[From Princeton Patch] [Image: Sandy Bay, Bahamas, from WavesDVD] Virtual Vacations Robin Birkel Posted on February 27, 2012 Traveling is a hobby of mine. Before kids, my husband and I traveled the world at any time. Now we have to wait for school vacations to take off on a new journey, which limits our winter getaways. That’s when I implemented virtual vacations. “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” ~ St. Augustine I’ve always felt the need to fill the gap between vacations. Since my family loves foods from around the globe,…

[From CNET, where the story includes a 1:47 minute video] Brainwave-controlled skateboard is totally mental Chaotic Moon Labs’ Kinect-controlled skateboard was pretty awesome, but the company has managed to blow our minds with its Board of Imagination. Crave talks with one of the creators to find out how it works. by Bonnie Cha February 23, 2012 Remember the Board of Awesomeness, the Kinect-controlled motorized skateboard from CES? Well, it just got more awesome. The creator of this high-tech board, Chaotic Moon Labs, has come up with a new version called the Board of Imagination that works by reading your brain…

[From New Scientist’s One Per Cent blog; more details and a video are available from Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)] Virtual tailor’s dummy makes designing clothes easy 31 January 2012 Duncan Graham-Rowe, contributor Creating the pattern for a new dress design can be fiddly, so Amy Wibowo at the University of Tokyo, Japan, is using augmented reality to make it simpler. Six ceiling-mounted cameras are trained on the dummy and on two tools held by the designer, one for creating surfaces and other for cutting them. The tools and the dummy both have markers, so the cameras can work…

[From Kotaku] Google Glasses To Augment Gamers’ Reality Google is in the news this week not so much for their software and search offerings, but for their hardware, and whispers of an item yet to come. According to the New York Times, Google is developing a type of Android-based glasses that will, in some way, project content immediately into the wearer’s field of vision. The glasses reportedly include the features users have come to rely on in their smartphones, like GPS, cameras, and the ability to play and record audio. The Times reports: Several people who have seen the glasses,…

[From The Information Daily; more information about the ALIZ-E project is at here] Valentine’s Day – Time To Hug Your Favourite Robot? On St. Valentine’s Day, we want to be close to the ones we love. Researchers from Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK are testing whether one day that special person in our life could be a robot. Source: European Commission Published Wednesday, February 15, 2012 Experiments have shown that children, for example, can become extremely attached to a robot playmate, but can the robot in turn can develop a bond with a human being? Could we…

[From AllThingsD via Telepresence Options, where the posts include a 3:58 minute video; other reviews are available at NewsFactor and TIME] Real Bonding With Family Around the TV Via Skyp Walt Mossberg January 25, 2012 As you read these words, millions of people are conducting video chats using the popular Skype service, now owned by Microsoft. Most of these calls are low-resolution encounters between two individuals, conducted over personal computers. This week, I tested a new device that aims to transform Skype video chats into room-size experiences, involving whole families or groups of friends on each end—seeing each other, chatting…

[From Co.Design, where the post includes additional images] A Mirrored Installation Lets You Crawl Up Walls Like Spider-Man “Bâtiment (Building)” uses simple mirrors instead of digital trickery to create a vertigo-inducing illusion. By John Pavlus Augmented reality! Kinect hacks! Enormous video projections! We’ve seen all kinds of wacky digital ways of making immersive, arty illusions. Here’s what we love about Bâtiment (Building) by Leandro Erlich: It just uses mirrors. To do what? How about float in midair, scale a building like Spider-Man, or defy gravity like someone in an Escher drawing (or David Bowie in Labyrinth).…

[Excerpts from an article in GQ; an audio interview with the author is available from NPR] [Image: Ari Hollander/Hunter Hoffman] Burning Man On his first tour of duty in Afghanistan, Sam Brown was set on fire by an improvised explosive device. He survived, only to find himself, like thousands of other vets, doomed to a post-traumatic life of unbearable pain. Even hallucinogen-grade drugs offered little relief, and little hope. Then his doctors told him about an experimental treatment, a painkilling video game supposedly more effective than morphine. If successful, it would deliver Brown from his living hell into a strange…

[From The Huffington Post] Petros Vrellis Makes Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ Interactive Posted: 02/10/2012 4:08 pm Imagine being Vincent Van Gogh. Imagine giving form to “Starry Night” with your hands. With the help of Petros Vrellis, playing the artist instead of the observer is now possible. The Greek artist created an interactive template of “Starry Night” — through the use of open source C++ toolkit openFrameworks, Vrellis made a touch interface that allows the viewer to repaint the piece of art.…

[From Geek-O-System via Telepresence Options;  a 4:55 minute video is available here] Man Plays With Dog From Work With Robotic Surrogate by Max Eddy | February 11th, 2012 Jordan Correa and his wife had a problem. Because they both worked full-time jobs, they weren’t able to spend time at home during the day with their new dog Darwin. Instead of painfully readjusting their lives, Correa did what any man with training in robotics and engineering would do: He built a telepresence robot surrogate that he could control from work to play with his dog. You know, the obvious solution.…

[From The Hindu] With the heart in your mouth Shilpa Nair Anand Kochi, February 1, 2012 A snake hissing in the face, feeling its breath on the back of the neck and wondering if it IS a snake near the feet…it is the ultimate ‘6D’ experience at the recently opened ‘Sixth Sense’ digital studio at Abad Nucleus Mall. It is an entirely different movie viewing experience. It is a heady mix for the senses. Twenty-four seats, 3D glasses, phones on mute, handbags on the aisle…why handbags? “It is safer,” says an attendant. Safer? Prudence questions, ‘this is just some short…

[From Wired’s Underwire blog, which includes videos and additional images] [Image: Keiichi Matsuda’s video “Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop” shows off his sci-fi view of the future] Sci-Fi-Infused Videos Show Off Keiichi Matsuda’s Vision of the Future By Matt Fisher January 19, 2012 We are living in the future — Keiichi Matsuda knows that. Working from London and Tokyo, the 27-year-old designer and filmmaker creates innovative videos that blend architecture, virtual reality, social networking and sci-fi, offering a glimpse into how augmented reality could play out in the coming years. His two most recognized films, “Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop” and “Augmented…