[From New Scientist]

[Image: Roboy the social robot]

The robot tricks to bridge the uncanny valley

Giving robots a series of small behavioural tics can make help them appear a lot more human, which makes us feel more comfortable interacting with them

19 March 2014 by Paul Marks

If a robot bleeped and squeaked with personality like R2D2 from Star Wars, would you like it better? What if it glanced into the distance when you asked it a question, as though pondering its response?

Little behavioural tics like these could be crucial to people accepting robots into their everyday lives. Though they may seem small, such tweaks can help bridge the “uncanny valley”, making the difference between a robot that looks eerily unhuman and one that people can easily relate to and work with.… read more. “The robot tricks to bridge the uncanny valley”

[From The Creators Project, where the post includes more pictures and a 3:10 minute video]

Experience The Magic Of Iceland Through This Multi-Sensory Book

By Bogar Alonso – Apr 7 2014

Long known for its breathtaking vistas, Iceland offers an experience too rich for just one of the five senses. Whereas other literary depictions of the Nordic expanse might only focus on pretty pictures, Hvísl – Whispers of Iceland is a visual and auditory journey. Pages aren’t turned so much as they’re triggered.

A colorful arrangement of electronic sensors spark snippets of Icelandic sounds provided by artist Johannes Mandorfer. Anything from the sound of surging waves to a haunting religious hymn can take over the reader’s attention as they cycle through the design and photography work of Bertrand Lanthiez and Chloé Curé. (Also providing her services was Susana Sánchez).… read more. “Experience the magic of Iceland through this multi-sensory book”

[From Fast Company, where the story includes more images and a video; see also available a story in Architect magazine]

[Image: Lifteye projects into the elevator what you would see if the walls were made of glass.]

This Elevator Might Make You Forget You’re Stuck In A Metal Death Trap With Strangers

What if instead of staring at the walls as we rode up and down, we could look at the view from outside?

Sydney Brownstone
April 4, 2014

Unless someone comes up with a better way for groups of people to move vertically within tall buildings (pneumatic tubes, anyone?), elevators are here to stay in our rapidly urbanizing world. This alone is a testament to human adaptability, because elevators, when you really stop to think about them, are terrifying.

But maybe the elevator experience doesn’t have to land somewhere on a spectrum among awkward, mind-numbingly dull, and panicky.… read more. “LiftEye replaces elevator walls with synced 3D view of world outside”

[From VentureBeat; see also coverage by Gigaom]

Virtual reality has another ‘wow’ moment as Jaunt introduces 360-degree cinematic videos

April 3, 2014
Dean Takahashi

I was alone in a room wearing virtual reality goggles. But it felt like I was in a park, surrounded by four Shaolin monks who were threatening me on all sides with martial arts moves. This kind of surround-video experience is what you’ll get from Jaunt, a new entertainment startup coming out of stealth today.

On top of announcing a funding round, Jaunt is unveiling for the first time its new way to experience 360-degree videos in virtual reality. The company calls these new kinds of videos “cinematic VR,” where you can wear virtual reality goggles and see everything around you in 360 degrees. If you turn your head in a complete circle, you’ll never see the edge of the video screen.… read more. “VR has another ‘wow’ moment as Jaunt introduces 360-degree cinematic videos”

[From Wired, where the story includes 2 videos]

An Oculus Rift Hack That Lets You Draw in 3-D

By Joseph Flaherty
04.02.14

Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of Oculus Rift has reopened conversation about the potential of virtual reality, but a key question remains: How will we actually interact with these worlds? Minecraft creator Markus Persson noted that while these tools can enable amazing experiences, moving around and creating in them is far from a solved problem.

A group of Royal College of Art students–Guillaume Couche, Daniela Paredes Fuentes, Pierre Paslier, and Oluwaseyi Sosanya–has developed a tool called GravitySketch that starts tracing an outline of how these systems could work as creative tools.

Their high-tech sketchpad looks a bit like a prop from Tron, with its etched grid of transparent plastic and sternly rectilinear user interface panel, but the goal is to make augmented reality feel as natural and organic as sketching in a notebook.… read more. “GravitySketch, an Oculus Rift hack, lets you draw in 3-D”