[From IEEE Spectrum’s Automaton blog; the paper is available here (pdf)] Robot Mirrors Our Emotions To Be More Social Posted by Angelica Lim  /  Wed, November 14, 2012 We all have that friend: The one who understandingly pats us on the back when we feel down, or shares our excitement when we’re brimming with joy. They share our frowns when we’ve been wronged, and say “I’ve been there” when we confess our worries. Psychologists have long known that this kind of empathy is an important social construct for building relationships, and now researchers are testing whether it can bring us closer…

[From eWeek] Cisco Still Leads Slowing Video Conferencing Market: IDC Revenues in the space fell 4.8 percent in the third quarter, hindered by a weak global economy and a drop in sales of high-end telepresence systems. By Jeffrey Burt  |  Posted 2012-11-30 The worldwide video conferencing market is continuing to struggle in the face of an uncertain global economy and slowing sales of expensive, high-end immersive telepresence systems, according to analysts with market research firm IDC. IDC’s third-quarter numbers, reported Nov. 29, show a trend that has continued throughout the year, as the shift in enterprise video conferencing has been…

[From The Verge, where the story includes a video and more images] Life telepresent: Working vicariously through the Beam robot By Paul Miller on November 7, 2012 Last week I took a trip to Willow Garage in the heart of Silicon Valley. It’s not a hard place to find, and I was on time for my 11AM appointment. Just one problem: I was supposed to be at Suitable Technologies at 11AM, not Willow. Suitable is a recent spinoff of Willow Garage, which might explain my confusion. In fact, as I stood befuddled at Willow’s reception desk, I was greeted by Scott…

[From Medill Reports, where the story includes a 1:02 minute video] [Image: Arthur Nishimoto (right) gives visitors a virtual reality tour of the starship Enterprise model he’s spent two years creating. Mitch Smith/MEDILL] Move over, Holodeck by Mitch Smith Nov 28, 2012 It’s baby shower day and Arthur Nishimoto’s gift is next. His pregnant classmate unwraps a gray onesie with a Star Trek logo that matches the one on Nishimoto’s T-shirt. The room full of University of Illinois at Chicago computer science graduate students erupts in laughter. Spare Nishimoto the jokes about how computer geeks have memorized every line of…

[From Red Hill Studios via PRNewswire] Red Hill Studios Releases ‘Be There: Yosemite’ Innovative Mobile VR iPad/iPhone App SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Award-winning mobile app developer Red Hill Studios announces the release of Be There: Yosemite, the second in a series of innovative ‘mobile virtual reality’ apps that let you explore famous locations as if you were standing right there – viewing the scene. With Red Hill’s proprietary Panopticon™ technology, this revolutionary app reads the gyroscopes on the iPad/iPhone and updates the view in perfect sync with your movements. Immersive soundscapes featuring the native birds and animals…

[From Aviation International News; the 3DVisualisation Service web site is here] [Image: 3DVisualization Service president J.P. Mangano shows off the company’s virtual reality headset, which customers can use to walk through the interior of their aircraft before it is completed.] 3D Visualization Service Provides Virtual Aircraft Environment by Curt Epstein October 31, 2012 While most of the aircraft builders at NBAA [National Business Aviation Association] build their products out of tons of aluminum or increasingly carbon fiber, one new exhibitor here builds them out of thin air. 3DVisualization Service is demonstrating its technology (Booth no. 2885), which allows customers to…

[From Slate, where the story includes a 4:21 minute video; more information including images and another video are available from the web site of The MERGE Festival] How Robots Saved an Artist’s Sanity The greatest artist of his generation is named Paul. By Torie Bosch | Posted Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012 For much of his life, Patrick Tresset has been torn between art and technology. The child of an artist and an engineer, Tresset dabbled in both during his youth in France and enjoyed tinkering with the “primitive” computer his family got when he was 10. In college, he eschewed…

[From Diginfo TV] Change the size of food and your appetite with AR system from Tokyo U. 2 November 2012 Posted By Don Kennedy and Ryo Osuga At the University of Tokyo, the Hirose Tanikawa Group has developed an AR system that can manipulate the user’s feeling of having eaten enough, by changing how big the food appears. This system features a head-mount display with a camera, and uses image processing to make food look bigger than it actually is. The size of the food in the hands can be changed in real time, while keeping the size of the…

[From Stony Brook University; a 2:12 minute video is available here] [Image: Image of Dubai, United Arab Emirates viewed in the Reality Deck] SBU Demonstrates Largest Resolution Immersive Visualization Facility Ever Built “Reality Deck” designed to assist scientists, engineers and physicians in tackling modern-age problems requiring vast amounts of data STONY BROOK, NY, November 15, 2012 – Stony Brook University unveiled its latest engineering feat, a 1.5 billion pixel Reality Deck, at a demonstration held at the University’s Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT) on November 15. The Reality Deck, a 416 screen super-high resolution virtual reality…

[From Uwishunu; some of us walked over to see the Experience Wall during the recent ISPR 2012 conference] [Image: The Comcast Holiday Spectacular, a unique-to-Philadelphia high-tech holiday show screened on the world’s largest four-mm LED video display, opens for the 2012 season on Thanksgiving Day. (Photo by Joseph Kaczmarek courtesy Comcast Center)] The Comcast Holiday Spectacular, A Festive Film Experience Screened On The World’s Largest Four-Millimeter LED Screen, Returns For The 2012 Holiday Season On Thanksgiving Day Posted by Allison Stadd November 15, 2012 Other cities have ice skating rinks, festooned store windows and soaring Christmas trees. But Philadelphia has…

[A story about presence with animals from NBC News; the article in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface is available here] [Image: Comparison of the robotic-fish to a zebrafish individual] With a wag of its tail, robo-fish draws attention of real thing Convincing droids may one day help lead fish from danger, scientists say By Charles Choi 11/14/2012 Robotic fish can make real fish like them simply by waving their artificial tails in a special way, researchers say. These droids could lead real fish away from perils such as underwater turbines, and help scientists learn more about how real…

[From The University of Toronto Scarborough] [Image: A volunteer takes part in a virtual reality test designed to determine if a cognitive impairment will affect a person’s ability to function in the real world. (Credit: Ken Jones/U. Toronto)] Virtual reality could spot real-world impairments Sep 25, 2012 Kurt Kleiner A virtual reality test being developed at UTSC might do a better job than pencil-and-paper tests of predicting whether a cognitive impairment will have real-world consequences. The test developed by Konstantine Zakzanis, associate professor of psychology, and colleagues, uses a computer-game-like virtual world and asks volunteers to navigate their ways through…