[From PCGamesN] The strange case of the Valve economist and the Virtual Reality contact lenses 12 March 2013 • Story by: Tim Edwards Valve’s resident economist Yanis Varoufakis has told a very strange story. It involves an underground lab, virtual reality technology which is far beyond anything currently on the market, and aliens. And we can’t tell if he’s making it all up or not. Writing in Greek paper Lifo, a paper not known for publishing fiction, Varoufakis writes of visiting an underground lab, the location of which he is forbidden from revealing, where he was able to wear a…

[From Linus Edwards’ VintageZen blog, where the post includes images for each proposed set exhibit] The Movie Set Museum by Linus Edwards March 11, 2013 I’ve had this idea percolating in my brain for awhile now – a museum that consists entirely of sets from famous movies. Each room in the museum would be a different movie set, made to replicate the actual feeling of being in that movie. Patrons would walk from room to room, at one moment being in The Godfather, and the next in Star Wars. I think the genesis of the idea came from when I…

[From The University of Buffalo News Center; a 2:01 minute video is available on YouTube] First-of-its-kind forklift simulator could reduce injuries, deaths By Cory Nealon Release Date: March 8, 2013 BUFFALO, N.Y. — Tactus Technologies has developed a first-of-its-kind virtual reality training program for forklift operators, a product that company officials expect will reduce work-related injuries and deaths. The program, called the 3D Forklift Trainer, allows operators to practice with a video game-like system that features a steering wheel, joystick, pedals and simulated environments such as warehouses, elevators and railroad tracks. The simulator arose from a need to improve operator…

[From Fast Company’s Co.Design, where the story includes additional images and reader comments] Why The Human Body Will Be The Next Computer Interface Fjord charts the major innovations of the past, and predicts a future of totally intuitive “micro gestures and expressions” that will control our devices. By Andy Goodman and Marco Righetto (of Fjord) March 5, 2013 By now you’ve probably heard a lot about wearables, living services, the Internet of Things, and smart materials. As designers working in these realms, we’ve begun to think about even weirder and wilder things, envisioning a future where evolved technology is embedded…

[From Mashable] [Image: Taylan Kay] ‘Auti-Sim’ Game Simulates Life With Childhood Autism Camille Bautista  – March 7, 2013 In a playground filled with gleeful shouts, you approach a group of children. Suddenly, your vision turns blurry and pixelated. The echoing screams become raucous. It’s the experience of sensory overload, according to a new game called Auti-Sim. The simulation, created by a three-member team at the Vancouver Hacking Health hackathon, aims to raise awareness of the challenges of hypersensitivity disorder and help people understand how it can lead to isolation. The closer you get to loud and active children, the more…

[From Virtually Real opinion column by Kat Smith in The Daily Orange, the independent campus newspaper of Syracuse University] Smith: Development of virtual storytelling, audience immersion in news content controversial Published March 7, 2013 By Kat Smith Part of a journalist’s role in society is to bring the audience into the story. Immersive journalism uses gaming platforms and virtual reality to take this idea to the next level and puts users inside a re-construction of events. Nonny de la Peña, manager of the University of Southern California MxR lab, presented this technology in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium on March 4.…

[From Duke Health; a 12:41 minute video is available on YouTube; the article is available from Scientific Reports] Brain-to-brain interface allows transmission of tactile and motor information between rats By Duke Medicine News and Communications Published: Feb. 28, 2013 DURHAM, N.C. — Researchers have electronically linked the brains of pairs of rats for the first time, enabling them to communicate directly to solve simple behavioral puzzles. A further test of this work successfully linked the brains of two animals thousands of miles apart—one in Durham, N.C., and one in Natal, Brazil. The results of these projects suggest the future potential…

[From The Wrap] Hollywood to the FAA: Let Us Use Drones! (Exclusive) Published: February 05, 2013 By Ira Teinowitz Look, up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s … If the Motion Picture Association of America has its way, it soon could be a camera-equipped pilotless drone shooting the overhead chase scenes for Hollywood’s action thrillers. The MPAA is pushing the Federal Aviation Administration to allow the use of what have been called “drones” — but in the movie business are far more likely the size of model planes and model helicopters than anything like what the…

[From TechCrunch, where the story includes a 5:33 minute video] Squeeze Virtual Reality With The Upverter + YC Hardware Hackathon-Winning Cyborg Glove [Video] Josh Constine Tuesday, February 26th, 2013 What if you could actually grasp the sword you pick up in a video game, or if surgeons could feel their robots hit bone? That’s the promise of the Tactilous glove, which won this weekend’s Upverter + Y Combinator Hardware Hackathon. Watch as we demo the Frankenstein-meets-Nintendo contraption that lets you touch objects in virtual reality.

[From The Daily Mail; see the video interview at CNN International; a related interview excerpt from 2012 follows] Sensors that can understand your facial expressions and ‘virtual reality’ screens: Google’s Android boss reveals the phone of the future Matias Duarte said making world more ‘tangible’ is next step Team also working on Google’s Glass wearable computer Computers must work ‘as people expect not the other way round’ By Steve Robson Published: 25 February 2013 | Updated: 26 February 2013 The mobile phones of the future will recognise our faces and hands and create a world that is like virtual reality.…

[From The Iowa State Daily, where the story includes additional images] [Image: Joe Holub, graduate student in electrical and computer engineering, crouches down behind a barricade while participating in the virtual reality MIRAGE simulator on Feb. 20.] MIRAGE virtual system gets whole body involved in lab By Emily Drees Posted Feb 27, 2013; Updated Feb 28, 2013 The Mixed Reality Adaptive Generalizable Environment room, commonly known as the Mirage room, is essentially a research lab that gets the whole human body involved on a physical level, but is enhanced with virtual reality. The Mirage room, which is located in Black…

[From Time] [Image: Harry McCracken / TIME.com] Wharton and Cisco Show Off the Telepresence Classroom of Tomorrow By Harry McCracken Feb. 25, 2013 As I write this, I’m watching a presentation in a classroom of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Management. Nothing remarkable about that — except that the gent doing the presenting is in Philadelphia, and I’m at the school’s San Francisco branch. That’s the whole point of the presentation, though. The event in question is a demo of a joint project between Wharton and Cisco to use Cisco’s telepresence technology to make long-distance learning feel more…