[From Gizmodo, where the story includes several more images and a 3:11 minute video] The NASA Playground That Takes Virtual Reality To a Whole New Level Brent Rose November 18, 2014 Gizmodo’s Space Camp is all about the under-explored side of NASA. From robotics to medicine to deep-space telescopes to art. All this week we’ll be coming at you direct from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, shedding a light on this amazing world. You can follow the whole series here. We’ve seen how NASA recreates the vacuum of space right here on Earth, but what about the gravity…

[From The Verge, where the story includes more pictures] How to live for a month in virtual reality Artist Mark Farid will spend 28 days as someone else in ‘Seeing I’ By Adi Robertson on November 18, 2014 Next year, artist Mark Farid wants to give up a month of his life to virtual reality. If a crowdfunding campaign succeeds, he’ll spend 28 days in a gallery, wearing a VR headset and a pair of noise-canceling headphones. For the duration of the show, all he’ll experience will be video and audio captured by a complete stranger, going about their daily…

[From The Verge; more information, including video material, is available from Samsung] Samsung announces Project Beyond, a 360-degree 3D camera that creates virtual reality worlds By Nathan Ingraham on November 12, 2014 Samsung just announced Project Beyond at its 2014 Developer Conference — it’s a 360-degree camera module that captures everything around it in 3D. It captures a gigapixel of 3D footage every second, and can stream that footage back to someone wearing Samsung’s Gear VR headset, essentially transporting them into that world. Essentially, Project Beyond continuously creates a virtual 3D environment of wherever it is placed — Samsung said…

[From io9, where the post includes a video clip and more images; the full episode is available on the South Park web site] Behold The Terrifying Real-Life South Park From Last Night’s Episode Meredith Woerner Thursday November 13, 2014 Last night, South Park used Oculus Rift and The Matrix to fall into a virtual reality hole where nothing was what it seemed. And everyone was being told that their reality “wasn’t real”—over and over, until we ended up just as lost as the kids. And then there was a twist. Warning: spoilers [are below and] in [the embedded] clip [from] the…

[From The Guardian, where the story includes more images] [Image: The Who’s Oculus Rift app will be released in early 2015. Photograph: PR] The Who to launch virtual reality app for Facebook’s Oculus Rift Fly-through app will celebrate band’s 50th anniversary, alongside 3D retrospective apps for Android and iOS Stuart Dredge Monday 10 November 2014 I’d always hoped I’d fly through a virtual reality environment on a Lambretta listening to some of The Who’s greatest hits before I got old. Now I have, courtesy of an official app being developed for Facebook’s Oculus Rift headset. The app, which is due…

[From TBI; more information, including demo videos, can be found on the DEEP web site] Arte makes VR move with Polar Sea 360 by Pascale Paoli-Lebailly November 14, 2014 A new cross media experience about the Arctic region and the impact of global warming is coming to screens, combining TV, web and virtual reality elements and blending adventure, science and arts.…

[From Business Insider Australia, where the story includes an additional picture] Freelancer Has A Robot In Its Office That Has Staff Working In Ways They Never Imagined Pete Cooper, Freelancer.com  November 13, 2014 So our first telepresence robot arrived in the office late last week. It started out interesting then became an experience none of us will forget. Our robot looks like a weird iPad mounted on a segway, sort of like a stick with wheels that should look precarious but through the magic of software actually drives with a remarkable smooth and almost statuesque elegance. Until it hits a…

[From MIT’s Technology Review] Virtual Reality Aims for the Mobile Phone A smartphone-based virtual reality headset from Samsung and Oculus VR could make the technology more accessible, but it also demonstrates a new set of challenges. By Simon Parkin on November 12, 2014 Max Cohen, head of mobile at Oculus VR, the virtual reality startup bought by Facebook this year for $2 billion, is unequivocal: the dominant way most consumers will experience virtual reality will be on mobile devices. “PCs and dedicated machines will always have more power, but at some point, graphics become ‘good enough’ on a mobile device…

[From BBC News, where the story includes more images and two videos (see note at end for a link to a longer video program] [Image: The Aero robot was originally designed to take part in a competition held by NASA] Ebola-tackling robots to be discussed by the White House By Jen Copestake BBC Click TV, Boston 6 November 2014 Robots have been working in disaster zones since 9/11. They can reach remote and dangerous locations and operate in places people can’t go, including the rubble of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. So it seems a natural step to think about…

[From Engadget, where the post includes a 34:04 minute video] Virtual reality has a future beyond video games, and it’s already started by Sean Buckley | November 8th 2014 With devices like the Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus driving the public’s interest in virtual reality, it’s easy assume the future of VR lies in video games. It’s a safe prediction, but it isn’t right: “It’s a broad category,” Matterport’s Matt Bell said at Engadget Expand. “I think it’s going to go in about ten directions at once.” Bell compares the future of VR to the history of the internet…

[Something a little different, but still technology misperceived: From the Los Angeles Times, where the story includes a 2:16 minute video report; for more information, see the press release via Eurekalert] Mind-blowing robot conjures ghosts in the lab By Geoffrey Mohan November 6, 2014 It’s never too late for a little Halloween creepiness. At least not for a group of Swiss researchers, who managed to make unwary subjects feel like they had been tapped by a ghost. In fact, a couple of the bindfolded volunteers thought the experience was so creepy they almost quit, according to neuroscientist Giulio Rognini, of…

[From Mashable; for more information and videos from the show, see the Wall Street Journal Speakeasy blog] [Image: Jimmy Kimmel and Kacey Musgraves interact via hologram. Source: Yahoo! Screen] Inside Jimmy Kimmel’s big hologram moment By Sandra Gonzalez November 5, 2014 Jimmy Kimmel is ready for his hologram close-up. On Wednesday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, airing after the Country Music Association awards, the host and his team will attempt an impressive technological feat that will find the host presiding over two audiences in two different locations at one time. The goal is simple-sounding: Los Angeles-based Kimmel will have guests in both his…