[From MIT’s Technology Review] [Office bot: This telepresence robot, from Anybots, costs $15,000. Known as the QB, it has built-in obstacle avoidance that automatically prevents it from striking objects such as doorways.] Telepresence Robots Seek Office Work New models have reached the marketplace, but high initial prices keep applications limited. Thursday, August 18, 2011 By Tom Simonite Building on the trend toward remote work, two companies started shipping wheeled telepresence robots to customers this year, and other versions are launching soon. While prices are steep and sales tepid, some early adopters find that the robots offer advantages over technologies such…

[From IANS via Gulf News] [Image: Vaibhava Srinivasan’s cockpit at his home with original Boeing 727 captain seats. The chartered accountant uses the flight simulator as a way of winding down on weekends. He built the cockpit in his house after collecting equipment from all over the world.] Bust stress by conquering the sky, the virtual way Market for flight simulators growing across the world IANS Published: August 6, 2011 New Delhi: Vaibhava Srinivasan, 33, was flying a Boeing 737 aircraft over the picturesque Himalayan mountain range on his way to China, when he had to suddenly cut short his…

[From TechNewsWorld] OPINION Why Video Conferencing Sucks Understanding human interaction isn’t easy. We tend to be complex and very different. The reason we aren’t doing video conferencing calls regularly is partially because these systems don’t interoperate, but it is mostly because these systems don’t embrace the way we actually like to communicate. By Rob Enderle TechNewsWorld 08/15/11 I’ve been covering video conferencing (now often called “telepresence”) products since the late 80s and saw my first offering in the mid-60s as a child at Disneyland. Over the years, product wave after product wave has come to market with the promise of…

[From Humans Invent, where the story includes additional images] You’re fired: How gaming killed the boardroom By Ben Sillis 15th August 2011 Need to get someone out to New York for a crucial business meeting next week? It’ll cost you. At a week’s notice, a business class return trip on British Airways from Heathrow to JFK International will set your company back upwards of £3,800. As stock markets plunge, and the wait for this “bounce back” continues, that’s money few can afford – but you can’t put a value on being in the same room as a potential client. Unless…

[From SmartPlanet] Video: How ‘augmented reality’ will make boring cities beautiful By Christopher Mims | August 10, 2011 In the near future, as you stroll down the street, billboards and street signs will change to suit your interests. Ghostly arrows will float in the air, pointing you toward your destination. Buildings, vehicles, the apparel of those you pass, and the very fabric of the reality you perceive will all be as changeable as your wardrobe. That’s the vision of futurists and science fiction authors like Vernor Vinge, and increasingly, it’s the reality brought to us by ever-more-powerful mobile devices.…

[From Microsoft Research] A New Window to the Face By Douglas Gantenbein August 8, 2011 9:00 AM PT The human face is a complicated thing—powered by 52 muscles; contoured by the nose, eyebrows, and other features; and capable of an almost infinite range of expressions, from joy to anger to sorrow to puzzlement. Perhaps that is why realistic animation of the human face has been what Microsoft Research Asia scientist Xin Tong calls a “holy grail” of computer graphics. Decades of research in computer graphics have developed a number of techniques for capturing three-dimensional moving images of the human face.…