[From PhysOrg.com] Reach out and touch 3D characters with RePro3D September 17, 2011 by Nancy Owano (PhysOrg.com) — Lonely gamers who have felt the pain of being separated by a screen from their favorite personalities now have a way to reach out and touch their game characters, and that new way is RePro3D. A group of researchers from Keio University in Japan have come up with a 3-D screen that lets the user, glasses-free, see and “touch” characters on the screen. The word “touch” is in quotes because the technology is about a 3-D parallax display with infrared camera that…

[From PC World’s GeekTech blog; more information is in a post on MIT’s Technology Review Hello World blog] Gigapixel Hack Makes Photos More Interactive By Elizabeth Fish, PCWorld    Sep 7, 2011 Have you ever looked at a particulalry stunning photograph and wished you could really immerse yourself in it? A recent project attempts to do just that, with the help of a good camera, a hacked Kinect, and an Arduino board. Samuel Cox, a university collegue of mine, recently held an exhibition for his postgraduate project, based on interactive photography. Sam invited the public to really explore the UK…

[From The Maine Campus; the VEMI Lab web site is here] [Image: Richard Corey, VEMI Lab Manager, (left) and Timothy McGrath (right) take part in a virtual world in Virtual Environment and Multimodal Integration Lab, located on the third floor of Boardman Hall. Photo by Paul Perkins] Students create virtual realities in campus lab By Rachel Curit Posted on Sunday, September 11th, 2011, 11:10 pm Several University of Maine students are escaping the tedium of school on a regular basis, although classes began only two weeks ago, by plugging in to virtual realities. Unlike students who may avoid the pressures…

[From The New York Times, where the article includes a multimedia feature; information about Audyssey’s latest product, Personal Surround, is available here] [Image: Tyson Yaberg of Audyssey Laboratories listened to an experimental system at the University of Southern California. Audyssey’s goal is to make dens and living rooms sound like concert halls and movie theaters. Photo by David Ahntholz for The New York Times.] Sound, the Way the Brain Prefers to Hear It By GUY GUGLIOTTA Published: September 5, 2011 LOS ANGELES — There is, perhaps, no more uplifting musical experience than hearing the “Hallelujah” chorus from Handel’s “Messiah” performed…

[From Time magazine’s Techland blog, where the post includes additional information; the full Sony press release, which includes the claim that the product will “provide entertainment enthusiasts with a more immersive, engaging visual experience,” is here] Sony Unveils Ultra High-Def 4K Projector: So Long 1080p! By Matt Peckham on September 8, 2011 You’ve finally picked up a monster-sized high-definition 1080p flatscreen for your entertainment center, you’re plowing through your Blu-ray stacks of Lost or Friday Night Lights or Breaking Bad at a crisp, eyeball-thrilling 1920 x 1080 pixels, and then you see this: Sony’s launching a projector that’ll run at 4K,…