[From Kill Screen, where the story includes another picture; more information, images and Vines are available from Kevin Cancienne on Twitter and more about No Quarter is available from NYU’s Game Center] Play with the carefree heart of a dog in Dog Park by Alexander Saeedy 07.17.14 Dogs are no strangers to games. Man’s best friend was a protagonist in Okami, a musician in Animal Crossing, and a prize-winning competitor in Nintendogs. But only in Okami can you virtually inhabit the body of a dog—to be running on all fours, pester some humans, and eat a bone.…

[From The New York Times] [Image: by Souther Salazar] The Future of Robot Caregivers By Louise Aronson July 19, 2014 Each time I make a house call, I stay much longer than I should. I can’t leave because my patient is holding my hand, or because she’s telling me, not for the first time, about when Aunt Mabel cut off all her hair and they called her a boy at school, or how her daddy lost his job and the lights went out and her mother lit pine cones and danced and made everyone laugh. Sometimes I can’t leave because…

[From IMT (Industry Market Trends), where the post includes additional images, including a diagram of the RAVE CAVE setup; note the non-profit institution’s goal to of “providing access to higher education research”] Virtual-Reality ‘Proto-Holodeck’ Enlivens Engineering Simulation The RAVE CAVE, about the size of a large cubicle and outfitted with cutting-edge vision technologies, is allowing engineers to see and interact with their design simulations as they would experience in real life. Located in the metro Detroit area, the simulator is also open to the public to promote engineering education. by Shawn Wasserman | July 17th, 2014 The Holodeck was one…

[From The New York Times, where the story includes two videos; more information is available from Magic Leap] [Image: The start-up Magic Leap, using a different approach called a digital light field, could seamlessly place a swimming shark in an office setting.] Real-Life Illness in a Virtual World By John Markoff July 14, 2014 FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — A 3-D animated creature, affectionately named Gerald, appears to walk in circles while floating in front of an elaborate viewer that resembles something from an optometrist’s office. Though only half a foot high, and with four arms, he looks remarkably lifelike through…

[From Mashable, where the story includes more images and two videos] Jibo Wants to Be the World’s First Family Robot Lance Ulanoff July 15, 2014 Social robots. That’s pretty much all Dr. Cynthia Breazeal has thought about for the past 20 years. Not so much how to build a better robot, but how to build one that could work and live alongside humans. It sounds like a simple concept, but it’s not; perhaps that is why it has taken her all these years to finally deliver a consumer product: Jibo, the world’s first family robot. Jibo is a desktop robot…

[From Polygon, where the story includes the 5:58 minute demonstration video mentioned at the end along with a 3:45 minute video review of the “South Park: The Stick of Truth” game] Oculus Rift experiment lets you become a citizen of South Park By Jenna Pitcher on Jul 03, 2014 Oculus Rift users can now walk around as a citizen in a recreation of animation series South Park thanks to a virtual reality project developed by production company Tool. “We started with three goals in mind for the experiment,” Tool’s explanation reads. “One, from a tech point of view, to sharpen…

[From The Sydney Morning Herald, where the story includes more images and a 1:18 minute video] [Image: Pressing on in Hawaii, via Scenic Cycle’s Sydney spinning studio. Photo: Brendan Esposito] Scenic Cycle: Ride the world in virtual reality July 9, 2014 Stephen Lacey with Steve Colquhoun I’m huffing and puffing up one of the most iconic climbs in cycling folklore: the Alpe D’Huez in the French Alps. The mountain is a mainstay of the Tour de France and it’s definitely one that separates the sprinters from the climbers. Who can ever forget Marco Pantani’s battle with Jan Ullrich in 1997?…

[From the Los Angeles Times; more information is available from This Place and an article in BBC News, which includes a short video interview] London firm creates mind-controlled commands for Google Glass Salvador Rodriguez July 11, 2014 Forget voice commands and touch gestures: A London firm has developed a way for Google Glass users to control their devices just by thinking. This Place, an agency that specializes in creating user interfaces and experiences for programs used in the medical industry, developed a software called MindRDR that allows Google Glass to connect with the Neurosky MindWave Mobile EEG biosensor, a head-mounted…

[From Forbes] [Image: Raghuram Sukumar experiences the YouVisit Oculus Rift virtual college tour; a description and 1 minute video are available at Happy Schools] Virtual Reality And The Brave New World Of College Recruiting Chase Peterson-Withorn 7/07/2014 As colleges and universities face an increasingly tech-savvy applicant pool, many recruiters are seeking out novel ways to speak the new generation’s language. The launch of the Common Application in 1975 – and later online version in 1998 – was one of the most expansive attempts schools made toward revolutionizing the college admissions process. Originally 15 schools participated and last year it processed more…

[From Wired, where the story includes two more images] The Oculus Rift Game That’s So Real It Nearly Destroyed Me By Chris Kohler 07.10.14 I can hear the alien breathing. I’ve played lots of videogames, lots of run-and-gun shooters in which I happily charge down a corridor into certain death. Not this time. I’ve got my back pressed against the wall of an abandoned spaceship, and I’m inching down a hallway, my head darting left and right, looking for danger everywhere. And I wonder, is this the one? Is this the Oculus Rift demo where I rip the headset off…

[From Fast Company’s Co.Design, where the story includes another image. The much-missed Cliff Nass would have appreciated this.] The Psychology Of Anthropomorphic Robots Subtle anthropomorphic cues, such as faces or voices, increase robot humanity. Google’s self-driving car is onto something. Eric Jaffe June 16, 2014 By now we’ve all seen the prototype for Google’s self-driving car: a teeny little road bopper shaped like a gumdrop. What’s immediately striking is that the car seems to have a smiley face designed into the front. Headlights for eyes, a forward sensor for a nose, a bumper line for a mouth tilted slightly upward…

[From Newcastle University’s Institute of Neuroscience] [Image: Dr. Jeremy Parr, Paul Smith and Dr. Morag Maskey in the Blue Room. Source: The Journal] Children with autism overcome real-life fears in virtual world 3rd July 2014 Immersive reality can help children with autism spectrum disorder overcome their fears and phobias, new research has shown. In a study published today in PLOS ONE, experts at Newcastle University describe how, following treatment in an immersive virtual reality room, eight out of nine children were able to tackle the situation they feared. Four children were found to have completely overcome their phobias.…