[From the South China Morning Post] That’s glow business: How pop stars to politicians are using holograms Public figures from pop stars to politicians are increasingly using holograms to reach more people. Jenni Marsh finds out where the technology is taking us Sunday, 01 September, 2013 Jenni Marsh jenni.marsh@scmp.com At a small hall in Gyeonggi province, South Korea, K-pop megastar Psy has been giving 16 performances a day, every day, since mid-July. In his first week at Everland Park, 30,000 fans came to see him. The concerts are for intimate audiences of 100 people, 30 minutes long, and feature all…

[From psfk] Virtual Reality Sandbox Shows the Movement of Natural Terrain [Video] Real-time topography gives children and adults an interactive way to learn about landscape Ross Brooks on September 3, 2013. Researchers at UC Davis have come up with an idea that fuses the physical and virtual in a way that will allow children to experience the world from a unique perspective – as opposed to immersing themselves in a screen of some sort. While it may look like an ordinary sandbox, this particular play area comes to life once children have had their turn molding it’s contents into an…

[From the Ohio State University; for details about the first international Google Glass surgery, in June 2013, see Clinica Cemtro; for a report about early reactions from those testing Glass see NPR] [Image: Dr. Christopher Kaeding, an orthopedic surgeon at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is shown wearing Google Glass.] Ohio State Doctor Shows Promise of Google Glass in Live Surgery Posted: 8/27/2013 COLUMBUS, Ohio – A surgeon at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is the first in the United States to consult with a distant colleague using live, point-of-view video from the operating room via…

[From the Association of Virtual Worlds Forum] Just What Virtual Worlds Need: A New Paradigm – Live Video Avatars Posted by Craig McAllister on June 26, 2013 To many people, today’s avatars represent elaborate animations. Recently, however, much fanfare has been made about new technologies enabling animated avatars to mimic a wide range of users’ facial expressions. If you smile, your avatar smiles with you. If you frown, your avatar frowns. This development allegedly translates into greater realism. But is this realism “real” enough? If the objective is to make an avatar truly “real”, why not have it actually be…

[From ETH Zurich] [Image: Innovative software rotates the face of the person on screen during video conferences in order to make eye contact. (Photo: Computer Graphics Laboratory / ETH Zurich)] Skype eye contact finally possible Those separated from family and friends by long distances often use video conferencing services such as Skype in order to see each other when talking. But who hasn’t experienced the frustration of your counterpart not making direct eye contact during the conversation? A software prototype from the Computer Graphics Laboratory ETH Zurich may be able to help. Angelika Jacobs Published: 27.08.13 “We want to make…

[From the University of Washington] [Image: University of Washington researcher Rajesh Rao, left, plays a computer game with his mind. Across campus, researcher Andrea Stocco, right, wears a magnetic stimulation coil over the left motor cortex region of his brain. Stocco’s right index finger moved involuntarily to hit the “fire” button as part of the first human brain-to-brain interface demonstration.] Researcher controls colleague’s motions in 1st human brain-to-brain interface August 27, 2013 Doree Armstrong and Michelle Ma News and Information University of Washington researchers have performed what they believe is the first noninvasive human-to-human brain interface, with one researcher able…

[From Science Now, where the story includes a 90 second video] [Image: Body swap. Adults were transformed into a 4-year-old child (top) and a scaled-down adult (bottom) in a virtual reality simulation.] Virtual Reality Allows Adults to See World Through a Child’s Eyes 2013-07-15 When you’re a kid, everything seems huge. Teachers tower over you; playgrounds stretch on to infinity. Now, researchers have found a way to make grownups feel the same way. By placing volunteers in virtual reality, scientists are helping adults see the world through the eyes of a child. Virtual reality is more than an illusion. To…

[From New Scientist, where the story includes a 1:26 minute video; follow the “Shipping Gallery” link for a longer video] Virtual reality resurrects a defunct exhibition Using laser-scanning techniques, the Science Museum in London has created a faithful virtual tour of its shipping gallery, which shut last year 27 August 2013 by Shaoni Bhattacharya Magazine issue 2931 Have you ever longed to visit an exhibition that no longer exists? Now you can – virtually. The Science Museum in London has harnessed technology originally developed to study clouds, and used it to capture a now defunct gallery in exquisite detail. A…

[From the Guardian] [Image: England’s David Beckham misses a penalty against Portugal in the Euro 2004 quarter-final at Lisbon’s Estádio da Luz. Photograph: Jose Manuel Ribeiro/Reuters] Virtual reality simulators could end England’s penalty shootout woe Technology can recreate pressurised situations for footballers BAE Systems and UK Sport’s project to help Olympic hopefuls James Riach Friday 23 August 2013 Virtual reality simulators could be the solution to end England’s penalty shootout woe in major tournaments, with plans to replicate the pressurised atmosphere of a packed stadium potentially coming to the aid of players. Technology is being developed by engineering company BAE…

[From The Financial Brand, where the story includes many images and infographics] Lights, Camera… Transactions & Interactions? There is no substitute to talking to consumers when and where they need person-to-person help with their finances. Two-way video banking lets financial institutions keep customer engagements personal and expand the reach while cutting back on their expensive branch investments. August 19, 2013 Telepresence holds great promise for retail banking, but most early-movers are missing the boat. Rather than reinventing the teller experience, banks should pursue video banking as an omnichannel mechanism to improve customer engagement, according to the new report, “Video Banking:…

[From PRWeb] Emory’s Gaming Platform Recovers Urban History—a Virtual Experience of Rome at the Carlos Museum This is the first time a gaming platform has been used at Emory University to recover urban history through an immersive and interactive reconstruction. Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) July 24, 2013 The celebrated bird’s-eye view map of Giovanni Battista Falda, published in 1676, will be transformed into a virtual, walkable, experience of Rome using the gaming platform NVis360, as part of the Carlos Museum’s special exhibition, “Antichità, Teatro, Magnificenza: Renaissance and Baroque Images of Rome,” on view from August 24 through November 17, 2013.…

[From the New York Times] [Image: The video game Disney Infinity shows how characters from the various Disney franchises might be mixed and matched.] Critic’s Notebook The Virtual World Welcomes Toy Players By Chris Suellentrop Published: August 15, 2013 Many people still think of video games as the province of children, precisely because, at the moment of their mass-market origins in the 1970s, they were genuinely kids’ stuff. A December 1980 article in The New York Times Magazine reported that electronics was transforming the toy industry the same way that plastics had 30 years earlier. The article barely differentiated the…