[From The Asahi Shimbun, where the story includes additional images] 3-D display offers chilling look at Nagasaki after A-bomb attack March 05, 2014 By Miyuki Kanno / Staff Writer NAGASAKI–A new 3-D imaging display system allowing viewers to experience the devastation of Nagasaki immediately after the 1945 atomic bombing opened here on March 3. Virtual Genshiya (Virtual atomic wasteland), developed by Takashi Fujiki, a professor of technology education at Nagasaki University, uses computer graphics to give viewers a panoramic view of a 500-meter radius of ground zero just after the blast. The system is on display at the Art and…

[There has been lots of coverage of Facebook’s purchase of Oculus VR, including predictions and concerns about the implications (e.g., see stories at Fast Company and Time). Here’s how Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg describes the future of VR and presence in his announcement on Facebook] Mark Zuckerberg March 25 near Palo Alto, CA I’m excited to announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Oculus VR, the leader in virtual reality technology. Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. For the past few years, this has mostly meant building mobile apps that help you share with the people…

[From VentureBeat, where the story includes an additional image] [Image: Dhanushan Balachandreswaran of Sulon Technologies. Image Credit: Dean Takahashi.] Sulon Technologies enters the virtual reality race with a new kind of immersive experience March 19, 2014 Dean Takahashi Sulon Technologies is unveiling a new kind virtual reality platform that will turn any room into a fanciful virtual space. Sulon is showing off its demo of The Cortex virtual reality “spatial gaming” platform at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. In doing so, the company is trying to win over the hearts of game developers in what is becoming a…

[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…