[From GCN; follow the links for more information and images] [Image: An interface for helm control of a ship. Note the position of his hands, floating above the controls a la Minority Report rather than touching them directly. From The Verge.] Virtual reality headset helps Navy simulate future workspaces By Kathleen Hickey Feb 18, 2014 The Office of Naval Research’s Project BlueShark is an effort to create a high-tech, futuristic environment to demonstrate what the Navy’s workspaces might look like and what emerging innovative technologies might provide in the next decade. BlueShark was developed by the University of Southern California’s…

[A change of pace – the ultimate form of (tele)presence; this is from The New York Times] [Image: Art by Olimpia Zagnoli] Is the Universe a Simulation? Feb. 14, 2014 By Edward Frenkel In Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita,” the protagonist, a writer, burns a manuscript in a moment of despair, only to find out later from the Devil that “manuscripts don’t burn.” While you might appreciate this romantic sentiment, there is of course no reason to think that it is true. Nikolai Gogol apparently burned the second volume of “Dead Souls,” and it has been lost forever.…

[From NJ.com, with an addendum from NBC News] [Image: AP European History students at the Hun School in Princeton facetime with their teacher.] Hun School teacher holds class via tablet as she sits in Pa. Turnpike gridlock By Alyssa Mease/The Times of Trenton on February 15, 2014 PRINCETON [New Jersey] – After missing multiple school days because of snow this winter, Hun School history teacher Lynn McNulty wasn’t going to let a series of chain-reaction car crashes and a miles-long traffic jam on the Pennsylvania Turnpike yesterday keep her from school another day. “I was probably about two miles back…

[From Motherboard] A Virtual Reality Train Ride Reveals a Link Between Height and Paranoia By Victoria Turk January 29, 2014 As anyone who’s been to a gig and isn’t six feet tall has probably experienced, being surrounded by people taller than you—why does that always happen?—can be annoying at best, and kind of scary at worst. There’s a certain vulnerability that comes with suddenly feeling shorter than those around you. A paper published online today in the journal Psychiatry Research looks at part of this phenomenon, by investigating the relation between height and paranoia. The study, which was led by…

[From Fast Company’s Co.LABS, where the story includes a 1:41 minute video. More information is available via the links within the article.] This Video Game Knows When You’re Scared–And Gets Scarier The director behind the innovative video game Nevermind tells us why biofeedback is the new frontier in gaming. By Joshua Rivera 2014-02-13 In the future, horror games will know when you’re scared. And then they’ll get scarier. Proof: the currently-in-development horror-adventure game Nevermind, which just launched a Kickstarter campaign last week. The game pairs classic first-person exploration with biofeedback data from a heart rate monitor in order to tell…

[There are (at least) three satires of the audio conference call experience making the social media rounds lately – in addition to the one in the article below from Slate, there’s David Grady’s comedy routine “A Conference Call” and the recent Tripp & Tyler video “A Conference Call in Real Life”; they’re all not only at times laugh-out-loud funny but illustrate key presence concepts (and their absence).] [Image: “Win-Win” by Zach Scott; the animated version is here] “Like David Lynch Directed a Remake of Office Space” A site that perfectly captures the existential despair of the conference call.…

[From Wired; a 2:20 minute video is available on YouTube] [Image: Topshop/Inition] Oculus Rift: Your front row Fashion Week ticket 12 February 2014 by Olivia Solon To celebrate London Fashion Week, retailer Topshop is collaborating with 3D agency Inition to allow fans of the brand to experience a virtual front-row seat at a fashion show. This year, the Autumn/Winter 2014 show for Topshop’s Unique range will take place in the Tate Modern’s cavernous Turbine Hall. While seats at the live show are reserved for sartorial VIPs, Topshop fans will be able to experience what it’s like to be on the…

[Unfortunately this technology won’t be available for the trip to ISPR 2014 next month… This is a press release from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and Fraunhofer IAO via OpenPR; follow the links at the end for much more information including more photos] VR-HYPERSPACE – Flying in comfort using Virtual Reality Future technologies to help airline passengers experience increased comfort and space and an altered self-perception Press release of Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and Fraunhofer IAO 02-10-2014 Tübingen & Stuttgart, February 6, 2014 – Does this sound familiar? After a long check-in procedure you are finally…

[From the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Wired Campus blog] Futurist Attends Educause Conference via ‘Doppelbot’ February 6, 2014 by Lawrence Biemiller Has your budget for attending conferences been slashed again? Here’s an idea: Send a remote-controlled robot instead. That’s how Bryan Alexander, a futurist and education-technology consultant, attended the Educause Learning Initiative conference, in New Orleans this week. Without leaving his home, in Vermont, he maneuvered a slightly-gawky, two-wheel “telepresence robot”–essentially, an iPad mounted on a sort of miniature Segway–around the Riverside Hilton’s meeting rooms. He chatted with friends and acquaintances, peered at conference posters, and even posed for pictures.…

[From 02] O2 launches ‘Wear the Rose’ – the first ever Oculus Rift sports experience Published: 06/02/2014 O2, proud partner of England Rugby, today announced that it has created ‘Wear the Rose’, the first fully immersive 360-degree virtual reality sports experience, using the revolutionary Oculus Rift technology. ‘Wear the Rose’ from O2 will allow fans to be immersed in a multi-sensory take-over and feel as though they are part of the Senior England Rugby Team, whether it’s a team talk from Captain Chris Robshaw, getting tackled by hooker Tom Youngs, or receiving a pass from fullback Mike Brown.…

[From The Creators Project, where the post includes animated gifs; more information and gifs are available on the Prosthetic Knowledge site] From Berlin To Tokyo, People Are Turning Their Faces Into Tablets By Ella Riley Adams — Feb 6 2014 With her Yamada Taro project, Katsuki Nogami explores ideas of international identity and the anonymity of technology. Yamada Taro is a placeholder Japanese name, like John Smith in the US. To create placeholder people, Nogami attached iPads to performers’ faces. The performers then took photos of people they encountered on the streets of Berlin and Tokyo. Each photo appeared on…

[The first of two art-related news posts today… this is from the Guardian; more information, including two videos, is available from the Tate‘s web site] Robots to roam Tate Britain at night Artist collective known as the Workers wins inaugural digital prize with plan to let loose remote-controlled robots in gallery at night Mark Brown, arts correspondent The Guardian, Thursday 6 February 2014 It is an enticing proposition: the chance to be all on your own in a gallery or museum in the middle of the night. Tate Britain may not allow that but it hopes for the next best thing.…