[From CNN] ‘Virtual preaching’ transforms Sunday sermons By John Blake, CNN July 14, 2010 (CNN) — The Sunday morning service at Fellowship Church in Dallas, Texas, was humming along with hymns and prayers when something unusual happened. The lights in the sanctuary suddenly dimmed, and members of the church hushed as they peered at a pulpit shrouded in darkness. The parishioners then erupted in cheers and whistles as Ed Young Sr., the church’s senior pastor, emerged from the darkness with a microphone in hand. “Please be seated, be seated,” Young said as he grabbed the Bible. “How are you guys…

[From The New York Times]   July 4, 2010 Discovering a Soft Spot for Circuitry By AMY HARMON Nothing Eileen Oldaker tried could calm her mother when she called from the nursing home, disoriented and distressed in what was likely the early stages of dementia. So Ms. Oldaker hung up, dialed the nurses’ station and begged them to get Paro. Paro is a robot modeled after a baby harp seal. It trills and paddles when petted, blinks when the lights go up, opens its eyes at loud noises and yelps when handled roughly or held upside down. Two microprocessors under…

[From The New York Times Bats blog]   July 11, 2010, 9:00 pm Get Ready for Baseball in 3-D By RICHARD SANDOMIR Baseball would seem to be difficult to portray in 3-D. With cameras for baseball production positioned far away — from center field and high above home plate — and a baseball field lacking interesting contours, the likelihood of 3-D cameras providing impressive depth perception did not appear to be high Saturday and Sunday when the YES Network carried the Yankees-Mariners games. The productions were done in conjunction with DirecTV and FSN Northwest. But once a fiber problem from…

[From The Wall Street Journal via LiveMint] Posted: Thu, Jun 17 2010 Thy hand, great doctor Created at its second global headquarters, in Bangalore, a tech giant’s flawless illusion takes doctors to places where they are not. Welcome to the next Internet By Seema Singh Bangalore: Outside, in the lobby, the flags of several countries seek to signify the boundary-less nature of the work that goes on here. Inside, true-to-life TelePresence (a video conference on steroids kind of thing) screens emphasize this point further, and create a flawless illusion of being where one is not. This is Cisco Systems Inc.’s…

[From The Boston Globe; the web story includes a 1:04 minute video] You, robot Nashua start-up hopes to revolutionize meetings at work by untethering video equipment from the conference room By Scott Kirsner, Globe Columnist Sitting in his cubicle in Nashua, Tim Root clicks his mouse a few times to steer a tall, white robot around a corner and through the doorway of a conference room. Root’s face is visible on a small screen where you’d expect the robot’s head to be. He says hello, and joins a meeting in progress. Both Root’s cubicle and the conference room are inside…

[From ReadWriteWeb’s Guest Author blog] [Image: “Future computers” – Natalie, Age 10] The Future of Tech According to Kids: Immersive, Intuitive and Surprisingly Down-to-Earth Written by Kim Gaskins / July 7, 2010 If we were to ask you to name one thing you wish your computer (or another Web-enabled device) could do, but doesn’t now, what would you say? How about the ability to “touch the things that are in the screen, to feel and move them.” That’s what 7-year-old Daniela* wants. Matthew, 6, wishes he could play 3D games on his computer, and Jenna, 7, would like a solar-powered laptop.…