[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…

[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…

[From the Guardian] [Image: England’s David Beckham misses a penalty against Portugal in the Euro 2004 quarter-final at Lisbon’s Estádio da Luz. Photograph: Jose Manuel Ribeiro/Reuters] Virtual reality simulators could end England’s penalty shootout woe Technology can recreate pressurised situations for footballers BAE Systems and UK Sport’s project to help Olympic hopefuls James Riach Friday 23 August 2013 Virtual reality simulators could be the solution to end England’s penalty shootout woe in major tournaments, with plans to replicate the pressurised atmosphere of a packed stadium potentially coming to the aid of players. Technology is being developed by engineering company BAE…

[From The Financial Brand, where the story includes many images and infographics] Lights, Camera… Transactions & Interactions? There is no substitute to talking to consumers when and where they need person-to-person help with their finances. Two-way video banking lets financial institutions keep customer engagements personal and expand the reach while cutting back on their expensive branch investments. August 19, 2013 Telepresence holds great promise for retail banking, but most early-movers are missing the boat. Rather than reinventing the teller experience, banks should pursue video banking as an omnichannel mechanism to improve customer engagement, according to the new report, “Video Banking:…

[From PRWeb] Emory’s Gaming Platform Recovers Urban History—a Virtual Experience of Rome at the Carlos Museum This is the first time a gaming platform has been used at Emory University to recover urban history through an immersive and interactive reconstruction. Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) July 24, 2013 The celebrated bird’s-eye view map of Giovanni Battista Falda, published in 1676, will be transformed into a virtual, walkable, experience of Rome using the gaming platform NVis360, as part of the Carlos Museum’s special exhibition, “Antichità, Teatro, Magnificenza: Renaissance and Baroque Images of Rome,” on view from August 24 through November 17, 2013.…

[From the New York Times] [Image: The video game Disney Infinity shows how characters from the various Disney franchises might be mixed and matched.] Critic’s Notebook The Virtual World Welcomes Toy Players By Chris Suellentrop Published: August 15, 2013 Many people still think of video games as the province of children, precisely because, at the moment of their mass-market origins in the 1970s, they were genuinely kids’ stuff. A December 1980 article in The New York Times Magazine reported that electronics was transforming the toy industry the same way that plastics had 30 years earlier. The article barely differentiated the…