[From The Verge, where the story includes an additional image] Inside High Fidelity, the virtual reality successor to ‘Second Life’ A crude hint of how physical connection could invade the online world By Adi Robertson on May 19, 2014 As virtual reality gains steam, the question of virtual worlds is never far behind. Philip Rosedale is best known for online community Second Life. But since last year, we’ve been watching for news on High Fidelity, a new project meant to blend his previous work with cutting-edge telepresence technology. The system, announced in 2013, was compared to the OASIS of Ready…

[From MIT Technology Review; see today’s second post for an update on and analysis of the Second Life founder’s High Fidelity project. –Matthew ] Why Virtual Reality Will Compete with the Real World Hardware like the headset made by Oculus VR will allow virtual worlds to offer person-to-person interactions that compete with real life. Philip Rosedale May 5, 2014 Recent weeks have been good ones for people interested in virtual reality. The Facebook acquisition of Oculus has galvanized the idea that “something wonderful” will happen if we put on these strange headsets and visually enter other worlds. Of course, most…

[From CNN, where the story includes a 1 minute video report and screenshots of several tweets; see the full performance on YouTube; more notable coverage includes: “Sorry everyone, but Michael Jackson is dead” (Technology Tell) “Lionel Richie: Michael Jackson hologram was ‘freaky’ (Xpose) “Holograms: How to give your brand the Michael Jackson effect” (MediaWeek) “Decoding Holograms: 100 Narendra Modis, 1 Michael Jackson Alive on Stage in 2014” (a collection of videos/links for other posthumous hologram creations) (iDIVA) –Matthew ] Michael Jackson’s hologram: Creepy or cool? By Lisa Respers France, CNN Mon May 19, 2014 (CNN) — The King of Pop…

[From Fast Company’s Co.Design, where the story includes a photo gallery and a 1:03 minute video] MIT iPhone App Makes You Intimate With A Stranger Over 20 days, MIT’s new app gives you a peek into someone’s life. Caveat: You never speak. Mark Wilson May 8, 2014 20 Day Stranger, an iPhone app by MIT Media Lab’s Playful Systems group, wants to burst the sociographic bubble of our “friend” network. Our social media world, after all, is highly curated–it’s filled with people just like us. This app, very thoughtfully, hopes to change that. For 20 days, the app pairs you…

[From The New York Times] [Image: Tim Lahan] Psst. Look Over Here. By Kate Murphy   May 16, 2014 Look inside your kitchen cabinet and odds are you have a collection of old friends gazing back at you — the Quaker Oats man, the Sun-Maid girl, Aunt Jemima and maybe a Keebler elf or two. The reason they are there may have more do with your subconscious craving for eye contact than the taste of the products. In a study published last month in the journal Environment and Behavior, researchers at Cornell University manipulated the gaze of the cartoon rabbit on…

[From the Ames Tribune; the Second Livestock web site is here; a 0:55 minute video is here] ISU design professor envisions virtual reality lives for farm animals By Gavin Aronsen, Staff Writer Posted May 10, 2014 – Updated May 13, 2014 Could chickens raised in close confinement live more humane lives if they experienced them virtually? That’s a question posed by Austin Stewart, an assistant professor in Iowa State University’s College of Design, for his latest project. He calls it Second Livestock — a takeoff on the popular online virtual world Second Life. The idea goes something like this: Chickens,…

[From BGR] How to make a Star Trek-style Holodeck with an Oculus Rift and 3 Kinect sensors By Brad Reed on May 14, 2014 All proper sci-fi nerds have long dreamed of being able to take a trip in the Holodeck, a virtual reality chamber located on Star Trek’s USS Enterprise where you can simulate any time, place and situation you want to be in. Oliver Kreylos, a computer science professor and researcher at the University of California, Davis, has come the closest we’ve seen yet to creating a working Holodeck and he’s done it using an Oculus Rift virtual…

[From Fast Company’s Co.Design, where the post includes animated gifs and the 2:56 minute video (also available on Vimeo] Disney’s 12 Principles Of Animation, In A Cartoon Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, the “old men” of Walt Disney, made laws of physics just for cartoons. John Brownlee May 6, 2014 In the real world, the basic laws of physics were first described by Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. In the world of animation, however, we owe the laws of physics to Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Working for the Walt Disney Company in its heyday of the 1930s, these…

[From Motherboard, where the story includes a 54:59 minute video] To Reach 800 Million Voters, This Candidate Is Campaigning as a Hologram Written by DJ Pangburn May 7, 2014 Indian prime minister hopeful Narendra Modi is both real and a hologram. Over the course of his campaign, according to The Independent, Modi has appeared in holographic form before audiences at some 900 rallies. When it’s all said and done, Modi will have made over 1,000 holographic appearances before Indian voters. On May 6th, for instance, Modi’s holographic doppelgangers appeared at 100 3D Bharat Vijay rallies, organized by his political party,…

[From KFSN-TV, where the story includes a video news report; more information about this and a similar product is available at the web sites of Pet Chatz and IC Pooch] PetChatz allows you to keep an eye on pets Thursday, May 08, 2014 Christine Park FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Pet parents know keeping tabs on their four-legged family members while they’re away from home is no easy task. We’ve all seen the videos of dogs caught on camera when their owners aren’t home. From stealing cupcakes, to tearing up the couch, and crying all day long. People have been doing…

[From The Rift Arcade, where the story includes more images and a 1:39 minute video] Birdly simulates flight with Oculus Rift and body suit 7 May, 2014  Tom Rudderham The Oculus Rift offers the ability to discover new experiences from the comfort of your own chair. Whether it’s flight, the terror of a haunted house or the thrills of a high speed race, the possibilities are endless. With full 3D imagery and head tracking, never before have we been able to immerse ourselves in quite this way. However, one team from the Institute for Design Research at the Zurich University…

[From CNET, where the story includes an additional image] [Image: Jaden Anderson snaps a prom selfie with Olivia Ledezma, who attended via telepresence robot. Mispagel Photography] Meet your prom date, a telepresence robot Two Kansas high school students who had to be out of state at prom time get to dance with their friends, from thousands of miles away, thanks to technology. by Leslie Katz April 21, 2014 On a Saturday night earlier this month, Olivia Ledezma got all dressed up for her high school prom. So did her telepresence robot, which donned a pink feather boa and tiara for…