[From MedCity News, where the story includes a 2:10 minute video] Welcome to the Matrix: Using virtual reality to develop global clinical trials 3.26.12 | Stephanie Baum In a bid to address the reality of global clinical trials among life science companies, one business has developed software to facilitate business collaboration meetings taking place between multiple parties in different locations and continents using … wait for it: avatars. Ron Burns, the CEO of ProtonMedia, said its ProtoSphere world logically addresses the challenge of simultaneous global communication. Burns told MedCity News: “Our companies relate to the room environment the most.…

[From The Huffington Post, where the story includes more images] [Image: One of the winners of the Shapeway contest, this amazing design, courtesy of SaGa Design, is essentially an iPhone casing that forces you to interact with the usually intangible Siri.] Shapeways Siri Contest: iPhone 4S Virtual Assistant Brought To Life Through Design (PICTURES) The Huffington Post  Courteney Palis  Posted: 02/29/2012 Ever since the iPhone 4S was released back in October, the device’s voice-controlled virtual assistant app has captured the attention of users and non-users alike. By now, we’ve grown accustomed to Siri and her pleasant monotone, always at our…

[From TechWeekEurope; the 3D Focus article includes detailed information] Glasses-Free 3D Teleconference Links UK And Russia Telepresence just got more immersive…. On March 26, 2012 by Max Smolaks A 3D teleconference that didn’t need the participants to wear special glasses linked London and Russia yesterday, in the first experiment of this kind in the world. It was possible due to a host of inventions by Russian company Triaxes Vision, based in the Siberian city of Tomsk. During the experiment, the guests of the 3D Storytelling conference, a broadcast and gaming industry event held in London, could see and talk to…

[From CNBC] [Image: Eon Reality’s virtual reality product, the Eon iCube.] Virtual Reality Technology Comes of Age Published: Tuesday, 27 Mar 2012 By: Joan Voight, Special to CNBC.com Scuba diving among the sharks along Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is a breathtakingly immersive experience. It’s also dangerous and expensive. But exploring a virtual ocean and coming nose to nose with a real-looking shark is a viable alternative. That, in a nutshell, has been the promise of virtual reality over the years — it could put us in an artificial environment that feels entirely real, without getting our feet wet. Movies like…

[From PhysOrg.com, where the story includes an additional image] [Image: The Naval Research Laboratory’s Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot (SAFFiR) is a humanoid-type robot being designed for shipboard firefighting. Credit: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory] NRL designs robot for shipboard firefighting March 8, 2012 By Donna McKinney (PhysOrg.com) — In both war and peacetime scenarios, fire in the shipboard environment is serious and frequently results in excessive damage and high repair costs because the fire is not detected or controlled adequately. To help further improve future shipboard firefighting capability, scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory have formed an interdisciplinary team to develop…

[From Mashable] With Augmented Reality, Wallit App Assigns Virtual Walls to Physical Places March 06, 2012 by Sam Laird “People have wanted to leave their mark since the beginning of humanity,” says Veysel Berk, creator of the mobile app Wallit. “Now they are going to be able to do that digitally using their smartphones.” Released Tuesday for iPhone and iTouch, Wallit is hailed by Berk as the world’s first “social augmented reality app.” Like Facebook, it enables you to interact with your friends. Like Twitter, it only lets you write in short 140-character bursts. Like Foursquare, its digital benefits are…

[From Scientific American’s Observations blog, where the post includes a video] [Image: Using a virtual reality maze and brain imaging system, Princeton researchers have detected a form of neural activity the formation of short-term memories used in decision-making. The panel shows the view of the virtual reality maze as seen by the mouse. A cue or sign indicates to the mouse to turn right to receive a water reward. (Image courtesy of Nature, Christopher Harvey and David Tank; more information from Princeton is here)] Animals Exposed to Virtual Reality Hold an Emergency Meeting [Video] By Ferris Jabr | March 22,…

[From FierceHealthIT] California hospitals bring telehealth into the NICU March 7, 2012 | By Sara Jackson The University of California-San Diego Medical Center has teamed up with nearby Tri-City Medical Center to bring telehealth into the hospital’s neo-natal ICU unit, the hospitals recently announced. The program offers full audio and video conferencing, which Tri-City physicians can use to consult with UCSD’s neonatal specialists on high-risk and emergency cases. The hope is to speed diagnoses and treatment plans for infants in distress, and possibly even reduce the need to transport fragile babies the 40 miles from Tri-City to UCSD, officials said.…

[From SIGNAL Online] Navy Pursues a Better Attack Submarine Virtually By Max Cacas, SIGNAL Online Exclusive March 21, 2012 Technical advances in the field of virtual reality, also known as virtual worlds (VWs), are making it possible for the U.S Navy to tap into the collective expertise of its best submariners to design and build the next generation of attack submarines. At the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) in Newport, Rhode Island, designers are able to create collaborative environments for submarine development using a fully immersive virtual reality application similar to the popular Second Life environment, which enables them to…

[From Business 2 Community] Virtual World Real Potential By Michael Katz, Published March 20, 2012 Walking into a bar or nightclub alone and striking up a conversation with a stranger is daunting for the majority of people. By nature, most people have insecurities which inhibit them from doing such a thing. But now, the latest addition to the world of virtual reality enables people to feel comfortable doing exactly that. Based within an application inside Facebook, Dot Friends allows users to determine exactly how they look, what they wear and even how they move on the dance floor. The application,…

[From The Miami Herald;  the Cisco press release, which includes links to images, video and other coverage of the event, is available here] Region’s first ‘virtual summit’ should set the trend By Andres Oppenheimer aoppenheimer@MiamiHerald.com March 7, 2012 The presidents of Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile did a smart thing the other day, which could save Latin America a lot of time, money and insufferable speeches in the future: they held the region’s first virtual summit. The four leaders, who are preparing to launch a free trade bloc in June that will be known as the Alliance of the Pacific,…

[From Atomic] Virtual Reality comes to Skyrim Killing the chickens at Whiterun never felt so good, but man, you will look like an idiot in this homebrew VR gear! By Vito Cassisi March 19, 2012 The idea of virtual reality interaction has intrigued the minds of many generations, yet has struggled to get a foothold in mainstream acceptance. Potential users have core expectations for VR technology including reliability, convincing immersiveness, and the ability to play without throwing up all over company. An entrepreneur by the name of Chris Zaharia has produced his own “immersive” VR solution for playing Skyrim on…