[From IEEE Spectrum’s Automaton blog, where the story includes many additional pictures and a video] Testing Robotic Companions on a Simulated Mission to Mars By Simon Engler Posted 26 Sep 2013 | 20:02 GMT Simon Engler (pictured above with robotic dinosaur Pleo) recently spent four months in a Hawaii habitat that simulated a Mars mission. In this guest post, he tells us about the experience and his research on robotic companions for long-duration space missions.…

[From Fast Company’s Co.Create, where the story includes more images and a video] [Image: Death At The Border: Security camera footage was used to plop bystanders at the scene of Anastacio Hernández-Rojas’ death in a wraparound, fully-immersive digital world.] Put On A Helmet, And You’re In The Story: Why Virtual Reality Journalism Is The Future Google, the Associated Press, and the Tribeca Film Institute are funding one of the most ambitious virtual reality projects yet: A 3-D, fully immersive re-creation of the death of a migrant at the U.S.-Mexico border. By: Neal Ungerleider Nonny de la Peña isn’t your typical…

[From the Huffington Post, where the story includes more images and a video] Visualise Studio Explains How To Use Virtual Reality For Marketing — And Not Suck Michael Rundle Posted: 24/09/2013 Of the myriad possible uses for the next-gen of virtual reality, marketing might not seem like the most thrilling. But if you take a trip down to the Visualise Studio in London for Social Media Week, you might come away with a different impression. Visualise, the team behind some of the web’s most impressive ultra-high 360-degree resolution images – from the London Olympics to the Queen’s Jubilee – have…

[From U-T San Diego (the San Diego Union-Tribune); for more information, including the significance of the image, see “Second Life’s Second Life for Social Innovation” in the Stanford Social Innovation Review] PARKINSON’S PATIENT, 86, BUILDS A NEW LIFE IN VIRTUAL WORLD Parkinson’s patients shed their limitations in simulated online universe By Pam Kragen  Sept. 24, 2013 CARLSBAD – When Fran Swenson visits Creations Park each day, she takes tai chi classes, swims, ice skates and goes ballroom dancing. Although Parkinson’s disease and macular degeneration have reduced the 86-year-old La Costa resident’s ability to walk, see and leave her one-bedroom apartment,…

[From psfk, where the story includes more images] Virtual Reality Art Show Takes Viewers Into A Seedy Underworld The Nail Polish Inferno uses the Oculus Rift to transport people to a hallucinatory alternate universe. Laura Chase on September 13, 2013 Step inside a virtual reality art show without moving a finger. ‘The Nail Polish Inferno’ is a digital art installation that immerses people in a hallucinatory 3-D ecosystem, that resembles a strip club full of mutant fantastic creatures such as provocative galactic purple pole dancers, sharks swinging on the ceiling, a giant hand that moves like an octopus, a grotesque…

[From Develop, where the story includes several more images] Crossing the UI Rift with Oculus Virtual reality opens the doors to a new era for user interface design. Oculus VR speaks to Develop about its opportunities by Will Freeman Wednesday, 11th September 2013 [This feature was published in the September 2013 edition of Develop magazine, which is available through your browser and on iPad.] Virtual reality doesn’t present user interface design with its first opportunity for transformation. The dawn of 3D long ago afforded games makers the prospect of moving beyond flat heads-up-displays and conventional menus. And when mobile gaming…

[A news release from Iowa State University; see also “Professors use virtual reality to train firefighters” in the Iowa State Daily] [Image: Nir Keren, left, and Warren Franke, center, have conducted research on firefighter stress levels using virtual reality simulations. Photo by Robert Elbert.] Experienced firefighters are more analytical under stress than novices, according to ISU study Posted Jul 31, 2013 AMES, Iowa – Experienced firefighters take longer to make decisions under stress than novice firefighters, according to research conducted at Iowa State University. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. After conducting dozens of virtual reality trials in which…