[From The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Wired Campus blog] [Image Courtesy of Lori Foster Thompson] Online, People Learn Best from Virtual ‘Helpers’ That Resemble Them March 3, 2011 By Ben Wieder Turns out looks and personality still count in online learning. That’s the finding of a study on how people’s perception and performance in online training is affected by the appearance and communication style of online learning “helpers,” or virtual agents that pop up on a screen and guide people through a program. Some of the earliest uses of such programs have been with younger students. One program used an online…

[From the MIT Technology Review blog Mims’ Bits] Are Physical Interfaces Superior to Virtual Ones? Humans have enormous capacity for spatial memory. Why don’t our user interfaces take advantage of that? Christopher Mims 03/02/2011 Something’s been bothering me ever since I started reading books, especially non-fiction, on my Kindle: I can’t remember where anything is. Physical books are full of spatial reference points; an especially beloved book is a physical topography in which we develop a vague sense of which chapters contain relevant information; even where, on a page, a particularly striking sentence or diagram lies. Ebooks have none of these…

[From Engadget, where a 7:34 minute video and two other videos are available] Emotiv EEG headset hacked into VR trapeze act, lets you fly like Superman (video) By Sean Hollister posted Mar 1st 2011 Last year, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students built a virtual reality contraption that let them soar through the sky, held aloft by a trapeze harness and seeing through HMD-covered eyes. This year, they’re controlling it with the power of their minds. For his master’s thesis, project leader Yehuda Duenyas added an Emotiv headset — the same one controlling cars and the occasional game — to make the…

[From Gizmag] [Image: Edwina Portocarrero from Bove’s group, decked out in tunic and wig, stood in for Carrie Fisher and re-enacted the famous holographic message, which was captured and displayed in real-time.] Consumer holographic TV creeps closer to reality By Paul Ridden January 30, 2011 Despite a relatively tepid consumer take-up, the buzz surrounding 3D television is still quite intense. But even the viewing improvements offered by stereoscopic technology may pale by comparison to the holographic goings-on at MIT. Researchers are taking the first steps toward making holographic technology a reality for consumers. Using primarily off-the-shelf components, the team has…

[From CanadaEast’s New Brunswick Business Journal] [Image: Darren Piercey in UNB Fredericton with a screen shot from his phobia app. Photo: Keith Minchin/For the Telegraph-Journal] Professor’s app helps allay fears Innovation: Phobia sufferers benefit from NBIF Breakthru finalist’s work Published Monday February 28th, 2011 Jennifer Campbell For the Telegraph-Journal For some, a spider is a source of amazement – the way it weaves its beautiful web – and for others, a spider is a source of sheer horror. It’s estimated that half of women and 10 per cent of men have some level of arachnophobia, or fear of spiders. Three…

[From The Guardian] [Image: It’s OK to touch … a fan gets close to the Johnny Depp waxwork at Madame Tussauds. Photograph: Susan Swindells (work experience) for the guardian] What makes Madame Tussauds’ wax work? It’s been pulling in visitors since 1835, but why does Madame Tussauds remain so popular, even in the CGI age? Patrick Barkham joined the crowds – plus Brad, Jacko, the Queen and all – to find out Patrick Barkham The Guardian, Saturday 26 February 2011 Johnny Depp is getting a peck on the cheek. A bloke peers up Marilyn’s billowing skirt. Teenagers jostle a wobbly…