[From The Creators Project, where the post includes several more pictures and two videos] Enter An Alternate Sensory Reality With Max Cooper’s 4D Sound Show By DJ Pangburn — Jun 5 2014 When people talk about alternate reality, the typically describes a psychedelic experience or a science fictional world—an experience that produces something outside normal reality. The conceptualization is usually visual, perhaps because humans process visual cues much more quickly and accurately than sounds. But, a new 4D sound system is letting electronic music producer Max Cooper bring the concept of alternate reality to the world of audio, which for…

[From PC World, where the story includes other pictures; much more information is available from SoftBank; a 0:46 minute video is available on YouTube] Meet Pepper, the ‘love-powered’ humanoid robot that knows how you’re feeling Tim Hornyak Jun 5, 2014 If the thought of a humanoid robot in your home makes your skin crawl, meet the friendly Pepper. Pepper is a cute, wisecracking personal robot designed to bring joy to everyone, and Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank wants people to start buying it next year for the price of a high-end PC. The phone giant unveiled the autonomous, sophisticated machine on…

[From MIT Technology Review, where the story includes two images; see also Tape Op’s March 2014 article “The Future of Audio Engineering”] [Image: Tape Op] Microsoft’s “3-D Audio” Gives Virtual Objects a Voice Headphones that make sounds seem to come from specific points in space could be the perfect counterpoint to virtual reality goggles. By Tom Simonite on June 4, 2014 Just as a new generation of virtual reality goggles for video games are about to hit the market, researchers at Microsoft have come up with what could be the perfect accompaniment—a way for ordinary headphones to create a realistic illusion…

[This story from I Programmer isn’t technically news, but as someone with a medical condition that requires regular phlebotomies, I found it particularly thought-provoking. –Matthew ] A Robot With A Hypodermic Needle Written by Lucy Black 27 July 2013 Would you let a robot take your blood? The answer to this question illuminates our real relationship to machines that aspire to rise above the robot vac. Is there another sort of uncanny valley? Veebot is a very clever use of some basic image processing plus some very accurate positioning mechanisms. It first locates a good vein using infrared. Once it…

[From Hypergrid Business, where the column includes a 0:32 minute promotional video for Chuck E. Cheese’ “Virtual Ticket Blaster”] [Image: Belarus-based Amusement & Edutainment Technologies pairs an Oculus Rift with moving seats to create its 3D entertainment attraction. (Image courtesy AET.)] Virtual reality could find its first home outside the home by Kevin Williams · May 29, 2014 The arcade industry was decimated back in the mid-90’s by the advancements in consumer console games as well as a failure to adapt to changing player demographics. Virtual reality could bring it back. As a side benefit, virtual reality arcades could help…

[From Silicon Angle, where the story includes more pictures and a 16:47 minute video] [Image: Microsoft] Virtual Reality brings Big Data visualization to life Mike Wheatley | May 29th 2014 Data visualization tools have made it somewhat easier to glean intelligence from a mass of information. But today’s tools are still extremely inefficient, as they fail to incorporate the science of human visual perception into their data visualization techniques. This results in tools that deliver great “eye candy” but poor human comprehension of the data. Traditional tools also tend to visualize what we already know about the data, rather than…