissink Hall at Minnesota State University.

Suddenly, the students in her Nursing Research class are virtually in two places at once, connected through life-size and life-like high-definition video and audio technology that far surpass interactive TV experiences.

Humphries, who lives in the Twin Cities, said she’d been teaching for MSU since 2004, and she would always drive to Mankato for each class.… read more. “Minnesota State University connects students via telepresence”

[From The Future of Things]

Electronic Fingertips to Allow Virtual Sensations

Monday, October 22, 2012 – Iddo Genuth

Researchers created an artificial second skin which includes flexible sensors and circuits that can be put on fingertips and artificially create touch and texture using electrical stimulation opening the door to super thin virtual reality gloves and a host of other applications.… read more. “Electronic fingertips to allow virtual sensations”

[From CNN, where the post includes additional infographics and related links]

Smartphone of the future will be in your brain

By Stewart Scott-Curran and Tim Lampe, Special to CNN
Mon October 8, 2012

Editor’s note: Stewart Scott-Curran is an art director and Tim Lampe is a graphic designer at CNN.com.

(CNN) — In the past 10 years we’ve seen cell phones transform into electronic Swiss army knives with a wild variety of functions and features. They are replacing the watch, the camera, the standalone GPS, the alarm clock, and many other tools.

But what will the smartphones of the future look like?

Here’s what we envision …… read more. “Smartphone of the future will be in your brain”

[From the Road to Virtual Reality blog]

WizDish Could Be the First Virtual Reality Locomotion Device Suitable for Your Living Room

Posted on 10 October 2012 By Ben Lang

After head mounted displays, one of the obvious next steps for virtual reality immersion is to find a way to physically walk around a VR environment without walking into objects in the real world. A myriad of solutions (falling under the category of ‘locomotion device’ ) have been put forth. Take, for instance, omni-directional treadmills (ODT); the majority of which are big, expensive, and impractical for home use. The first person to crack the code — to create an affordable and reasonably sized device for VR locomotion — could revolutionize how and where people experience virtual reality. I recently spoke with Julian Williams, the creator of WizDish, whose product might be the first VR locomotion device to find its way into your living room.… read more. “WizDish could be the first VR locomotion device suitable for your living room”

[From Discovery News, where the story includes a 1:46 minute video]

Stoneage Artists Created Prehistoric Movies

Analysis by Rossella Lorenzi
Jun 8, 2012

Stone Age artists used cartoon-like techniques to give the impression that wild beasts were trotting or running across cave walls, a new study has suggested.

Reporting in  the June issue of Antiquity, archaeologist Marc Azéma of the University of Toulouse–Le Mirail in France and independent French artist Florent Rivère argued that by about 30,000 years ago Paleolithic artists used “animation effects” in their paintings. To render the movement, they deconstructed it in successive images.

According to the researchers, this would explain multiple heads or limbs on some cave paintings.

“Prehistoric man foreshadowed one of the fundamental characteristics of visual perception, retinal persistence,” Azéma and Rivère wrote.… read more. “Stoneage artists created prehistoric movies”