[From Retail Digital]

Retail Technology

Tesco goes the virtual reality way in UK

Partners with Red Dot Square

3 Feb 2013 Shukti Sarma

Supermarket Tesco is to use virtual reality technology to plan how their category ranges appear on shelves. With the new approach Tesco will no longer require physical product specimens from each of their supplier manufacturers. This will cut the planning process enabling significant time savings for their colleagues and suppliers.

Tesco is the first UK retailer to integrate the technology of virtual reality company Red Dot Square into their existing systems and ways of working. They will use it to drive efficiencies and identify sales opportunities in its UK and Ireland stores. Red Dot Square’s technology connects with industry standard shelf planning software to create a 3D environment with photo realistic products sat on shelving within a full store or category aisle. … read more. “Tesco goes the virtual reality way in UK”

[From The Bangor Daily News, where the story includes additional captioned images and a short video]

[Image: Senior mechanical engineering student, Tim McGrath puts on a virtual reality headset in the Virtual Environment and Multimodal Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maine on Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. Brian Feulner | BDN]

UMaine researchers working to shape the future of virtual sight

By Nick McCrea, BDN Staff
Posted Feb. 08, 2013

ORONO, Maine — Boardman Hall at the University of Maine is engulfed in flames. Fire alarms blare in the background and thick, disorienting smoke impairs your vision. But with the click of a mouse at a nearby computer, the corners, doorjambs, door handles suddenly come into view, illuminated by white outlines. Room numbers appear on the doors, along with information about dangerous materials stored inside. Things suddenly seem more navigable, less chaotic.… read more. “UMaine researchers working to shape the future of virtual sight”

[From ExtremeTech]

Augmented reality robot provides physical sensations from virtual characters

By James Plafke on February 11, 2013

One of the most common tropes in science fiction is the ability to apply the image of a person over the frame of a robot, thus creating a visually identical copy of a human. Now, as Japanese startup Different Dimension Inc. (DDI) gears up to market a life-sized augmented reality robot, the world is one step closer to creating visual human doppelgangers.

In recent science fiction, such as Minority Report or the “I Dated a Robot” episode of Futurama, fictional technology is explored that showcases what it would be like to have either virtual reality mimic physical sensation, or a robot mimic reality in order to provide physical sensation. Different Dimensions is working on a system that combines a physical robot with an augmented reality headset in order to achieve that seemingly sci-fi goal.… read more. “Augmented reality robot provides physical sensations from virtual characters”

[From Singularity Hub]

Recording Your Life, Allowing Others To View It As Virtual Reality World: Lifelogging

Written By: Peter Murray
Posted: 02/10/13

It’s called Bad Trip, and it certainly feels like one.

Alan Kwan has been recording every moment of his life since November 2011 and he faces the same problem that other lifeloggers do: what to do with all that video footage? Needing a way to organize the rapidly accumulating footage and to provide a way for he and others to easily navigate the data, Kwan has made a game of it. “Bad Trip” is an immersive virtual reality experience that people can navigate with a game controller. It’s along the lines of VR worlds like Second Life, except in Bad Trip the houses contain clips from Kwan’s life. By exploring a collection of clip-containing cubes, the first-person avatar can “navigate the creator’s visual mind.”… read more. “Recording your life, allowing others to view it as virtual reality world”

[From CSIRO; follow the link at the end for more information, including an interactive preview]

Telepresence robot for museums

With support from the Department of Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy we’re creating a mobile tele-presence robot to help virtually connect school kids and visitors in regional areas with our Australian to the National Museum of Australia.

25 January 2013

The challenge

For many, a visit to a museum is an eye-opener, especially those institutions that offer hands-on interactive exhibits. But for even more people living in regional communities, museums are not hands-on; they are not even accessible, because of distance and cost.

Students in rural areas of Australia, the aged in nursing homes, or simply those people who stay at home, find it impossible to visit a museum, no matter how much they’d like to.

The solution

With funding from the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, we’re working with the National Museum of Australia to create and trial a mobile tele-presence robot.… read more. “Mobile telepresence robot to connect visitors to National Museum of Australia”