[From Cornell University’s Chronicle Online; the article by Professor Edelman is available here] [Image: Shimon Edelman contemplates a spoon, à la “The Matrix”] Psychologist ponders perceived and virtual reality vs. ‘real’ reality By George Lowery President Obama watched Navy SEALs raid the house where Osama bin Laden was killed in “real time,” news outlets reported. Gamers spend their time immersed in fantasy. Our cell phone calls and Skype video chats send us real-time images and sounds that re-create a simultaneously occurring reality. What if realities we take for granted are not, in fact, real?…

[A press release from The University of Nottingham; the story includes a 3:45 minute video] Illusion can halve the pain of osteoarthritis, scientists say 14 Apr 2011 A serendipitous discovery by academics at The University of Nottingham has shown that a simple illusion can significantly reduce — and in some cases even temporarily eradicate — arthritic pain in the hand. By tricking the brain into believing that the painful part of the hand is being stretched or shrunk, the researchers were able to halve the pain felt by 85 per cent of sufferers they tested. The research could point to…

[From Geekosystem, which features two videos] Eye-Tracking Projector Keeps Your Eye on the Game by Max Eddy | May 2nd, 2011 The best way to get really visually sucked into the game you’re playing is to increase screen real estate; get a giant HDTV or a series of monitors. But a team from the University of Texas, Austin has unveiled a clever solution that uses a tiny projector to provide a huge viewing experience. In their demo, presented last week, they combined a tiny, motorized pico projector and an eye-ball tracking system with a parabolic screen. This keeps gamers’ eyes…

[From The Wall Street Journal, which features additional images] A Physical Place of Enchanting Illusion By Jonathan Lopez April 9, 2011 Whenever friends visit the Netherlands, I recommend they go to The Hague to see the Panorama Mesdag, a 360-degree painted view of the beach and dunes at Scheveningen, created in 1881. With so many other sites to see, few people take me up on this suggestion. But those who do always feel they’ve discovered a miraculous secret. Little-known abroad, the Panorama Mesdag is a Dutch national treasure, a magical, monumental painting of astonishing charm and beauty. And it is,…

[From ConnectedAustralia.com] Harvey Norman employs ‘V’, a virtual salesperson By Lorna Brett Posted on: April 11, 2011 One Harvey Norman store in every state has welcomed a new staff member to its team this week; Rowenta’s affectionately nicknamed “V” salesperson, otherwise known as Spyeglass’ Virtual Presenter. Present at Rowenta’s ‘Experiential Lounge Room’ in Sydney last week, ‘V’, a woman holding an iPad while talking about vacuums in Rowenta’s new range, was doing a job normally reserved for a living, breathing salesperson.…

[From Korea JoongAng Daily, where the story includes additional images; more information is available here] [Image: Duplication¡± (2010) by Han Sung-pil is part of his solo show ¡°Dual Realities¡± at Arario Gallery Seoul] Exhibits designed to trick the mind “I’ve always been interested in the relationship between reality and illusion.” -Han Sung-pil April 21, 2011 By Moon So-young  Last week, there was news that the U.S. Postal Service had made a big mistake on a stamp featuring the Statue of Liberty. It turned out that the stamp was not based on a photo of the real statue in New York Harbor…

[From Investor’s Business Daily] [Image: InTouchHealth’s flat-panel screens, the “heads” of its robots, let off-site professionals see and treat patients. AP] The Virtual Doctor Is In: Robots In Hospitals By Paul Korzeniowski, FOR Investor’s Business Daily Posted 03/29/2011 At Ocean Beach Hospital in Ilwaco, Wash., when arriving patients show signs of a stroke, a key member of their medical team is … a tall flat-panel screen. Actually, the screen is attached atop a 6-foot device, a robot that functions mostly as a mobile videoconferencing system. Telemedicine is moving into the telepresence-robot era, with devices that roll on wheels and are…

[From The New York Times] This Lady Liberty Is a Las Vegas Teenager By Kim Severson and Matthew Healey Published: April 14, 2011 As if further proof were needed that New York is not the center of the universe. The United States Postal Service has issued a new stamp featuring the Statue of Liberty. Only the statue it features is not the one in the harbor, but the replica at the New York-New York casino in Las Vegas. You might think that the post office would have just gone with the original, the one off the tip of Lower Manhattan…

[From The Independent] Augmented reality projects transform Boston into a digital cyberland Monday, 18 April 2011 Areas of Boston will be transformed into interactive digital landscapes as a series of augmented reality artworks come to life during the Boston Cyberarts Festival, which begins April 22. With an open mind and smartphone in hand, people traveling from one area of the festival to another will look on as aliens invade the public space around them in an art project titled Occupation Forces. The artwork, created by Mark Skwarek, is made possible through a technology called augmented reality (AR for short).…

[From MIT’s Technology Review; a summary of past, present and future computer interfaces is available here] Business The Struggle to Spread the Minority Report Interface Economics and user expectations are bigger hurdles than the technology Friday, April 22, 2011 By Paul Boutin In the 2002 film Minority Report, Tom Cruise’s cop of the future made use of a mind-blowing computer interface—a holographic wall of images and data floating before him, which Cruise manipulated by donning special gloves and making sweeping gestures to call up, move, zoom, combine, and discard far more information than fits on any PC screen, far more quickly.…

[A press release from Novint; more detailed information, including a 7:00 minute video, is available from Nonpolynomial Labs] Novint Technologies and ForceTek Enterprises Merge ForceTek Brings Capital and Stunning New Exoskeleton Technology, Giving Motion Control a Sense of Touch (Albuquerque, NM – April 6, 2011) – Novint Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: NVNT) today announced the completion of Novint’s merger with ForceTek Enterprises, LLC. Novint will be combining ForceTek’s XIO exoskeleton controller with Novint’s high fidelity 3D touch technology to create the world’s first consumer 3D touch exoskeleton device. Users will wear the XIO exoskeleton on their arm, and XIO itself will…

[From The Montreal Gazette, where the story includes additional images] Scientists take steps to making “bionic” leg By Julie Steenhuysen, Reuters April 20, 2011 CHICAGO — As 20-year-old Hailey Daniswicz flexes muscles in her thigh, electrodes attached to her leg instruct a computer avatar to flex its knee and ankle — parts of Hailey’s leg that have been missing since 2005. Daniswicz, a sophomore at Northwestern University who lost her lower leg to bone cancer, is training the computer to recognize slight movements in her thigh so she can eventually be fitted with a “bionic” leg — a robotic prosthesis…