[From Goldsmiths, University of London] Video game characters with natural responses to human body language Published: 06 August 2012 Researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London have been using theatre performers to design computer software capable of reading and replicating the way in which humans communicate with their bodies. Dr Marco Gillies from the Department of Computing has made virtual characters more believable by enlisting actors to teach them body movement. The actors interact with members of the public through a screen, and their responses to specific body language are memorised as algorithms by the software.…

[From The Lost Remote] Logitech launches TV Cam HD for living room video chats: Built-in Skype, 720p, $200 By Sharif Sakr posted Aug 3rd 2012 If Cisco’s ill-fated Umi video conferencing system had been more like this, would it have survived? Logitech is about to find out, one way or the other, once its TV Cam HD — recently spotted at the FCC — arrives in the US this month. The $199.99 device hooks up to your TV and contains all the processing power needed to run Skype and transmit wide-angle, 720p footage of your couch over WiFi or Ethernet.…

[From Wired, where the story includes two videos] Ikea’s Augmented Reality Catalog Will Let You Peek Inside Furniture By Roberto Baldwin July 20, 2012 Ikea prints 211 million copies of its product catalog every year. That’s more than 20 times the population of Sweden, the home of the build-it-yourself furniture empire. These are impressive numbers for a print catalog in a digital world, but Ikea is now changing with the times with a head-first dive into augmented reality. “A lot digital stuff becomes very interesting when you mash it up with the tangible items of the real world,” said Andreas…

[From Kotaku Australia, where the post includes a 1:11 minute video; more information is available from The University of Illinois at Chicago] [Image: Individuals in the circular CAVE2 navigate 3D Mars. Image provided by Luc Renambot, UIC/EVL (data NASA & European Space Agency)] I’d Kill To Play Games On This 72-Screen, 36-Computer Virtual Reality System Luke Plunkett August 6, 2012 Later this year, the University of Illinois at Chicago will take the wraps off something it’s calling CAVE2. You, however, will most probably call it “that badass virtual reality system”. CAVE2 is big. It’s 24-feet in diameter and 8 feet…

[From The New York Times, where the story includes an additional image] [Image: A drone pilot at the base at Hancock Field, near Syracuse, working the controls of a craft flying over Afghanistan. Heather Ainsworth for The New York Times.] A Day Job Waiting for a Kill Shot a World Away By Elisabeth Bumilller July 29, 2012 HANCOCK FIELD AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, N.Y. — From his computer console here in the Syracuse suburbs, Col. D. Scott Brenton remotely flies a Reaper drone that beams back hundreds of hours of live video of insurgents, his intended targets, going about their…

[From NBC News’ Cosmic Blog, where the post includes additional images] [Image: NASA / GSFC. An artist’s concept shows how a crew aboard an orbiting station could control robotic operations on Mars, ranging from real-time rover trips to rocket launches bringing shipments to the station.] Is there a virtual Mars in our future? By Alan Boyle Follow @b0yle August 1, 2012 Imagine a day when virtual reality gets so good that you could take a computer-generated walk on the Martian surface, right here on Earth. Or imagine having a space station in Martian orbit that can control robots down on…

[From AP via The Huffington Post, where the story includes a photo gallery] Artist Brings 3-D Pavement Art To Grand Canyon By Felicia Fonseca  07/16/12 FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Uninspired by modern art, Kurt Wenner set out to learn how European masters made architecture soar and figures float in ceiling frescoes. What started off as two-dimensional chalk and pastel art on the streets of Rome decades ago, mimicking what Wenner saw in Renaissance classicism, morphed into an art form of his own – one that makes objects appear to rise from or fall into the ground in three-dimensional pieces. His latest…

[From FierceHealthIT] [Image: From Telementoring and Telesurgery: Future or Fiction? by da Silva, McGregor, Rayman and Luke (2010).] Pittsburgh specialists mentor international surgeons remotely Telepresence technology allows them to walk colleagues through new procedures July 30, 2012 | By Susan D. Hall A University of Pittsburgh Medical Center uses telepresence technology to provide live support for surgeons in other countries who have difficulty replicating complex new procedures. Since 2005, its cranial base surgical team of three neurosurgeons and two otolaryngologists have trained more than 500 surgeons from more than 30 countries on treatment tumors and other conditions affecting the base…

[From The University of Barcelona] Using virtual reality an arm up to three or even four times the length of a real arm can be felt as if it was the person’s own arm July 20, 2012 Recerca A study shows that using virtual reality an arm up to three or possibly even four times the length of a person’s real arm can be felt as if it was the person’s own arm, even if it incorporates strong asymmetries in the body shape. It is explained in the article “Extending body space in immersive virtual reality: a very long arm…

[From IEEE Spectrum; for more information, see Canon’s press release] [Image: Reality Mixed: The author checks out a computer generated car through Canon’s mixed reality system. Photo: John Boyd] Trying Out Canon’s Mixed-Reality Tech Meant for design work, it goes well beyond consumer-oriented augmented reality By John Boyd 26 July 2012—Canon begins selling a next-generation form of virtual reality technology known as mixed reality (MR) this month. The company suggests its version of MR is an enhanced, more grown-up version of the augmented reality provided by some smartphone apps and things like Google’s Project Glass. In contrast to augmented reality,…

[From DesignTAXI, where the story includes additional images and a 1:26 minute video] Virtual Shoe Stores Use Augmented Reality To Find Your Perfect Footwear 25 Jul 2012 To reach out to more consumers, German shoe retailer, Goertz, has gone virtual with their augmented reality ‘pop-up’ shoe stores. They installed virtual stores at crowded public places such as train stations and invited customers to ‘try on’ a pair of shoes. Using three Microsoft Kinect cameras and a large screen, they would scan and render 3D shoes onto the customer’s feet—allowing customers to see the shoes like they were actually wearing them.…

[From Wired;  more information is available at Patently Apple] [Image: An illustration showing a combined system using target tracking and a touchscreen. Image: Free Patents Online.] Apple Granted Patent for High-Concept Input Techniques By Christina Bonnington July 24, 2012 Apple was granted a sweeping, multipronged patent today by the United States Patent and Trademark Office — but you may need a degree in theoretical physics to divine exactly which technologies the patent is protecting. The patent, “Method for providing human input to a computer,” addresses both new and existing ways we interact with touchscreen devices, and covers everything from computer…