[A Valentine’s Day post from psfk, where the story includes an additional picture; more information including gifs and a 1:33 minute video is available at the Cyborg Dating website website and a longer video is available on YouTube] Virtual Reality Dating Lets Couples Build Trust in Time for Valentine’s Cyborg Dating is an augmented experience that pairs couples in a VR-assisted game of ‘follow the leader’ By Kiran Umapathy on February 9, 2015 New virtual reality experiences are being developed every day. And if you’re looking for an interesting date idea, you may want to check out Cyborg Dating.…

[A technology for evoking telepresence after death (other coverage suggests this is a good alternative to taxidermy) from Oddity Central, where the story includes several more pictures and a 4:31 minute video with customer reactions (starting at about 2:12). For a single set of particularly compelling reactions see YouTube for “My family’s reaction to Cuddle Clines Tobi” (especially starting at about 2:15). The company’s website is down because of traffic volume at this writing, but more information is available here. I’d seriously consider this for my late, much-loved and missed dog Sidra… –Matthew ] Company Specializes in Creating Cuddly Plush…

[From Advertising Age; my favorite quote (from near the end): “one thing that turns out to be a rule is that you need to nurture a sense of presence.” –Matthew ] [Image: Masquerading with the Most Interesting Man Credit: Dos Equis] Grab Your Headset: Producers Plunge Into Virtual Reality Demand for VR Rises as Advertisers Invest in Immersive Experiences By Ann-Christine Diaz. Published on February 11, 2015. Before you start dismissing virtual reality as the stuff of gamer nerds, or the next Second Life, think again. In the last month alone, top creators from the entertainment and ad worlds and…

[An unusual story about social presence from Fast Company’s Co.Design, where the article includes a large photo gallery; follow the link at the end for more information and images] [Troy, Nine Months of Reborning, from photographer Jamie Diamond’s series “Mother Love”] Meet The Women Who Treat Their “Reborn” Dolls Like Real Children A photographer immersed herself in the Reborning movement, in which collectors mother uncannily realistic baby dolls. Carey Dunne is a Brooklyn-based writer covering art and design. January 12, 2015 In the Reborning subculture, collectors “adopt” hyper-realistic artificial babies—impeccably crafted from vinyl, glass, doe suede, and up to eighty…

[From Motherboard] The Dark Age of Virtual Reality-Based Torture Is Approaching Fast Written by Doug Bierend January 31, 2015 ​Imagine you’re in a small room. The walls are covered in geometric patterns that literally hurt to look at. In the corner are a polygonal bed and bench canted at angles that make them impossible to sit on. The floor is cluttered with a gridwork of bricks rendering it impossible to walk any direction but forward. It sounds like a computer model of the exact opposite of Fung Shui, but it’s quite real. Built by anarchists fighting in the Spanish Civil…

[From The Creators Project, where the post includes more images; the installation will also be at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona until May 17, 2015] Enter the Sun Without Burning Alive in New NASA Installation By Becky Chung — Feb 5 2015 Inside the Solarium, a video installation by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), you can enter the belly of the sun without worrying about frying to a crisp. In fact, the dynamic visuals of the giant star’s turbulent gas atmosphere exploding and erupting on the walls of the Goddard Space Flight Center’s Visitor Center [in Greenbelt,…

[From News.com.au, where the story includes several more pictures. The “Future of Business: Australia 2040” report is available as a nine page pdf document from MYOB. For some perspective on making these kinds of predictions, see an editorial from Stuff.co.nz] The workplace of 2040: Mind control, holograms and biohacking are the future of business What will the workplace look like in 2040? Imagine remote working via hologram, commuting by jetpack, even controlling your office with your mind. February 05, 2015 Frank Chung MYOB has released its ‘Future of Business: Australia 2040’ report, which examines the possible impact of emerging technologies…

[From Vox; follow the link at the end for a full-size infographic. Many videos that illustrate the evolution are available on YouTube, including the 1:45 minute ‘moving line-up’ one here and the 16:45 minute one with gameplay and sound here] How Lara Croft’s changing face illustrates Moore’s law By Timothy B. Lee on February 1, 2015 Lara Croft is one of the most recognizable female characters in video gaming, having starred in a dozen editions of Tomb Raider since the series debuted in 1996. And that makes her a perfect window into the rapid pace of progress in 3D graphics…

[From the University of Southampton; a 0:33 minute video is available on YouTube] European project launches the world’s first real-time ‘mixed reality’ ski race February 2, 2015 A professional skier will battle against two online gamers in the world’s first interactive ‘mixed reality’ downhill ski race using technology pioneered by European researchers. Hitting speeds of up to 100 kilometres an hour, the top-class skier will hurtle down the world cup ski course in Schladming, Austria, in a bid to reach the finish line before his two competitors – virtual reality gamers based in Thessaloniki, in Greece, and Munich, in Germany.…

[From NPR, where you can listen to the 3:56 minute audio version of the story] [Image: Mikael Henriksson works at an air traffic control center in the town of Sundsvall, Sweden. But the screens show the airport in the tiny town of Ornskoldsvik, more than 100 miles away. It’s the world’s first facility to use new technology to help passenger planes land far away at an unmanned airport.] In Sweden, Remote-Control Airport Is A Reality Ari Shapiro February 01, 2015 As our plane touches down in Sundsvall, Sweden, the horizon is all snow and ice. A small air traffic control…

[From Fast Company, where the story includes more pictures and a 0:19 minute video] Sending A Handwritten Letter Is Now As Easy As Using Gmail But does a note in your handwriting done by a bot look like it’s sent from uncanny valley? We test out letter-writing company Bond to see. By Rebecca Greenfield January 23, 2015 Sitting on my desk is a lovely note, written on thick, customized stationery with my name scrawled across the top. It’s in my handwriting, but I didn’t write it. A robot did. Looking closely, I can spot some slight differences between the bot-generated…

[From Gizmodo Australia, where the story includes more images and a 0:41 minute video; coverage in the International Business Times notes that Samsung is also discussing partnerships with other airlines and with train operators] Qantas To Use Samsung’s Gear VR For First-Class In-Flight Entertainment Campbell Simpson January 29, 2015 If you’re lucky enough to fly in first class, your pointy end long-haul flight is about to get even fancier. Qantas is going to be using the Samsung Gear VR, and the accompanying Galaxy Note 4, for in-flight entertainment for its first-class customers. Starting out as a pilot program on Qantas’…