[From Wired;  more information is available at Patently Apple] [Image: An illustration showing a combined system using target tracking and a touchscreen. Image: Free Patents Online.] Apple Granted Patent for High-Concept Input Techniques By Christina Bonnington July 24, 2012 Apple was granted a sweeping, multipronged patent today by the United States Patent and Trademark Office — but you may need a degree in theoretical physics to divine exactly which technologies the patent is protecting. The patent, “Method for providing human input to a computer,” addresses both new and existing ways we interact with touchscreen devices, and covers everything from computer…

[From Eurogamer.net, where the story includes a 2:08 minute video] Project Holodeck aims to make Star Trek gaming a reality Uses Oculus Rift, PlayStation Move and the Razer Hyrdra By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 23 July, 2012 A team at the University of Southern California is trying to make the Holodeck from Star Trek a virtual reality. Project Holodeck aims to create full 360 degree, full body virtual reality in an accessible consumer gaming platform. It fuses head tracking, body tracking and button inputs with vehicular locomotion and in-place locomotion (jogging on the spot to run). This, the team said, means…

[From MIT News, where the story includes a 3:23 minute video] [Image: A new glasses-free 3-D video system uses three layered LCD panels displaying bizarre patterns (first three images) that collectively produce a coherent, high-resolution, multiperspective 3-D image. The bottom-right image illustrates, roughly, the composite image that would reach one eye at one viewing angle. Images courtesy of the Camera Culture group.] Glasses-free 3-D TV looks nearer A new method for producing multiple-perspective 3-D images could prove more practical in the short term than holography. Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office July 12, 2012 As striking as it is, the illusion…

[From MIT’s Technology Review, where the story includes an additional image] The Avatar Economy Are remote workers the brains inside tomorrow’s robots? Matt Beane Wednesday, July 18, 2012 In our economy, many of the jobs most resistant to automation are those with the least economic value. Just consider the diversity of tasks, unpredictable terrains, and specialized tools that a landscaper confronts in a single day. No robot is intelligent enough to perform this $8-an-hour work. But what about a robot remotely controlled by a low-wage foreign worker? Hollywood has been imagining the technologies we would need. Jake Sully, the wheelchair-bound…

[From MIT’s Technology Review] Siri’s New Cousin Works as a Bank Teller Spanish bank BBVA taps the team that invented the iPhone assistant to build technology that can converse with bank customers. Tom Simonite Friday, July 13, 2012 The research group that invented Siri, the virtual assistant built into Apple’s iPhone, has built her a smarter relative that could help banks cut staffing costs. Known as Lola, the new assistant can carry on more complex conversations than Siri and help with tasks that involve multiple back-and-forth steps with customers, such as opening a bank account. Lola is going to be…

[From io9; for more on this topic see this article (pdf) in PsychNology Journal] Choosing the virtual reality experience that’s right for you George Dvorsky Jul 11, 2012 We’re still several decades away from developing completely immersive computer simulations, but it’s not too early to dream about the ways we’ll be able to use them. Today we’re exploring the tremendous potential with new gadgets like Glass, Google’s computer glasses. But that’s just the beginning. So, in preparation, given all the different options soon to be available, what kind of virtual reality experience will you choose? Will it be a partial soft…