[From CVG; see Patently Apple for full details] Ground-breaking Xbox 720 tech could turn rooms into 3D environments Microsoft patent filing reveals new depth sensor and 360-degree interactive display By Rob Crossley for CVG UK Microsoft’s R&D division is working on a landmark display technology that will project a full 3D game environment across the walls of player’s bedrooms and living areas, a new patent filing shows. A breakthrough device, known in the patent as an “environmental display”, will project 360-degree game worlds across all four walls of a room using advanced projection technology. Crucially, the device will also boast…

[Remembering 9/11…  first from AirPano, where the panorama is available in several resolutions and formats , along with additional information] New York. Remembering 9/11 • 360° Aerial Panorama AirPano is a Moscow based non-commercial group of photo enthusiasts, dedicated to creating hi-resolution aerial panoramas. Usually we photograph from a helicopter, however at times we use light jets, dirigibles, hot air balloons, and radio-controlled helicopters. During upcoming 2 years AirPano team will create aerial photo panoramas and virtual tours of the most significant places of our planet. We have already made over 500 panoramas showing over 100 amazing locations of the…

[From IEEE Spectrum’s Automaton blog] [Image: Logo from the We Robot 2012 conference] Extending Legal Protection to Social Robots Posted by: Kate Darling  /  Mon, September 10, 2012 Note: This is a guest post. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent positions of Automaton, IEEE Spectrum, or the IEEE. “Why do you cry, Gloria? Robbie was only a machine, just a nasty old machine. He wasn’t alive at all.” “He was not no machine!” screamed Gloria fiercely and ungrammatically. “He was a person like you and me and he was my…

[From Electronic House; a press release and a 2:30 minute video are available here] Virtual Reality, Voice Control on Display at Future Tech Pavilion Cool video kitchen and customized entertainment also shown at CEDIA Expo simulated home. September 05, 2012 | by Steven Castle What will the Home of 2016 look like? CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association) gave us a peek of its vision at the Future Technology Pavilion on display this week at the trade group’s Expo in Indianapolis. The pavilion brings visitors through a simulated day in the life with cutting-edge technology in the home office,…

[From The Globe and Mail, where the story includes additional related information] [Image: Waterloo’s Reality Cave – an immersive 3-D visualization centre gives one the opportunity to experience a design before it is built. (Scott McQuarrie, re:actionphotography)] Planning A 3-D device changes the conversation about space Jennifer Lewington Kitchener — Special to The Globe and Mail Published Tuesday, Sep. 04 2012 Months before construction this fall of Woodlands library in central Mississauga, Ont., branch librarians walked around the 7,000-square-foot space with all the bookshelves and furniture in place, as if it existed. Was it science fiction? No. The Woodlands librarians…

[From The PBS NewsHour] [Image: PBS NewsHour uses a helmet camera during the third day of the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. (Brian Cassella, Chicago Tribune / August 29, 2012)] Hatcam Goes to the Conventions By: Katelyn Polantz September 4, 2012 What’s that curious helmet covered in stickers and wires? Why, it’s the PBS NewsHour hatcam, an emerging sensation at the national political conventions. Our documentary tool is a red plastic hard hat outfitted with a Go Pro HD camera, shotgun microphone and LiveShell broadcast transmitter that beams out onto our UStream channel live. And it…

[From KurzweilAI via Telepresence Options] [Image: Atomic clusters of metals are an emerging class of extremely interesting materials occupying the intermediate size regime between atoms and nanoparticles. (credit: Reji Philip et al./Nano Letters)] Nanoclusters that diffuse laser beams or create 3D telepresence August 31, 2012 by Amara D. Angelica Think of the possibilities. University of Central Florida assistant professor Jayan Thomas, in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University Associate Professor Rongchao Jin, has developed a new material based on gold nanoparticles smaller than 2 nanometers, in a regime between atoms and nanoparticles called nanoclusters. Thomas and his team found that nanoclusters…

[From IT Wire] Ford Australia creates the Holodeck Ford Australia engineers and designers are living in a virtual world, and loving it.  The company has unveiled its new Virtual Reality Centre, a high tech digital evaluation and design environment 31 August 2012 By Mike Bantick Years before a Ford vehicle shines on stage at a car show or arrives in dealer showrooms, Ford researchers are hard at work behind the scenes, building virtual vehicles that allow the company to design, analyse and enhance the driver experience before a physical vehicle ever exists. Known as the Powerwall (Trekers would have preferred…

[From TwinCities.com] [Image: Anoka-Hennepin school district technical support staffers interact from Andover High School with teachers at Blaine High School on the large wall monitors in a telepresence technology presentation Aug. 23, 2012. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)] Anoka-Hennepin ‘telepresence’ allows low-demand subjects to be offered By Sarah Horner horner@pioneerpress.com 8/26/2012 A handful of classrooms in Anoka-Hennepin high schools might appear equipped for surveillance rather than teaching to students returning from summer vacation next week. Six giant flat-screens span the space where a podium might otherwise be, and long, semi-circular tables outfitted with built-in microphones stand in place of traditional desks.…

[From New Scientist’s One Per Cent blog; more information, including additional images and a longer video, is available from The Vienna University of Technology] Virtual reality lets amputees train with a prosthesis 24 August 2012 Douglas Heaven, reporter Even Oscar Pistorius had to learn to walk before he could run. But learning to live with a prosthetic limb can be a difficult and frustrating experience. To help amputees get to grips with a new prosthetic arm, the prosthesis manufacturer Otto Bock has teamed up with researchers from the Interactive Media Systems Group at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria…

[From MIT’s Technology Review] [Image: The first step in the “Choose Your Robots” process on the Happiness Engines web site] Getting Your Phone to Give You a Hand A growing number of apps hope to turn smartphones into personal assistants. Rachel Metz Tuesday, August 28, 2012 Ever since last fall, when Apple introduced its genial voice-controlled personal assistant, Siri, on the iPhone 4S, there’s been a flurry of activity as other apps attempt to go beyond its limitations. Challengers include Evi (see “New Virtual Helper Challenges Siri“), which mimics some of Siri’s abilities for smartphones running Google’s Android software; Cue, an…

[From PC World New Zealand] [Image: Oculus Rift-ready Hawken, to be released 12-12-12; a promotional video in which the creators specifically refer to presence is available at Vimeo] Valve employee talks virtual reality gaming David Daw | Monday, August 27 2012 The future of video gaming may lie in virtual reality. No, that’s not 1996 calling; its Valve Software’s Michael Abrash, a game industry legend and one of the minds behind Quake and Doom. Abrash recently sat down for an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun and shared his thoughts on the future of gaming and potential for VR technology to…