[From CBC News; more information is available from The University of Ottawa] [Image: University of Ottawa scientist Emil Petriu is shown with a robot in his lab. Petriu and his colleagues are replacing the robot’s mechanical parts with more human-like parts they are designing. (Peter Thornton/University of Ottawa)] Life-like robot being built in Ottawa lab Scientist believes humans, robots can have symbiotic relationship CBC News Jan 20, 2012 Canadian scientists are developing a robot that mimics the human face’s expressions and human hand’s tactile processes, which they say will be useful in areas like nursing, nuclear plant maintenance, and explosive…

[From Geek-O-System] AAAH! AAAH! TAKE IT AWAY! Beavis and Butt-Head in Real Life are Positively Terrifying by James Plafke | January 20th, 2012 Artist Kevin Kirkpatrick made these prosthetic busts of Beavis and Butt-Head, taking an absolutely horrifying turn and making them realistic instead of cartoony. Check out more pictures and angles [at the url above], all of which can’t be unseen, so proceed with caution.…

[From ThisIsColossal] Speedy PVC Pipe Sculptures By Christopher on December 7, 2011 These whimsical sculptures by Korean artist Kang Duck-Bong are made by adhering myriad cuts of PVC pipe and covering them in a thick shellac of urethane paint. The process creates an uncanny sense of motion, the figures appearing blurred and perpetually in motion. Kang’s work is on display at Gallery 4Walls in Seoul through December 23 as part of his solo show, Disguise. A huge thanks to Cho at Gallery 4Walls for providing the imagery for this post.…

[From Consumer Reports; an extended interview with Scott Jochim, president of Digital Tech Frontier and Popar Toys, is available in GamesBeat] Toy Fair 2012: Popar Toys brings augmented reality to paper books Jan 31, 2012 – Carol Mangis Popar Toys, a new line from tech company Digital Tech Frontier, is taking an innovative approach to meshing book-reading with technology: Instead of bringing books to the device, a la Amazon Kindle Keyboard and Barnes & Noble Nook, it’s using devices to enhance the books. We had an early look at the how it all works before Popar’s debut in a couple…

[From The Huffington Post, where the post includes additional images and a 6:44 minute video] ‘Hunger In Los Angeles’: Virtual Reality Makes Journalism Immersive, Pixelated Lucas Kavner lucas.kavner@huffingtonpost.com 01/30/2012 Imagine you’re at a food bank outside the First Unitarian Church in Los Angeles. It’s a clear and hot Saturday in August. Dozens of hungry people are lining up. The woman who runs the food bank is overwhelmed. She yells people’s numbers quickly. “There are too many people,” one woman complains, as she stands in line, her arms crossed. Others wait patiently, but the mood is tense. Then someone in line…

[From PSFK] Watch TV On The Go With See-Through Video Glasses By Emma Hutchings on January 19, 2012 A few years ago, PSFK wrote about an emerging technology from Israeli company Lumus. Now, they’ve released a new pair of glasses that lets the wearer view video content from the internet, movies and TV with their large, high-resolution virtual screen. The eyewear is see-through, providing simultaneous connectivity to what you want to watch and your surroundings. The glasses project an 87-inch screen about 10 feet in front of the wearer that can only be viewed by them, passers-by will just see…

[From The New York Times’ Bits blog] IMAX Chief Envisions the Future of 3-D in Theaters By Nick Bolton January 25, 2012 DAVOS, Switzerland — For the IMAX Corporation, the future is brighter, larger and in 3-D. The company is developing prototypes of new laser technologies that will allow for drastically larger and brighter screens by 2013. “We have purchased the rights to parts of 10,000 patents from Kodak that will throw much more light on screens than you see today,” said Richard L. Gelfond, IMAX’s chief executive, in an interview at Documented@Davos, an event held by Scribd and Mashable.…

[A press release from Virtalis] Virtalis Supplies Advanced Visualisation for Nuclear AMRC Virtalis has designed and installed two Virtual Reality (VR) systems for the new Nuclear AMRC at Sheffield. The Nuclear AMRC was set up to support the nuclear supply chain for the new generation of nuclear reactors. It aims to put UK industry at the forefront of nuclear technology, both nationally and internationally. Rab Scott, Head of Virtual Reality and Simulation at the Nuclear AMRC, explained: “The visualisation capability Virtalis has delivered will make our technology more accessible than ever before. This is because what makes the nuclear sector…

[From ExtremeTech; more information is available from Taylor Veltrop’s web site] Remotely pat your pet with Kinect and a Wiimote By Sebastian Anthony on January 3, 2012 Taylor Veltrop, an enterprising roboticist with a fondness for felines, has crafted the mother of all Kinect (and Wiimote!) hacks: The teleoperation of a robot to groom a cat. As always with these hacks, you should […] watch the [4:25] video, then come back […] to find out how it works.…

[From io9] Robot and Frank is the next great science fiction indie By Jordan Hoffman Jan 23, 2012 In the movies, technology is usually represented one of two ways: a hallelujah-worthy miracle or a soul-deadening trespass on the natural order of things. Robot and Frank, a film receiving near-unanimous praise at the Sundance Film Festival, is smart enough to know better. Technology, like everything in life, isn’t black and white, and is only as good or bad as the people who interact with it. Okay, so here’s the pitch: Frank Langella and a robot crack safes. You’d be forgiven for…

[From The Los Angeles Times] [Image: A SoftKinetic application called Guru Training Systems is shown at the Consumer Electronics Show last week in Las Vegas. (Myung J. Chun, Los Angeles Times)] New gesture, voice technology may make remote controls obsolete Systems that enable consumers to control TVs, smartphones, tablets and home appliances by waving a hand or saying a word are eliminating the need for clunky pointing devices. January 20, 2012|By David Sarno, Los Angeles Times The remote control has never been much beloved. If it’s not getting lost or running out of batteries, the device — and its inscrutable…

[From Discovery] [Image: Toyohashi University of Technology assistant professor Dzmitry Tsetserukou guides the NAVIgoid telepresence robot system.] Human Gets Immersed In Remote Robot’s Actions These kinds of robots could represent us in faraway places, letting us interact with friends, family and coworkers as if we were there. By Alyssa Danigelis Dec 28, 2011 What if you could be in two places at once? Or four? A group of Japanese roboticists envisions a world where we all use robots to visit friends and family, and represent us in distant work sites. They are developing a telepresence robot they think will give…