[From Eurogamer.net, where the story includes a 2:08 minute video] Project Holodeck aims to make Star Trek gaming a reality Uses Oculus Rift, PlayStation Move and the Razer Hyrdra By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 23 July, 2012 A team at the University of Southern California is trying to make the Holodeck from Star Trek a virtual reality. Project Holodeck aims to create full 360 degree, full body virtual reality in an accessible consumer gaming platform. It fuses head tracking, body tracking and button inputs with vehicular locomotion and in-place locomotion (jogging on the spot to run). This, the team said, means…

[From MIT News, where the story includes a 3:23 minute video] [Image: A new glasses-free 3-D video system uses three layered LCD panels displaying bizarre patterns (first three images) that collectively produce a coherent, high-resolution, multiperspective 3-D image. The bottom-right image illustrates, roughly, the composite image that would reach one eye at one viewing angle. Images courtesy of the Camera Culture group.] Glasses-free 3-D TV looks nearer A new method for producing multiple-perspective 3-D images could prove more practical in the short term than holography. Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office July 12, 2012 As striking as it is, the illusion…

[From MIT’s Technology Review, where the story includes an additional image] The Avatar Economy Are remote workers the brains inside tomorrow’s robots? Matt Beane Wednesday, July 18, 2012 In our economy, many of the jobs most resistant to automation are those with the least economic value. Just consider the diversity of tasks, unpredictable terrains, and specialized tools that a landscaper confronts in a single day. No robot is intelligent enough to perform this $8-an-hour work. But what about a robot remotely controlled by a low-wage foreign worker? Hollywood has been imagining the technologies we would need. Jake Sully, the wheelchair-bound…

[From MIT’s Technology Review] Siri’s New Cousin Works as a Bank Teller Spanish bank BBVA taps the team that invented the iPhone assistant to build technology that can converse with bank customers. Tom Simonite Friday, July 13, 2012 The research group that invented Siri, the virtual assistant built into Apple’s iPhone, has built her a smarter relative that could help banks cut staffing costs. Known as Lola, the new assistant can carry on more complex conversations than Siri and help with tasks that involve multiple back-and-forth steps with customers, such as opening a bank account. Lola is going to be…

[From io9; for more on this topic see this article (pdf) in PsychNology Journal] Choosing the virtual reality experience that’s right for you George Dvorsky Jul 11, 2012 We’re still several decades away from developing completely immersive computer simulations, but it’s not too early to dream about the ways we’ll be able to use them. Today we’re exploring the tremendous potential with new gadgets like Glass, Google’s computer glasses. But that’s just the beginning. So, in preparation, given all the different options soon to be available, what kind of virtual reality experience will you choose? Will it be a partial soft…

[From Gizmodo; a 1:08 minute video is at BoingBoing; more examples of this type of augmented reality are available at Victor Petit’s web site] Talking Comic Books Take All Of the Imagination Out Of It Andrew Liszewski Jul 7, 2012 We’re not ones to hold back the march of technology, even when it comes to our beloved comic books. Having them electronically delivered to our beautiful retina display devices is a dream come true. But we can’t help but raise an eyebrow at Valiant Entertainment’s new talking comic book cover. Created for issue #1 of the company’s X-O Manowar comic,…

[From FotoRater; more details follow below] The camera that lets you take pictures with your eye by Marc Cameron on Jun 27, 2012 Steven Spielberg’s superior dystopian thriller Minority Report is famous for showcasing a number of future technologies that are now either a reality or close to being one, including multi-touch interfaces, retina scanners and customised advertising boards. It’s made the previously unthinkable a real possibility, which is why we’re excited about the arrival of the Minority Report-esque IRIS – an eye-controlled camera. Could it also become a reality? We wouldn’t bet against it! Designed by Royal College of…

[From news@Northeastern; much more information is available from PublicVR] [Image: Two Northeastern University digital media students have made crucial contributions to an interactive virtual reality experience called “The Egyptian Oracle,” in which avatars, live actors and audience members reenact an authentic Egyptian ceremony.] A virtual-reality history lesson July 11, 2012 by Jason Kornwitz Two Northeastern University digital media students have made crucial contributions to an interactive virtual-reality experience called “The Egyptian Oracle,” in which avatars, live actors and audience members reenact an authentic Egyptian ceremony. The show will be performed in the Raytheon Amphithe­ater on Friday at 7 p.m.…

[From PC Magazine] Scientists Demo Thought-Controlled Robots By Adario Strange July 9, 2012 In the 2009 film Surrogates, based on the popular graphic novel, Bruce Willis is shown struggling in a world dominated by realistic robot avatars controlled by humans sitting comfortably in their homes. Often injured or somehow disfigured, opting to interact with the world from a distance, the people are shown seamlessly operating their metal doppelgangers via a brain link apparatus that goes mostly unexplained in the film. Now, a team of researchers based in laboratories around the globe, have developed a system similar to the one depicted…

[From BostInno] MIT’s Media Lab Brings Watching Movies at Home to a Whole New, Immersive Level [Video] June 24th, 2012 by Lauren Landry People run to the theater to see 3-D movies, why? Sure, because Avatar looks cool, but also because they want to be immersed in the experience, making their way through Pandora and helping protect the world alongside long-legged, blue-bellied supernatural creatures. Yet, what if you could achieve a similar experience at home without ever having to throw on a pair of cardboard glasses? Over at the MIT Media Lab, in the Object-Based Media research group, V. Michael…

[From The Plano Star-Courier, where the story includes more images] Bridging the gap between reality and the virtual world By Bill Conrad Published: Thursday, June 21, 2012 VIRTSIM, the next innovation in tactical police and military training, was unveiled Friday morning in an east Plano warehouse owned by Raytheon. To date, the technology has been sold to the FBI, and has also been used by U.S. armed forces, U.S. Marshals and police departments in cities such as Plano and Frisco. Eight members of the McKinney Police Department’s S.W.A.T. team donned special goggles, firearms and motion-capture equipment prior to beginning their…

[From Psychology Today’s The Storytelling Animal blog] The Power of Fake Gay (and Black) Friends How fiction changes the world. by Jonathan Gottschall, Ph.D. Published on June 20, 2012 by Jonathan Gottschall, Ph.D. in The Storytelling Animal The “evolution” of President Obama’s views on same-sex marriage match the rapidly liberalizing attitudes of the country as a whole.  The swift pace of change has flummoxed social scientists, who expect much slower erosion of entrenched cultural biases. On the May 6th episode of Meet the Press, Joe Biden surprised viewers not only by endorsing gay marriage himself, but by attributing historic changes…