[From ExtremeTech] An elastic touchscreen into which you can literally sink your fingers By James Plafke on April 19, 2013 When touchscreens first became widespread on our mobile devices, the main complaint from touchscreen detractors was that it felt weird to poke at a flat surface rather than tactile buttons. Eventually, most of the mobile phone audience grew to either love or live with the flat touchscreen. Now, with an elastic touchscreen you can pull and poke, a project out of MIT’s Media Lab aims to put tactile sensation back into using your devices.…

[From NBC News, where the story includes additional images] [Image: ARMAR IIIa, designed by the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), unloads a dishwasher in a recent demonstration in Germany] Dawn of the bot? New era nears, experts say Nidhi Subbaraman NBC News May 13, 2013 Science fiction is quickly taking a back seat to science fact. Just look at a new report by the country’s leading roboticists. By 2030, it says, robots will be everywhere. At the gym, they’ll help you train. In operating rooms, flea-sized robots will zip through your blood vessels to repair tissues. Using voice commands and…

[From VentureBeat, where the story includes additional images] How Google is melding our real and virtual worlds with games, apps … and Glass May 1, 2013 John Koetsier “The world around you is not what it seems,” says Ingress, the virtual game that uses the real world as its gamespace. And, perhaps, when Google’s semi-independent division Niantic Labs is finished with its mission, we humans won’t be, either. Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and usable. Note carefully that Google says nothing about the Internet in that statement. In the last few eye-blinks…

[From Singularity Hub; for more information, see “Bringing back the brainwaves: NeuroGaming 2013 Conference in retrospect” at Neurogadget.com] The Future of Gaming – It May All Be in Your Head Written By: Aaron Frank Posted: 05/12/13 Gaming as a hobby evokes images of lethargic teenagers huddled over their controllers, submerged in their couch surrounded by candy bar wrappers. This image should soon hit the reset button since a more exciting version of gaming is coming. It’s called neurogaming, and it’s riding on the heels of some exponential technologies that are converging on each other. Many of these were on display…

[From CNET] [Image: The arrays use some 8,000 touch-sensitive transistors. Credit: Georgia Institute of Technology] New ‘smart skin’ so sensitive it rivals the real thing Researchers say their experimental arrays sense pressure in the same range as the human fingertip, which could result in better bots and prosthetics. By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore April 26, 2013 Using what they are calling “mechanical agitation,” researchers out of the Georgia Institute of Technology say they’ve developed arrays that can sense touch with the same level of sensitivity as the human fingertip, which could result in better bots and prosthetics.…

[From Penn State] [Image: Game avatar with a backpack. Credit: S. Shyam Sundar, Penn State] Bonding with your virtual self may alter your actual perceptions By Matthew Swayne May 2, 2013 PARIS — When people create and modify their virtual reality avatars, the hardships faced by their alter egos can influence how they perceive virtual environments, according to researchers. A group of students who saw that a backpack was attached to an avatar that they had created overestimated the heights of virtual hills, just as people in real life tend to overestimate heights and distances while carrying extra weight, according…