[From redOrbit, where the story includes a video] Researchers Aim To Boost Accuracy of Augmented Reality Technology September 17, 2012 Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The same technology used to produce that first down line on television at an NFL football game is also being used to help future surgeons perform operations. Augmented reality, or “AR,” is the computer-generated virtual objects that sports fans have grown to both love and hate over the years. While there have been AR successes like the yellow line in football, there have also been failures like that seen in the NHL…

[From CBC, where the story includes a 1:43 video report; for more information about uGenius is available in an article in Fortune] [Image: FirstOntario Credit Union in Ancaster is a bank with no tellers. (Kate Adach)] Video banking makes robbery impossible By Kate Adach, CBC News Posted: Aug 27, 2012 How do you rob a bank that has no tellers? “Oh, we have tellers,” says Mary De Sousa, marketing leader of an innovative banking system that provides virtual bankers through a computer screen. She points to a machine. “That’s our teller.” The machine looks like any ATM, but once activated,…

[From Defense News] [Image: The Augmented Immersive Team Training system superimposes objects, such as vehicles or munitions, on the real-life terrain that is viewed through a head-mounted display. (Office of Naval Research)] Marines Get Virtual Explosions in the Real World Sep. 13, 2012 By Michael Peck The U.S. Marine Corps has unveiled a prototype training system that uses augmented reality to digitally superimpose objects upon a real landscape. This differs from the virtual reality used by programs such as the Army’s freshly fielded Dismounted Soldier Training System, which transports the user into a fake world. The Marines recently demonstrated the…

[From The University of Western Ontario’s Western News, where the story includes an additional image] Collaboration leads to ‘something special’ Article and photos by Paul Mayne September 13, 2012 Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences professor Mandor Jog, director of the National Parkinson Foundation Centre of Excellence at London Health Sciences Centre, runs through the augmented immersion virtual reality project which helps researchers understand how patients with neurodegenerative conditions, such as Parkinson’s, navigate their environments. In a non-descript room of an eerily quiet wing of South Street Hospital, Mandor Jog’s work may look like a game to some. But the outcome…

[From Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance] Lake Forest Graduate School of Management Introduces the Next Generation of Online Learning Avatars as Business-School Collaborators Press Release: Lake Forest Graduate School of Management – Mon, Sep 10, 2012 LAKE FOREST, Ill.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Move over, gamers — avatars aren’t just for entertainment anymore. While most graduate business schools prepare their MBA students for the world of business that awaits them after graduation, Lake Forest Graduate School of Management (LFGSM) is changing the game by immersing a new cohort of students into that world of business through an innovative approach to learning. In LFGSM’s…

[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…