[From the Association of Virtual Worlds Forum]

Just What Virtual Worlds Need: A New Paradigm – Live Video Avatars

Posted by Craig McAllister on June 26, 2013

To many people, today’s avatars represent elaborate animations. Recently, however, much fanfare has been made about new technologies enabling animated avatars to mimic a wide range of users’ facial expressions. If you smile, your avatar smiles with you. If you frown, your avatar frowns. This development allegedly translates into greater realism. But is this realism “real” enough? If the objective is to make an avatar truly “real”, why not have it actually be real?

Certainly there exists specific segments of the Virtual world population for whom animated avatars are preferred. These groups might include children under 10; teenaged gamers; and non-gaming adults in virtual worlds like Second life. In each of these examples, customization, fantasy, and/or anonymity take precedence over true realism.… read more. “A new paradigm: IVN’s live video avatars”

[From ETH Zurich]

[Image: Innovative software rotates the face of the person on screen during video conferences in order to make eye contact. (Photo: Computer Graphics Laboratory / ETH Zurich)]

Skype eye contact finally possible

Those separated from family and friends by long distances often use video conferencing services such as Skype in order to see each other when talking. But who hasn’t experienced the frustration of your counterpart not making direct eye contact during the conversation? A software prototype from the Computer Graphics Laboratory ETH Zurich may be able to help.

Angelika Jacobs
Published: 27.08.13

“We want to make video conference calls as similar as possible to a real meeting,” explains Claudia Kuster, a doctoral student at the Computer Graphics Laboratory ETH Zurich. Lack of eye contact is said to be a considerable obstacle to the feel of a ‘real’ conversation.… read more. “Skype eye-contact problem solved with new software”

[From the University of Washington]

[Image: University of Washington researcher Rajesh Rao, left, plays a computer game with his mind. Across campus, researcher Andrea Stocco, right, wears a magnetic stimulation coil over the left motor cortex region of his brain. Stocco’s right index finger moved involuntarily to hit the “fire” button as part of the first human brain-to-brain interface demonstration.]

Researcher controls colleague’s motions in 1st human brain-to-brain interface

August 27, 2013
Doree Armstrong and Michelle Ma
News and Information

University of Washington researchers have performed what they believe is the first noninvasive human-to-human brain interface, with one researcher able to send a brain signal via the Internet to control the hand motions of a fellow researcher.

Using electrical brain recordings and a form of magnetic stimulation, Rajesh Rao sent a brain signal to Andrea Stocco on the other side of the UW campus, causing Stocco’s finger to move on a keyboard.… read more. “Researcher controls colleague’s motions in 1st human brain-to-brain interface”

[From Science Now, where the story includes a 90 second video]

[Image: Body swap. Adults were transformed into a 4-year-old child (top) and a scaled-down adult (bottom) in a virtual reality simulation.]

Virtual Reality Allows Adults to See World Through a Child’s Eyes

2013-07-15

When you’re a kid, everything seems huge. Teachers tower over you; playgrounds stretch on to infinity. Now, researchers have found a way to make grownups feel the same way. By placing volunteers in virtual reality, scientists are helping adults see the world through the eyes of a child.

Virtual reality is more than an illusion. To enter it, people put on full-body suits that track their movements and goggles that display an artificial world in which they have a virtual body. If their virtual and real movements sync up, their computer-generated bodies start to seem real.… read more. “VR allows adults to see world through a child’s eyes, with implications”

[From New Scientist, where the story includes a 1:26 minute video; follow the “Shipping Gallery” link for a longer video]

Virtual reality resurrects a defunct exhibition

Using laser-scanning techniques, the Science Museum in London has created a faithful virtual tour of its shipping gallery, which shut last year

27 August 2013 by Shaoni Bhattacharya
Magazine issue 2931

Have you ever longed to visit an exhibition that no longer exists? Now you can – virtually. The Science Museum in London has harnessed technology originally developed to study clouds, and used it to capture a now defunct gallery in exquisite detail.

A much-loved childhood memory for many, the museum’s shipping gallery launched in 1963 and charted maritime milestones and technologies. But it closed last year in order to make way for an exhibition on the information age, due to open in September 2014.… read more. “London’s Science Museum uses laser-scanning to create faithful virtual tour of closed gallery”