[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…

[From Digital Trends, where the story includes more images and a 0:31 minute video] Sony’s creating ‘Inception Glasses’ that will bend city streets and buildings around you By Jeremy Kaplan – September 24, 2014 Here’s one way to make the mountain come to Mohammed. In the 2010 Christopher Nolan film Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page create impossible dream environments by folding whole city blocks in upon themselves. It’s remarkable to see – so remarkable that Sony Computer Science Lab researcher Yuichiro Takeuchi decided to make the science fiction conceit into a reality. On Monday he unveiled the technology, running…

[An account of an inverse presence experience from The Verge] I tricked my brain into thinking real life was VR Welcome to the desert of the unreal By Adi Robertson on September 22, 2014 If you talk to anybody who’s into virtual reality for more than ten minutes, you will probably end up speculating about when we might achieve total immersion: the point at which a simulated experience becomes functionally indistinguishable from real life. Most people will submit that we’re not near that point yet, barring a nightmare scenario that Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey posited at the company’s conference this…

[From Geektime; see the Kickstarter site for much more information including videos] Yourbot lets you talk to your future generations Yourbot is your digital replica in the cloud and a foundation to preserve it for years to come. Your lineage will be able to chat with you in the year 2114 and beyond Amit Peri | On September 17, 2014 Imagine you could have a chat with your grandest of great great grandchildren today, what would you wish to tell them? Yourbot is an Android device with speech-to-text conversation engines which allows our future generations the ability to interact with…

[From Businessweek, where the story includes more images] [Image: As you walk around the farm, floating graphics add context. Courtesy Gannett Digital] A Newspaper’s First Trip Into Virtual Reality Goes to a Desolate Farm By Joshua Brustein September 22, 2014 Against the odds, the Des Moines Register has just become one of the first newspapers to move into virtual reality. Gannett (GCI), publisher of USA Today and dozens of regional publications, has released its debut report made specifically for the Oculus VR headset: an interactive view of a farm in Iowa designed to accompany a series of newspaper articles being…

[From Wired, where the story includes more pictures] Airbus Patents a VR Helmet That’ll Make You Forget You’re on a Plane By Alex Davies 09.16.14 In a world where economy-class seats are getting thinner and lavatories are shrinking, any flight longer than an hour can feel like a traveling prison. Aircraft manufacturer Airbus is abetting the shift, but a recent patent filing shows it hasn’t forgotten about you, the passenger who actually has to sit in these miserable flying cells. It’s considering helmets that will let you forget you’re in an airplane at all.…

[From Salon] [Image: Scene still from “A.I.”] Why artificial intelligence is the future of religion Robotics and Christianity have a longer history than you’d expect, and they’re only growing more entangled Michael Schulson, Religion Dispatches Sunday, Sep 14, 2014 This article originally appeared on Religion Dispatches. There are places you never expect to be in life. For me, this was certainly one of them: in a conference room in suburban Charlotte on the campus of Southern Evangelical Seminary, with an enormous old Bible on a side table, shelves of Great Books lining the walls, and, on the conference table itself,…

[From Wired, where the story includes many more images and a 0:25 minute video of the Teleporter experience] [Image: The two Teleporters standing in New York City. Starting September 18, one will be near City Hall, the other will be at the Marriott Marquis. Courtesy of Marriott Hotels/Framestore] The Future of Travel Has Arrived: Virtual-Reality Beach Vacations By Peter Rubin 09.18.14 I’m the only person in the hotel lounge. It’s night, and darkness lingers beyond the windows. Despite the room’s emptiness, there’s a feeling of warmth; a fireplace crackles, and music mixes with the hum of subdued conversation and clinking…

[From The Verge, where the story includes many images and a 1:19 minute video] You can now attach your iPad directly to your face to experience virtual reality AirVR wants to turn your iPad Mini and iPhone 6 Plus into portable virtual reality goggles By Carl Franzen September 16, 2014 It was only a matter of time. The iPad has been adapted for all sorts of intriguing and surprising purposes over the years (including, recently, a sex toy). Meanwhile, a number of enterprising organizations and individuals have sought to create makeshift virtual reality goggles out of people’s readily available mobile…

[From The Hollywood Reporter, where the story includes a 6:34 minute video] [Image: Douglas Trumbull at Toronto International Film Festival’s Future of Cinema conference, September 11, 2014; image from Mike Edgell] Future of Film: VFX Legend Douglas Trumbull’s Plan to Save the Movies The 72-year-old, who’s best known for his work on ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ says he’s figured out how to win the battle against big TVs and smartphones — from a studio on his farm in the Berkshires 9/2/2014 by Scott Feinberg A version of this story appeared in the Sept. 12 issue of The Hollywood Reporter.…