[From The Daily Mail]

[Image: Inspiration? Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz said having a fit avatar on a game such as Second Life could help someone to visualise their weight-loss goal]

Imagine yourself thin! How having a slim alter-ego online could help you lose weight

By Daily Mail Reporter
7 November 2012

Fans of virtual reality games are often stereotyped as geeky introverts.

But scientists say having an electronic doppelganger could actually improve a person’s health and appearance.

Harnessing the power of the virtual world could even lead to new forms of obesity treatment, according to the team from the University of Missouri.

In a recent study they found that people who most strongly identified with their online persona, or avatar, the more it could influence their behaviour in real life.

‘The creation of an avatar allows an individual to try on a new appearance and persona, with little risk or effort,’ research leader Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz, said.… read more. “Self-presence in Second Life: How having a slim alter-ego online could help you lose weight”

[From TechNewsDaily]

[Image: Users can control the display of these data glasses with their eye movements. Credit: Fraunhofer COMEDD]

Your Eyes Can Control Augmented Reality Glasses

TechNewsDaily Staff
November 06 2012

The simple act of turning a page has begun to look outdated with iPads replacing books and manuals for many working professionals. But an augmented reality display similar to Google Glasses frees up wearers’ hands by allowing them to turn virtual pages using their eyes alone.

Such a display comes in the form of futuristic glasses that allow wearers to see virtual maps, drawings or other images — up to 3 feet (1 meter) in size — projected in front of their eyes. A chip smaller than half the size of a postage stamp can detect the wearer’s eye movements so that they just need to glance at an arrow key to turn a page in a virtual instruction manual or book.… read more. “Your eyes can control augmented reality glasses”

[From AnnArbor.com, where the story includes additional photos]

[Image: Ted Hall, an advanced visualization specialist at the University of Michigan 3D Lab, demonstrates how MIDEN (Michigan Immersive Digital Experience Nexus) works. Courtney Sacco I AnnArbor.com]

Tech Beat/With Gallery and Video: University of Michigan 3D Lab blurs line between virtual and reality

By Ben Freed Business Reporter
Posted on Fri, Nov 2, 2012

There’s a powerful room at the University of Michigan tucked away in the unassuming Duderstadt Center on North Campus. The “room” — three white walls and a floor — opens doors that could allow to you to fly past the second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning.

Granted, those stars and the morning have to be simulated using a complex algorithm and inputted into the four computers that each control one surface of the $1 million virtual reality room.… read more. “University of Michigan 3D Lab blurs line between virtual and reality”

[From UCL News]

[Image: Virtual reality scene showing the participant’s and the rat’s virtual avatars.]

Virtual reality ‘beaming’ technology transforms human-animal interaction

1 November 2012

Using cutting-edge virtual reality technology, researchers have ‘beamed’ a person into a rat facility allowing the rat and human to interact with each other on the same scale.

Published today in PLOS ONE, the research enables the rat to interact with a rat-sized robot controlled by a human participant in a different location. At the same time, the human participant (who is in a virtual environment) interacts with a human-sized avatar that is controlled by the movements of the distant rat. The authors hope the new technology will be used to study animal behaviour in a completely new way.… read more. “VR ‘beaming’ technology lets human interact with rat on same scale”

[From The Age]

[Image: Surreal experience … researchers are rapidly uncovering the tricks required to fool our brains into semi-believing a virtual world is real.]

A glimpse of reality in the unreal world

The line between fact and fiction is increasingly being distorted

October 25, 2012
Graham Phillips

I’ve glimpsed the future – and it’s disturbing. My insight came while giving a lecture to a group of students. I had their full attention for 100 per cent of the time. Indeed these eager young people never broke eye contact with me; they were hanging on my every word. It felt good. It felt very good.

The catch was, the students weren’t real. I was in one of the most advanced virtual reality laboratories in the world, at Stanford University in California. In this virtual classroom, everything and everyone I could see and hear had been created by a powerful computer, and sent as a stream of zeros and ones to my head-mounted virtual reality display.… read more. “Glimpse of unreal reality in Stanford lab and the future blurring of fact, fiction”