[From Uwishunu; some of us walked over to see the Experience Wall during the recent ISPR 2012 conference] [Image: The Comcast Holiday Spectacular, a unique-to-Philadelphia high-tech holiday show screened on the world’s largest four-mm LED video display, opens for the 2012 season on Thanksgiving Day. (Photo by Joseph Kaczmarek courtesy Comcast Center)] The Comcast Holiday Spectacular, A Festive Film Experience Screened On The World’s Largest Four-Millimeter LED Screen, Returns For The 2012 Holiday Season On Thanksgiving Day Posted by Allison Stadd November 15, 2012 Other cities have ice skating rinks, festooned store windows and soaring Christmas trees. But Philadelphia has…

[A story about presence with animals from NBC News; the article in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface is available here] [Image: Comparison of the robotic-fish to a zebrafish individual] With a wag of its tail, robo-fish draws attention of real thing Convincing droids may one day help lead fish from danger, scientists say By Charles Choi 11/14/2012 Robotic fish can make real fish like them simply by waving their artificial tails in a special way, researchers say. These droids could lead real fish away from perils such as underwater turbines, and help scientists learn more about how real…

[From The University of Toronto Scarborough] [Image: A volunteer takes part in a virtual reality test designed to determine if a cognitive impairment will affect a person’s ability to function in the real world. (Credit: Ken Jones/U. Toronto)] Virtual reality could spot real-world impairments Sep 25, 2012 Kurt Kleiner A virtual reality test being developed at UTSC might do a better job than pencil-and-paper tests of predicting whether a cognitive impairment will have real-world consequences. The test developed by Konstantine Zakzanis, associate professor of psychology, and colleagues, uses a computer-game-like virtual world and asks volunteers to navigate their ways through…

[From Bdaily] [Image: Emma-Jane Alexander, Coordinator at HIVE] University to develop 3D virtual reality wind turbine 14 Nov 2012 Miranda Dobson A virtual reality 3D “cave” created by the University of Hull has been commissioned to provide training for wind turbine engineers and green energy industries. The Higher Education Funding Council has awarded £240,000 to the University to develop the training facility in the Hull Immersive Visual Environment (HIVE), which will be used to simulate the most extreme and hostile conditions that workers in the green power industry face. Hull’s scheme is part of a multimillion pound investment in the…

[From Gamasutra] The Holodeck may be possible, but it’s going to need game designers November 13, 2012 | By Mathew Kumar Science fiction for many is mere fantasy and escapism, but Lee Sheldon—a writer and producer on Star Trek: The Next Generation and now an associate professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute—sees the fantasy of Star Trek’s Holodeck as entirely possible. With a seed grant, he and his team are working towards creating the Emergent Reality Lab, using modern technologies to create a “first-generation Holodeck.”…

[From Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; note that Mei Si presented her work at ISPR 2012] Rensselaer Launches Center To Explore Intersections of Science and Humanities Nov. 13 Launch of Center for Cognition, Communication, and Culture Features Demonstrations of Current Research Published November 12, 2012 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute today launched the Center for Cognition, Communication, and Culture (CCC) with a series of multimedia presentations and demonstrations of research in the initial core research areas: cross-modal displays, mixed reality, and synthetic characters. Now one of the 10 Institute-wide research centers at Rensselaer, CCC will focus on the intersections and interdependency of cognition, communication, and…