[From New Scientist via Slate; more information about AVA 500 is available from TechWeekEurope] [Image: The Roomba iRobot. Courtesy of Jing a Ling/Flickr] My Roomba’s Name Is Roswell Why people build strong attachments to robots By Celeste Biever Colin Angle is co-founder and CEO of iRobot in Bedford, Mass. The company recently created a brushless version of the Roomba vacuum, and this week released a telepresent robot called Ava 500. Its Packbots will also look for bombs at the football World Cup in Brazil this year. Celeste Biever: People dress up Roomba vacuum cleaners. Soldiers mourn bomb-disposal Packbots.…

[From Digital Trends, where the story includes more images] Sony’s long-standing interest in virtual reality gives Project Morpheus an edge By Adam Rosenberg  —  March 23, 2014 The most impressive thing that Sony’s Project Morpheus could possibly do in its 2014 Game Developer’s Conference reveal is work, and work well. The virtual reality headset immediately carries all of the same promise evident in the most recent iterations of Oculus VR’s Rift offering, and we’ve only just seen it for the first time. Of course, Sony’s been working on Morpheus in secret, compared to Oculus’ much more public crowd-funded development. “We’ve…

[From HLN, where the story includes a 1:54 minute video; more pictures of the artist’s work are available on her web site and at Daily Geek Show] Is that a person — or a painting? NEED TO KNOW Artist Alexa Meade brings paintings to life by painting directly on her subjects Find out why her artwork went viral in ‘There’s No Business Like Small Business’ By Natalie Angley Wed March 05, 2014 A California artist is turning people into paintings — literally. Alexa Meade, 27, skips the canvas in her artwork. When she paints a portrait, she paints directly on…

[From The Telegraph, where the story includes more images and two videos] Her: Could you ever fall in love with a computer? Spike Jonze’s Her, in which a man falls in love with his computer, was awarded Best Original Screenplay at last night’s Academy Awards. The concept may seem laughable, but advances in artificial intelligence are bringing us closer to our machines than ever before, says Rhiannon Williams By Rhiannon Williams 03 Mar 2014 When I was a teenager, my friends and I used to hold conversations with a robot. Or to be precise, a chatterbot, a computer programme specifically…

[From StarTrek.com, where the story includes more images and a video; part 2 of the interview is here] Meet The Man Behind The Holodeck, Part 1 By StarTrek.com Staff – March 11, 2014 Here’s a trivia question for you. Who put the idea of the holodeck into the mind of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry? Here’s another one for you: Who invented the very first LCD projector? And one more: Who interacted in the ultimate fanboy video with DeForest Kelley, George Takei, Walter Koenig, James Doohan and Nichelle Nichols, which included an introduction by Roddenberry? The answers are one and…

[From the University of Lincoln; two videos are available from ITV] It’s ERWIN the friendly robot 6th February 2014 Marie Daniels – PR Officer A ‘friendly robot’ called ERWIN will be used to help scientists understand how more realistic long-term relationships might be developed between humans and androids. ERWIN (Emotional Robot with Intelligent Network) is the brainchild of Dr John Murray, from the School of Computer Science, University of Lincoln, UK. It is now being used as part of a PhD study to find out how some of the human-like thought biases in robot characteristics affect the human-robot relationship.…

[From Tech Times] [Image: EA is considering working on virtual reality gaming. CEO Andrew Wilson says VR gaming may be the fourth “modality” of gaming. (Photo: Eliot Lash)] EA bets big on virtual reality games but when can we expect them? By Alex Saltarin, Tech Times | March 11, 2014 At the Las Vegas CES last January, we’ve seen a taste of what’s to come with the latest incarnation of the Oculus Rift. At the South by Southwest (SXSW) show in Austin, EA’s CEO hinted that the company is also exploring what it can do to virtual reality gaming.…

[From LiveScience] [Image: Philip Rosedale, creator of the game Second Life, and Adam Gazzaley, a neuroscientist at the University of California San Francisco, demonstrated their “glass brain” here at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive festival on March 10, 2014. Here, the interior of Rosedale’s wife’s brain in real-time on a projector screen. Credit: Tanya Lewis for Live Science] Virtual Reality System Lets You Explore Your Brain in Real-Time By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer  |  Updated March 11, 2014 AUSTIN, Texas — What if it were possible to explore your brain in virtual reality, watching your thoughts flashing before your…

[From Mashable, where the story includes more images and two videos] Are Interactive Toys Interfering With Child Development? By Travis Andrews Feb 25, 2014 It’s common to find a child talking to his Lego figures or Barbie dolls, but it’d probably knock your socks off if those toys talked back. Well, find some tighter footwear, because interactive toys are popping up faster than you can say “Polly Pocket.” The Winston Show, for example, is an interactive program for iOS in which the characters hold detailed conversations with the viewers. FooPets are the digital, veterinarian-created “world’s most realistic virtual pets” and…

[From Prahaar] On India visit- Robots that can sing, emote, read humans! Charlie, one of the world’s most advanced robot is designed by Rajiv Khosla, an Ex-IITian Wednesday, March 5th, 2014 | Author prahaar Web Team New Delhi: Talk about robots that can walk, talk, sing, read the news, tell the weather, go Internet shopping and even read human feelings! Meet Charles or Charlie, one of the world’s most advanced robot, designed by Rajiv Khosla an alumni of Indian Institute of Technology and professor at Australia’s La Trobe University, which can do all of that. At mere 20 cm tall,…

[From NPR’s cosmos & culture blog] The Limits Of Simulation by Alva Noë February 28, 2014 The idea that the world might be living in a simulation — discussed in Marcelo’s post this week — is brought to life with wit and power in Peter Weir’s 1998 film The Truman Show. Young Truman, who has been raised inside a simulation — a reality TV show! — is free to explore his environment; he can move around and pursue his interests and interrogate and probe. If he looks to his right, he sees the hustle and bustle of the world around…

[From V3; a 3:27 minute video with more details about the system is available on YouTube and analysis can be found at Telepresence Options] Polycom unveils giant video conference system to rival Cisco by Dan Worth 11 Feb 2014 Polycom has announced a giant new video-conferencing tool that sees the firm take on Cisco’s TelePresence suite at the top end of the market. The system will start from a not inconsiderable $425,000. The RealPresence Immersive Studio boasts top-of-the-range specs, with the firm touting it as a true “floor-to-ceiling” product that uses three 84in displays to create a giant video wall.…