[From Re/code, where the story includes two videos] Google Set to Lead Huge Investment in Magic Leap and Its “Cinematic Reality” October 13, 2014 By Liz Gannes and Peter Kafka Google and other investors are planning a huge investment in Magic Leap, a secretive but boastful company building hardware and software it says will deliver “cinematic reality.” Sources say Google is leading what could be a $500 million funding round for the Florida-based company; Andreessen Horowitz may be one of the other investors in the consortium. Magic Leap already announced $50 million in funding earlier this year. Google, Andreessen Horowitz…

[From WVAS FM, where the post includes another picture and a 4:55 minute video] Domesticated Robots And The Art Of Being Human September 29, 2014 By Tania Lombrozo In the 1960s — well before Spike Jonze’s Samantha — MIT computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum introduced the world to Eliza, a psychotherapist (of sorts) who interacted with people through a text interface. She’s still around today. In preparing this post, I asked her what makes us human. “Are such questions on your mind often?” she replied. Eliza is a computer program — one of the first “chat bots” and an example of…

[From The Hollywood Reporter] Future of Film: Even Bigger Screens and, Yep, Cinema Selfies A panoramic theater opens in L.A. on Sept. 19 as other new tech includes live audience interaction onscreen 09/02/2014 by Carolyn Giardina As exhibitors try to fend off competition from ever-bigger home theater systems, movie houses may soon take their cues from the ’50s. Back then, to counter the arrival of TV, Hollywood retaliated by offering bigger — and wider — images onscreen, culminating in Cinerama. That panoramic theater configuration, which faded out by the end of the ’60s, left behind the landmark Cinerama Dome on…

[From Siemens’ Pictures of the Future magazine, where the story includes another image and a 2:22 minute video; see also a story (with video) in Bloomberg] Simulation and Virtual Reality: Training in the Virtual World 3D visualization software makes it possible for users to immerse themselves in a virtual model of a facility. In-depth training sessions prepare technicians for future challenges. Stefan Schröder 1 October 2014 In an oil industry nightmare, a leaky pipe on a production platform has caught fire. The flames spread rapidly, and dense black smoke rises from the lower deck. The crew has to respond within…

[From Space.com, where the story includes other images and a 2:33 minute video; for first-person reports on the exhibit, see The Mary Sue and Complex] ‘Interstellar’ Launches Immersive Space Trip with IMAX, Oculus Rift By Tariq Malik, Managing Editor   |   October 06, 2014 NEW YORK — Grab your spacesuits, space fans. The folks behind “Interstellar,” arguably the most anticipated space film of the year, are offering a sneak peek inside the movie’s centerpiece spaceship Endurance. And all it takes is a few minutes of your time. For a limited time, Paramount Pictures and IMAX are inviting the public to take…

[From Shelly Palmer, Managing Director, Digital Media Group at Landmark Ventures/ShellyPalmer; the original post includes additional pictures] BeamPro: From Parlor Trick to Paradigm Shift October 5, 2014 This picture of my family was taken last week. You may notice that one of my sons looks like a talking head on a video monitor. Three weeks ago, he moved to Hong Kong. This is the story of how he attended a very important family gathering (from 8,047 miles away) using his iPhone as a 3G hotspot, his MacBook Air and a remarkable device called the BeamPro from Suitable Technologies. I became…

[From The Wall Street Journal, where the story includes a different image] [Image: John Gerrard, Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada), 2014. Simulation, installation view, Lincoln Center, New York. Courtesy of the artist, Simon Preston, New York and Thomas Dane, London. Photo by Iñaki Vinaixa. Source: The Creators Project] John Gerrard’s ‘Solar Reserve’ Comes to Lincoln Center ‘This Is as Handmade as Painting or Sculpture; We Have to Build the Entire Terrain’ By Andy Beta Oct. 2, 2014 On a sunny day last week, John Gerrard was wondering how the solar power plant he was installing at Josie Robertson Plaza in Lincoln…

[Something a little different: From ACM Digital Library and being presented October 4-5 at the 27th ACM User Interface Software and Technology Symposium in Honolulu, Hawaii; be sure to watch the 0:30 minute video at ACM DL or on YouTube. More information (and the image below) are available here.] RoomAlive: magical experiences enabled by scalable, adaptive projector-camera units Abstract: RoomAlive is a proof-of-concept prototype that transforms any room into an immersive, augmented entertainment experience. Our system enables new interactive projection mapping experiences that dynamically adapts content to any room. Users can touch, shoot, stomp, dodge and steer projected content that…

[From TechRadar, where the story includes another image and the 2:38 minute video] Lexus built an Oculus Rift driving sim from real car part Drive the Lexus RC F in virtual reality By Michael Rougeau October 2, 2014 The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset has a big problem that even its creators don’t know how to solve: no existing control methods feel adequate to use with virtual reality. One solution is to create highly specialized controllers that resemble specific objects like guns or, in the case of a tech demo car maker Lexus has created, the cockpit of a new…

[From the Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog, where the post includes more images; more information is available from Zwift] Zwift Is Trying to Turn Indoor Cycling Into Virtual Reality Sep 30, 2014 By Reed Albergotti For serious cyclists, cold weather is a time of dread filled with numb fingers and foreheads. Cyclists who want to stay in shape often retreat to indoor “trainers” that turn road bikes into stationary ones. But there’s a big drawback: indoor biking can get boring. That’s why Zwift, a London-based startup, is launching a “massively multiplayer online game” where cyclists compete against one another in…

[From CNET, where the story includes more images. For more information including a video interview see the Designing Interaction web site, and the Rekimoto Lab web site (the Projects page is in English)] [Image: Rekimoto speaking at this week’s research symposium. Scott Gries, courtesy of Sony] This Sony researcher wants to put you in someone else’s head Jun Rekimoto, who studies augmented reality at Sony Computer Science Labs, is using cameras, drones and sensors to capture and share what others are seeing and feeling. by Ben Fox Rubin September 27, 2014 Jun Rekimoto envisions a future in which sports spectators…

[From Mashable, where the story includes two more images; be sure to see the last paragraph] 5 Roadblocks to Virtual Reality Becoming Mainstream Chelsea Stark September 30, 2014 For more than 25 years, one iteration or the next of virtual reality has been touted as a life-altering technological breakthrough. At the first Oculus Rift developers conference, attendees saw how far its creators have come in pursuit of an outstanding virtual reality platform. But virtual reality still has a long way to go before it’s ready for consumers, and its biggest proponents know it, too. During Oculus Connect, the company’s top…