[From The Iowa State Daily, where the story includes additional images] [Image: Joe Holub, graduate student in electrical and computer engineering, crouches down behind a barricade while participating in the virtual reality MIRAGE simulator on Feb. 20.] MIRAGE virtual system gets whole body involved in lab By Emily Drees Posted Feb 27, 2013; Updated Feb 28, 2013 The Mixed Reality Adaptive Generalizable Environment room, commonly known as the Mirage room, is essentially a research lab that gets the whole human body involved on a physical level, but is enhanced with virtual reality. The Mirage room, which is located in Black…

[From Time] [Image: Harry McCracken / TIME.com] Wharton and Cisco Show Off the Telepresence Classroom of Tomorrow By Harry McCracken Feb. 25, 2013 As I write this, I’m watching a presentation in a classroom of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Management. Nothing remarkable about that — except that the gent doing the presenting is in Philadelphia, and I’m at the school’s San Francisco branch. That’s the whole point of the presentation, though. The event in question is a demo of a joint project between Wharton and Cisco to use Cisco’s telepresence technology to make long-distance learning feel more…

[From The Financial Post, where the story includes additional images] [Image: Salia and Wesley Crusher view a holographic reproduction of an unnamed planetoid on the holodeck in 2365. Handout/Paramount Pictures] Star Trek-like holodeck may be closer to reality than you think Matt Hartley | Feb 20, 2013 TORONTO • On board Star Trek’s USS Enterprise, there was a room where Lt. Commander Data could experience the world of Sherlock Holmes, Lt. Worf enjoyed cowboy adventures with his son and Captain Jean-Luc Picard relaxed while roleplaying as private detective Dixon Hill. The holodeck. Perhaps no other piece of fictional technology from the…

[From Mashable via CNN; see also The Verge article “I used Google Glass: The future, but with monthly updates: Up close and personal with Google’s visionary new computer” by Joshua Topolsky] How it will feel to wear Google Glass By Pete Pachal, Mashable Thu February 21, 2013 (CNN) — What would it be like to wear Google Glass? Google answered that very question Wednesday morning, posting a lot more information about Project Glass, including the user interface, through a series of photos and videos. You can see the UI and some of the features of Glass here, although the images…

[From Yahoo!7, where the story includes a 1:24 minute video; much more information, including a press release, a video and more images, is available here] Virtual Sydney tour to attract tourists Damien Smith, 7News Sydney Updated February 20, 2013 FIRST ON 7: Sydney has a powerful new tool to attract tourists and their dollars. Before coming here, potential travellers can now have virtual visits, putting themselves in the picture by going online to experience our Harbour city with 360 degree views. Anyone, no matter where they are in the world, can see our sights over the internet as if they…

[From Billboard] LessThan3’s Virtual Event Platform to Beam Ultra Music Festival Around the World By Kerri Mason | February 15, 2013 Ultra Music Festival unveiled its Phase 3 lineup this morning, adding fan favorites like Arty and Tommie Sunshine to an already impressive roster of artists, from EDM and beyond. The festival will take place in Miami over two weekends, March 15-17 and 22-24. Also part of this morning’s press release was the introduction of a new element to the UMF experience; one for fans who can’t make it to South Florida this March. The festival announced that its website…