[From the Huffington Post, where the story includes many images of the artist’s paintings (one of which is titled ‘presence’)]

[Image: ‘Devotion’  Oil on Belgian linen, 50 cm x 41 cm]

[Image: ‘Processional’  Oil on Belgian linen; from designboom]

Robin Eley’s Hyperrealist Paintings Show The Sexy Side Of Plastic (NSFW PHOTOS)

Posted: 07/15/13

Australian artist Robin Eley is a master of deception. Using oil paint, a series of tiny brushes and hours upon hours of intense concentration, he creates some of the most impressive hyperrealist works we’ve come across.

What appear to be surreal nude photographs and snapshots of bizarre aluminum sculptures are actually painstakingly crafted paintings.… read more. “Robin Eley’s hyperrealist paintings show sexy side of materials”

[From Credit Union Times]

Virtual Reality Comes to Ohio Credit Union

Beam Up the Cash, Scotty

By Missy Baxter
July 24, 2013

The latest technology popping up in credit unions seems almost as futuristic as Star Trek’s holodeck.

Imagine having a real-time conversation with a life-size, 3D image of a credit union staffer who can answer questions about everything from car loans to savings rates. Plus, throw in theater-quality sound and eye contact.

That might sound a bit like science fiction, but members at the $194 million MidUSA Credit Union in Middletown, Ohio, will soon be able to tap into telepresence video communication that utilizes 3D technology and real-time video to enable members to engage in virtual meetings with credit union staff in different locations, said James Miles, president/CEO of the 17,900-member MidUSA.

Miles said MidUSA recently inked a deal with Naples, Fl.-based… read more. “Telepresence comes to the credit union”

[From Fast Company’s Co.DESIGN, where the story includes an image gallery and a 4:03 minute video]

Disney’s Crazy Invention Lets You Feel Phantom Objects Floating In Air

You know how Kinect lets you interact with virtual objects? A groundbreaking project called Aireal lets you feel them, too.

July 19, 2013
By Mark Wilson

Microsoft’s Kinect is an amazing device. It can track virtually any motion you make, allowing your real body to interact with an amazing invented world. There’s just one catch: You can’t actually feel anything.

Aireal is the result of research by University of Illinois PhD student Rajinder Sodhi and Disney Reseach’s Ivan Poupyrev. When set by your television or connected to an iPad, this diminutive machine will puff air rings that allow you to actually feel objects and textures in midair–no special controllers or gloves required.… read more. “Disney’s crazy invention Aireal lets you feel phantom objects floating in air”

[From psfk, where the story includes a 2:05 minute video]

3D Dissection Table Helps Students Explore Rare Medical Cases [Video]

Explore the body like never before with high resolution, life-sized medical images that you can cut, uncut, rotate and label.

Libby Garrett on June 19, 2013. @libby_garrett

The Anatomage Table is the world’s first life-sized 3D interactive virtual dissection table, allowing people to interact with high resolution anatomical models and perform detailed dissections by using a virtual scalpel.

The table features an interactive multitouch screen that allows users to turn, grasp and cut life-sized anatomical models and view the organ structures inside. Digital images can be rotated in any direction, organs can be isolated and view modes can switch back and forth between photorealistic, X-ray and opaque hard tissue options. Helping users make sense of what they are seeing from varying angles, an annotation feature identifies organs and anatomical details with labels that move with the body as it is turned around and cut.… read more. “The Anatomage Table offers high-res 3D virtual human dissections”

[From Scientific American; there’s much more about Jeremy Bailenson and his work in the July 11, 2013 PBS NewsHour report How Virtual Reality Games Can Impact Society, Encourage Prosperity and an accompanying extended interview]

If You Know How a Cow Feels, Will You Eat Less Meat?

Inside a lab on the Stanford University campus, students experience what it might feel like to be a cow

By Anne C. Mulkern and ClimateWire

STANFORD, Calif. — Inside a lab on the Stanford University campus here, students experienced what it might feel like to be a cow.

They donned a virtual reality helmet and walked on hands and feet while in a virtual mirror they saw themselves as bovine. As the animal was jabbed with an electrical prod, a lab worker poked a volunteer’s side with a sticklike device. The ground shook to simulate the prod’s vibrations.… read more. “VR for good: If you know how a cow feels, will you eat less meat?”