[From IT World’s CoreIT blog; a related story can be found in New Scientist] Researchers build computer monitor into contact lens It’s only one pixel, but it gets the image and power wirelessly, and didn’t hurt the rabbit By Kevin Fogarty November 22, 2011 There have been a million science-fictioney stories, movies, photos and late-night caffeine-psychosis-induced hallucinations imagining how super-mobile, universally connected and unrealistically convenient computing will be in 10 years, or 20 or 50. None of them quite got past [the] barrier posed by the one component of any computer system that can’t shrink in size to a nanoparticle…

[From DigInfo TV, where the story includes a 2:51 minute video; more information is available at the researchers’ web site] [Image: ‘Invoked Computing’ at home] Invoked Computing – Device-free Ubiquitous Augmented Reality 18 November 2011 A research group at the University of Tokyo are creating a new paradigm in Human Computer Interaction. Dubbed ‘Invoked Computing’ the idea is to turn everyday objects into computer interfaces and communication devices. “For example, if you make a gesture, the computer should be able to recognize this as “I want to use the telephone”. So with an iPhone for example, you have everything in…

[From SmartPlanet] World class robot art includes a telepresent ocean By Christie Nicholson | November 2, 2011 We are often followed by cameras as we go about our daily routines, getting cash, buying milk, throwing underwear into laundromat dryers, yet most of us routinely forget this fact. Want to get a more intense feeling of what it’s like to be tracked? Now through to December 18 you have your opportunity to let robots get closer to you at an art installation, Desire of Codes, at the InterCommunication Center in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. The artist Mikami Seiko set up walls covered…

[From The Wall Street Journal; a related article is available in THE Journal] [Image: Students at Monarch High School in Louisville, Colo., watch lessons in 3-D.] Coming Soon To Schools: Dissecting Frogs in 3-D By Michelle Kung September 7, 2011 When Maurio Medley, an eighth-grade math teacher at Ocoee Middle School in central Florida, wants to teach his students how to find the volume of a cylinder, he doesn’t turn to a textbook or chalkboard. Instead, he turns on a 3-D-enabled projector to rotate a virtual Euclidian solid. Schools are trying to keep up with the multiplex, keen to find…

[From The National Post] [Image: The “street lab” recreates the environment outside the hospital. Tyler Anderson / National Post.] Virtual danger: Toronto lab recreates the world — and may revolutionize research Tom Blackwell Nov 16, 2011 It looks like a typical, comfortably furnished one-bedroom condominium, with a few notable exceptions — the apartment has no ceiling, it is surrounded by a catwalk that lets scientists peer down at the occupants and the entire thing is situated in a downtown hospital. “Home lab,” as researchers at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute have dubbed their open-top apartment, is part of an impressive $36-million complex whose…

[From iTnews] Bell Labs builds telepresence ‘robots’ Nethead could reach market in two years. By Liz Tay on Nov 7, 2011   Videoconferencing ‘robots’ in development at Alcatel-Lucent’s research arm, Bell Labs, could give remote workers a more physical presence in office meetings within two years. Researchers are working on a low-cost camera and screen that swivels on a set of robotic shoulders, and sits at a meeting table with physical attendees. Each so-called ‘Nethead’ represents a remote participant, who appears by video on the screen, and can control the direction the robot faces by naturally turning his or her…