[From BBC News; a 2:13 minute video is available here; much more information is available at the Random International site] Exhibition gives visitors power to control the rain By Sabrina Sweeney Entertainment reporter, BBC News 4 October 2012 Most of us have been caught in a torrential downpour and wished we could make it stop, but how would it feel to have the power to control the weather? Rain Room, a new 3D exhibition at London’s Barbican Centre marries art, science and technology to do just that. Despite standing in a space filled with drops of falling water, visitors remain…

[From Campus Technology] [Image: From “4 Ways to Use Video Conferencing Technology in the Classroom,” available at SecurEdge Network] Maximizing the Instructional Impact of Videoconferencing The spread of cheap and powerful videoconferencing tools had led to widespread adoption of the technology in an effort to lower costs and put resources to better use. But Education Consultant and Executive Director of Academic Programs and Faculty at Daymar Colleges Group Ruth Reynard argues that it can improve teaching and learning as well. By Ruth Reynard 10/04/12 As videoconferencing technology has improved and become ubiquitous, the financial and technological barriers to using it…

For a change of pace today, links to three short videos that relate in at least a peripheral way to presence: 1. Aimee Mann’s video for “Charmer” (4:06) featuring actress Laura Linney as a robot doppelganger (for more see NPR’s All Songs Considered blog). 2. Actress Kristin Bell featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live in a mock ad for MoMi on the iPhone 5 (2:10). 3. The well-known Simpsons theme recreated with ‘real life’ actors (1:00).…

[From The Guardian’s Architecture and Design blog] Like-A-Hug? The Facebook vest that gives you a hug from your friends MIT students have designed a ‘wearable social media vest’ that translates every virtual Facebook ‘like’ into a real hug Posted by Oliver Wainwright 9 October 2012 Ever wanted more from your social media? Is all that clicking and typing not quite hitting the spot? When the momentary excitement from that vibrating alert in your pocket fades, are you left empty, hollow, wanting more? No, probably not. But if you did, then fret no longer, because some crafty MIT students have developed…

[From Ben Lang’s Road to Virtual Reality blog] YEI Creates First Person Virtual Reality Demo With Full Body Tracking in Unreal Engine Posted on 07 October 2012 By Ben Lang The ultimate goal of virtual reality gaming is to convince players that they are actually the inhabitants of another world. A number of components are needed to make this a reality. While head mounted displays like the Oculus Rift bring us one step closer to feeling like we’re inside another world, there are yet more pieces to the puzzle; being able to naturally control the player-character — also referred to as body…

[Halloween approaches! From The Daily Mail, where the article includes many more pictures; more information and a 2:52 minute video is available on the artist’s blog] Invasion of the giant spiders – Seattle ‘under attack’ from creatures painted on to buildings By Kerry Mcqueeney 14 September 2012 It’s the stuff of nightmares for arachnophobes: Giant eight-legged creatures, crawling over the rooftop of a building, seemingly waiting to pounce on their next victim. But this is no arachnid invasion. It’s an optical illusion so realistic it’s enough to make the bravest soul’s skin crawl. These images painted on top of a…

[From The WCF Courier, where the story includes images] After-school program exposes local students to virtual reality October 7, 2012 By Emily Christensen CEDAR FALLS — The teeth of a John Deere combine poke out into a dark theater. Students raise their arms and try to touch the behemoth as it floats what seems like inches from their faces. But their efforts are futile. Their hands can’t grasp the 3-D image on the screen in front of them. But their imaginations can. Nearly 50 Cedar Falls elementary and junior high students recently traveled to Iowa State University in Ames to…

[From Mashable, where the story includes a 0:55 minute video] Travel Through 2,000 Years of Paris’ History With Interactive 3D Model October 5, 2012 by Zoe Fox If you’re a fan of time travel, exploring cities, history or virtual reality experiences, you’re going to love the latest project from Dassault Systèmes. With the help of historians and archeologists, Dassault has created Paris 3d, an interactive model that transports any Internet user through two millennia of the city’s history. See how the French capital developed since its Roman conquest in 52 BC until the present day. Witness the construction of the…

[From The Miami Student; more information is available in The HIVE: A Huge Immersive Virtual Environment for research in spatial cognition (in press) (pdf).] Students explore virtual reality in HIVE By Samantha Wargolet for The Miami Student Published: Tuesday, October 2, 2012 Participants enter a grocery store full of food with a shopping list in hand, and a timer begins to count down from six minutes. As they walk around the aisles, it is slightly difficult to walk straight, and the items on the shelf are impossible to pick up. These shoppers are not at your local Kroger; they are…

[From VentureBeat] Zugara’s virtual dressing rooms take the X factor out of online shopping September 25, 2012 Rebecca Grant No matter how good a piece of clothing looks online, the reality often falls short. The joy of ripping open a package is destroyed when you discover that a particular shade of teal makes you look seasick or that leopard print jeans are a far better idea in theory. Sometimes, you need to try things on to know if they are right, and this is a frustration shared by web retailers and customers alike. Zugara was granted a patent today for its…

[From The Sydney Morning Herald] Google’s 360-degree tour of endangered reefs September 26, 2012 James Manning, Technology reporter Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has been opened to an audience of more than one billion people worldwide as Google launches a virtual tour of one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Users can log on to Street View on Google Maps and Google Earth and explore high-resolution, 360-degree images of the reef that are being gathered as part of the Catlin Seaview Survey, which documents the health of coral reefs around the world. “The project is as much about the…

[From News-Medical.net] [Image: Rendering of physical environment represented in the AbES software; in gamer mode, the player (yellow icon) navigates through the virtual environment using auditory cues to locate hidden jewels (blue squares) and avoid being caught by chasing monsters (red icons).] ‘Video game’ teaches blind people to navigate buildings Published on September 25, 2012 By Liam Davenport, medwireNews Reporter Blind people can learn the spatial layout of an unfamiliar building using a novel “video game” virtual reality environment that employs only audio-based cues, thus enabling them to learn skills that may improve functional independence, say US and Chilean scientists.…