[A news release from The University of San Diego (UCSD), where the original story includes 3 images] Coming to TV Screens of the Future: A Sense of Smell A research breakthrough toward odor-generating TV June 16, 2011 By Catherine Hockmuth Today’s television programs are designed to trigger your emotions and your mind through your senses of sound and sight. But what if they could trigger a few more? What if you could smell or taste the cheesy slices of pizza being eaten by your favorite characters on TV? Is it possible? Would audiences enjoy the experience? Would advertisers jump on…

[A press release from StarGreetz via PR Newswire; related stories, a story about how Syracuse University is using the service to retain admitted students is available here, and an interview with the founder and CEO is available here] StarGreetz Makes Facebook Talk … Personally NEW DIGITAL MEDIA COMPANY, STARGREETZ, REINVENTS ONLINE AND MOBILE BRAND MARKETING WITH THE FIRST-EVER PERSONALIZED VIDEO FACEBOOK, WEBSITE AND BANNER AD APPS AND PREMIUM RETAIL PRODUCTS THAT SPEAK DIRECTLY TO CONSUMERS AND FANS BY NAME First-Ever Personalized Video Facebook and Web App Launches With The CW’s Vampire Diaries and 90210 and American Idol; Premium Retail Products Include…

[From Fast Company] KinectShop: The Next Generation Of Shopping [Exclusive Video] A new augmented reality shopping platform for Xbox Kinect will allow users to try on clothes in true 3-D, share photos with friends, and store wish-listed items on smartphones for shopping on-the-go. By Gregory Ferenstein Jun 9, 2011 Virtual reality shopping just got a lot more real–and could soon become a lot more mainstream. “KinectShop” (working title), an augmented reality shopping platform for the Xbox Kinect, exploits the system’s new finger-recognition technology to allow shoppers to grab items from an unlimited shelf of clothes, see how accessories look at…

[From GigaOm, where the story includes a 2:09 minute video] Immersive Communications: The future of video collaboration? By Simon Mackie Jun. 7, 2011 From the telepresence solutions of companies like Cisco and Polycom to inexpensive desktop videoconferencing apps from providers such as Skype and Tinychat, there are now video communication products available to suit every need and budget. However, even though the quality of video communication has greatly improved, it still cannot match the feeling of proximity generated by real, face-to-face conversation. Telecom giant Alcatel Lucent’s research and development arm Bell Labs is hoping to replicate the feeling of in-person interaction…

[From Wired; more information including the excerpts that follow the story below, more images and video clips, is available in the Airbus report here]   Airbus shows off the sustainable and panoramic plane of 2050 By Mark Brown 14 June 11 Conceptual soothsayers at plane-builder Airbus have gazed 40 years into the future, to show what the aircraft cabin of 2050 might look like. The first thing you’ll notice is that the claustrophobic fuselage shell is gone, now replaced by panoramic views of the sky above you. This is achieved by a twisting bionic structure — inspired by bird skeletons…

[From New Scientist; a 1:23 minute video is available here] Illusions to send shivers down a gamer’s spine 25 May 2011 by Jim Giles Magazine issue 2813. You are playing a video game, and your avatar is creeping into a haunted house at the dead of night. Suddenly, you freeze in your chair. Something is crawling up your back… Whether this idea appeals or not, researchers at Disney have made such sensations possible by inventing a system that fools players into thinking that objects are moving against their skin. Their brainchild, known as Tactile Brush, creates the illusion of being touched…

[From Defence Professionals] [Image: US Marines walk through a Future Immersive Training Environment scenario. Photo: US Army, Josh LeCappelai)] Immersive Technology Fuels Infantry Simulators  Cheryl Pellerin American Forces Press Service May 16, 2011 WASHINGTON | Rocket-propelled grenades explode, villagers scream in Arabic, squad members move together through the rough streets past animal pens and bazaar stalls, and the hot air carries local sounds and smells. It’s not Afghanistan’s Helmand province. It’s a 130,000-square-foot building on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in southern California. There, at the Infantry Immersion Trainer, a Defense Department program combines infrastructure, actors, and three-dimensional immersive technologies…

[From GigaOm; more details are in a press release here] MondoPad: A giant tablet for video conferencing and collaboration By Simon Mackie Jun. 8, 2011 Want a high-definition video conferencing system for your meeting room, but don’t have the budget for a costly room-based telepresence system? You might want to check out the MondoPad, which has been launched by Portland, Ore.-based InFocus, a company most well-known for its digital projector products. It’s a huge 55-inch, 1080p multi-touch LCD display that’s effectively a giant tablet computer designed for videoconferencing and collaboration. The MondoPad is based on Windows 7 Pro, and comes with…

[From GMA News; much more information, including more images and a 2:56 minute video, is available on Andrew Maimone’s web site here. See also this related story on Engadget.] [Image: Camera Coverage. Left: System Camera coverage (5 cameras). Right: Color-coded camera contributions.] Kinect hack allows potential 3D teleconferencing 06/05/2011 A new hack by a university professor and student on Microsoft’s popular Kinect gaming accessory may soon allow “affordable” 3D videoconferencing. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate student Andrew Maimone said his setup uses Kinect’s depth cameras and an algorithm and filters. “Our system is affordable and reproducible, offering the opportunity to…

[From Riverside, California’s Press-Enterprise, where the story includes a podcast, a 1:25 minute video and more images; the SC Village web site is here] [Image: Tim Thai, left, and Ruffy Flores run for cover during a paintball war scenario in a mock Middle Eastern SC Village. Mark Zaleski/The Press-Enterprise] Paintball battlefield’s Mideast marketplace scrutinized Friday, June 3, 2011 By LESLIE PARRILLA The Press-Enterprise If it were a few degrees hotter, the wind-whipped sand clouds at a desert-like facility near Corona could be mistaken for a dust storm at a deserted Middle Eastern marketplace. But only if you overlooked the plywood used…

[From Hypergrid Business] [Image: Virtual windsurfing in Second Life. Courtesy Club One.] Study: Virtual health club delivers real weight loss Press release: ACSM: Weight loss success in a 3-D virtual world By Staff Sat, Jun 4 2011 Bloomington, Indiana — Participants in two weight-loss programs — one involving traditional health club sessions and the other delivered online in a 3D virtual world — lost similar amounts of weight and body fat, but the online contingent reported significantly greater gains in behaviors that could help them live healthier and leaner lives. “It’s counter-intuitive, the idea of being more active in a…

[From Technische Universität München (TUM)] [Image: Researcher in the FRAVE] FRAVE: Flexible Virtual Reality System 31.05.2011, Press releases Product developers, vehicle design engineers and trainee pilots increasingly utilize 3D worlds, operating in virtual space created by realistic images in real time. For this purpose they use a Virtual Reality System. Researchers at the Faculty of Informatics of Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have now created precisely such a new system. The Flexible Reconfigurable Cave (FRAVE) offers a wealth of advantages over the previously established CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment). The FRAVE is flexible, features a modular structure, more favorable costs and…