[From InformationWeek Healthcare; for more see ZDNet’s Health blog] The Doctor Will See You In Walmart Retailer rolls out telemedicine services that give shoppers access to doctors through videoconferencing technology. By Nicole Lewis, InformationWeek June 05, 2012 It’s the weekend and you’ve gotten a nasty cold with a high temperature and need to see a doctor, but you also need to buy milk, eggs, and bread. Walmart’s telemedicine services now give new meaning to the term “one-stop shopping.” A statement outlining the Arkansas retail giant’s use of telehealth technology indicates that Walmart has engaged BCS Global Networks to provide videoconferencing…

[From The Christian Science Monitor’s chapter & verse blog; short videos are available here and here] Harry Potter ‘Book of Spells’ will come to life via Sony J.K. Rowling’s ‘Book of Spells’ will allow players to wave wands and cast spells using Wonderbook technology. By Husna Haq / June 5, 2012 It’s being called the reinvention of the storybook. At a Monday announcement at the annual video game conference known as the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, Sony Entertainment of America announced J.K. Rowling’s “Wonderbook: Book of Spells,” an interactive spell book that comes alive on PlayStation 3 videogame…

[From Discovery News, where the story includes a 1:40 minute video] [Image: The goggles trick the senses, making a cookie appear bigger, for example] ‘Diet Glasses’ Fool Wearers Into Eating Less Augmented reality goggles trick eaters into feeling more satisfied with their meals. Jun 4, 2012 Content provided by Miwa Suzuki, AFP Goggles that trick the wearer into thinking the plain snack in their hand is a chocolate cookie, or make biscuits appear larger have been unveiled in Japan, offering hope to weak-willed dieters everywhere. Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed devices that use computer wizardry and augmented…

[From Advertising Age’s The Media Guy blog] Instagram Is OK, But Photoshop Is Evil? The Truth About Digital Lies Photoshop Gets Bashed For Digitally Altering Reality. So How Come Instagram Gets a Pass? By: Simon Dumenco Published: May 28, 2012 When Facebook bought Instagram last month, pretty much all the media coverage focused primarily on a single narrative thread: how a tiny startup with just 13 employees and no revenue came to be worth $1 billion. That, of course, is an astonishing business story, but in obsessing about the economics of Instagram, its aesthetics — the real reason why it’s…

[From The Sydney Morning Herald’s Smoke & Mirrors blog] [Image: The walls of Sydney’s Town Hall Station resembled a Woolworth’s supermarket shelf in Australia’s first virtual supermarket. Photo: Getty Images] Virtual reality at a tipping point By George Wright June 4, 2012 Technology is only going to get more immersive and consume a bigger percentage of our attention. Take Ready Player One, a book by Ernest Cline. This work of fiction describes a near future where our over populated and environmentally damaged planet sees society flee their daily struggles to interact in a massively multiplayer world. When the eccentric Jobs/Zuckerberg-esque…

[From Matthew Lombard] During the spring 2012 semester that just ended, I taught a Temple University course titled Psychological Processing of Media. The course, for undergraduate and masters level students, emphasized telepresence research and theory; the syllabus is here. One of the optional assignments was  “Telepresence Creativity” with the only instructions to “[c]reate a high quality graphic or video on the theme of presence and telepresence; see instructor with ideas and questions.” Below are links to the work produced by students in the class. Do you teach or know of a course that covers telepresence? If so, please email me…

[From Philly Tapped (see  pp. 89-94); thanks to Liudi Wang] [Image: Eric Welch and Kyle Stetz square off at “Beer Pong”] Beer Goggles Philadelphia Science Festival By Brendan Clay April 30, 2012 [snip] This is the second year that Yards [Brewing Company] has released a beer for the Science Festival, a 10-day celebration of science and innovation held at locations all over Philadelphia. [snip] Besides debuting Atom Blonde, the Science Fair mixer hosts exhibits and tech demos. The big hit of the night is “Beer Pong,” which is not the college drinking game, but a variation of the videogame Pong…

[From Information Week; a 1:12 minute video is available here] Leap Motion: Control PC With Hand Gestures Gesture-based computer interaction, as depicted in “Minority Report,” looks like it will soon become commonplace. “The Leap” peripheral lets you control UI elements using gestures made in the air. By Thomas Claburn – InformationWeek May 22, 2012 09:00 AM The mobile revolution has prompted not only new forms of computers but also new ways to interact with them. Apple brought touchscreens to the masses. Google introduced voice-based and image-based search in Android and iOS, and is presently working on augmented reality glasses.…

[From body>data>space, where the post includes a 1:23 minute video and many other images] me and my shadow by Joseph Hyde 10 – 26 June 2012 @ National Theatre, London “Teleport yourself into a deeply poetic experience. Connect and interact in a shared virtual space with people across Europe.“ Co-produced by in the UK by body>data>space and National Theatre as part of the EU project MADE, and connecting real-time audiences between London, Paris, Brussels and Istanbul, me and my shadow, by UK artist Joseph Hyde in collaboration with Phill Tew will premiere at the National Theatre from 10 – 26…

[From Wired’s GadgetLab blog, where the post includes a 1:46 minute video] [Image: A concept image of the Human Media Lab’s TeleHuman pod. Photo: University of Queens] 3-D Video Pod Delivers 360-Degree, Holograph-Like Projections By Alexandra Chang May 7, 2012 Imagine walking up to a tall, cylindrical pod, and talking to a life-size, 3-D projection of a faraway friend, family member, or colleague. And not only do you see the person in 3-D, you can walk a full 360 degrees around the pod, and see your conversation partner from every angle — just as if the person was actually standing…

[From MIT’s Technology Review] [Image: Reach out: In a clinical trial, a woman used a brain-chip system to control a robotic arm with her thoughts and reach for a drink of coffee.  The BrainGate Collaboration (braingate2.org) and Nature] Brain Chip Helps Quadriplegics Move Robotic Arms with Their Thoughts It’s the first study to show that brain chips can assist paralyzed people to perform complex real-world tasks. Wednesday, May 16, 2012 By Susan Young A paralyzed patient equipped with an implanted brain chip has been able to use a robotic arm to reach for and pick up a bottle of coffee,…

[From BostonInno; more information is available here] Proving History Isn’t Static, Giza 3D Premieres With a Virtual Reality Tour of the Pyramids May 8th, 2012 by Lisa DeCanio The Pyramids at Giza are familiar to most of us – we’ve seen photos of them on the pages of our history books and watched recreations of them in movies – but very few of us have actually experienced them in person. Now, though, you’ll be able to travel to Giza right from the comfort of your own computer. Today marks the premiere of Giza 3D, an interactive 3D recreation of the Giza Plateau,…