[From The Register, where the story includes many more images] Dolby Atmos is coming home and it sounds amazing Don’t bin your multichannel home cinema system just yet By Steve May, 13 Aug 2014 Can Dolby Atmos save the beleaguered home cinema business? With sales of AV receivers tanking, makers of multichannel home theatre receivers are banking on the latest in surround sound technology to rekindle interest. Dolby Atmos has been called 3D for your ears. It’s a cute label to describe a tangible leap forward for movie audio. Unlike traditional surround sound, Atmos is object rather than channel based,…

[From The Guardian] Experiencing is believing: what virtual reality could mean for ads and brands If Facebook can pull off mass adoption of Oculus Rift, how will it change media and marketing? Mike McGee dares to dream Posted by Mike McGee 28 August 2014 Facebook is hoping to create 1bn users for its virtual reality (VR) acquisition, Oculus. Sounds overly ambitious doesn’t it? But not impossible. After all, Google managed this level of adoption for Android. So let’s assume for a moment that it’s feasible and ask ourselves how mass uptake of VR will affect media and marketing? VR is…

[From RocketNews24, where the story includes the 2:19 minute video (via Vimeo), along with many images from it] Amazing real-time projection mapping technology blurs line between fantasy and reality [Video] Kay August 24, 2014 Projection mapping is a technology we seem to be hearing about quite often these days, and you may have seen it being used at various events or amusement park shows. But the video that we’re sharing with you today makes use of a highly unexpected and unusual surface to create a series of projection mapped images quite unlike anything we’ve seen before. In fact, the technology…

[From GamesIndustry.biz;  Gizmodo’s coverage is headlined “Could Virtual Reality Seem Real Enough To Kill You?”] [Image: From the 14:50 minute YouTube video “Oculus FACEBOOK Rift: The Best and Funniest OR Reactions Ever Compilation”] “We’re very close to having the first death in VR” Cloudhead Games’ Denny Unger warns devs of the responsibility that comes with VR’s immersive power By Matthew Handrahan Fri 22 Aug 2014 The emergence of virtual reality is one of the most exciting trends in contemporary game development. The unparalleled sense of immersion it affords points toward a whole new era of interactive entertainment, but that potential…

[From Motherboard, where the story features two videos and several more images] A New Virtual Reality Tool Brings the Daily Trauma of the Syrian War to Life Written by Christopher Malmo August 23, 2014 The situation for journalism in Syria is grim, and getting worse. With Bashar al-Assad on one side, and a handful of extremist rebel groups like the Islamic State on the other, journalist abductions and intimidation are common, with sometimes sickening results. For a few years now, Syria has been categorized by the Committee to Protect Journalists as the most dangerous country in the world to be…

[From the University of California, San Diego; a 4:39 minute video is available on YouTube] New Virtual Reality Navigation System to Help Diagnose Cognitive Defects August 18, 2014 | By Tiffany Fox Note: This is the first in a three-part series about Qualcomm Institute research projects that have a direct impact on aging. All three projects are funded through the Calit2 Strategic Research Opportunities program. The Qualcomm Institute is the University of California, San Diego division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). Experts agree that the ability to navigate a neighborhood or built space is one…