[From The Guardian; more information is available in an article in The Financial Times, which includes a 2:37 minute long video, and at the web site of EPFL Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience] [Image: Olaf Blanke conducts experiment to understand the way the brain represents the body by combining VR induced illusions and brain signal readings to better understand the cognitive basis for spatial representation.] Researchers use virtual-reality avatars to create ‘out-of-body’ experience Volunteers experienced the virtual bodies as if they were their own, with possible applications in computer games or to transport people digitally to other locations Alok Jha, science…

[From The Daily Titan, student newspaper of California State University, Fullerton; the New York Times story mentioned is available here] Opinion Webcast funerals are dehumanizing By Amy Leadbetter Published: February 16, 2011 The progression of technology and its dehumanizing effects has hit an all-time low. An article published last week in The New York Times titled, “For Funerals Too Far, Mourners Gather on the Web” by Laura Holson, addressed the recent popularity of funerals broadcast online. Holson’s article informs the reader that this is seen as a blessing for those who live too far or who are unable to make it…

[From Gizmodo] $US500 iRobot Hack Lets You Be Two Places At Once By Kit Eaton – FastCo on February 12, 2011 A hacker has put together a viable home-brew telepresence robot using easily available components that’s good enough (if not pretty enough) to rival much more expensive peers like Anybot’s QB. More than anything this suggests telepresence virtual working is an imminent phenomenon. The enterprising chap in question is Johnny Chung Lee. Temporarily separated from his partner after a work-driven relocation, he wanted to create a simple way to maintain a presence in their previous home. Telepresence droids would be…

[From The Scavenger] [Large image available here] Transmedia: The experience of the future? With the former glory of old, linear media fading, Melody Ayres-Griffiths examines just what the new media artform known as ‘transmedia’ is, and how it will engage an increasingly discerning yet time-starved populace in an immersive and interactive way. 13 February 2011 Late in January, 2011, I attended a conference regarding just what exactly ‘transmedia’ is, and perhaps where it’s going. Although the meaning of the phrase changed somewhat depending upon who you talked to, the core of the explanations I received was simply this: transmedia engages…

[From Bit Rebels, which features more images and a 1:22 minute video also available here] The World’s Largest Touchscreen 02/12/2011 By Diana Adams Holy batman, now that’s a touchscreen! I’m going to tell you the size of this thing immediately because I know that’s what you really want to know, right? It is 10 meters (32.8 feet) by 2.8 meters (9.2 feet). The screen uses 1,000 LEDs and 6 Optitrack cameras. The resolution is 4900 by 1700 pixels. Its shape is curved, and it can track 100 people touching it at once. The University of Groningen in the Netherlands created…

[From PhysOrg.com] [Image: An avatar with large belly size representing the participant. Credit: Jean-Marie Normand, Elias Giannopoulos, Bernhard Spanlang & Mel Slater] Virtually feeling fat February 1, 2011 By Charles Q. Choi Greasy food and a lack of exercise aren’t the only things that can make you feel fat — now you can add virtual reality and being poked by a stick to the list. By having people wear head-mounted displays that make them see pot-bellied computer-generated versions of their bodies and by having them poke their tummies with sticks at the same time, scientists found they could make people…

[From ABC News, where the story includes videos and other materials] For Watson Technology, What Happens After ‘Jeopardy!’? IBM’s Supercomputer Has Implications for Healthcare, Information Tech and More By KI MAE HEUSSNER Feb. 9, 2011 Wouldn’t it be nice to have your very own supercomputer in your pocket? If your laptop crashed while you were working on a major presentation, you could ask your portable expert to help diagnose the problem. If you wanted to bone up on Middle Eastern history, you could ask it to comb every document available and then wrap it all up in a simple summary…

[From USA Today; details and videos from Google are available here; an interview with one of the project creators is here; and a detailed review is available here] Google Art Project: Virtual museum tours, in one handy spot By Whitney Matheson, USA TODAY Feb 08, 2011 This morning I visited Washington’s Freer Gallery of Art, the Tate in London and Amsterdam’s van Gogh Museum. And man, are my fingertips tired. The Google Art Project is an idea that’s long overdue: Head to the website, and you can virtually visit 17 museums around the world (for free, of course).…

[From Purdue University’s News Service] [Image: Purdue industrial engineering graduate student Mithun Jacob uses a prototype robotic scrub nurse with graduate student Yu-Ting Li. Researchers are developing a system that recognizes hand gestures to control the robot or tell a computer to display medical images of the patient during an operation. (Purdue University photo/Mark Simons)] Future surgeons may use robotic nurse, ‘gesture recognition’ February 3, 2011 WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Surgeons of the future might use a system that recognizes hand gestures as commands to control a robotic scrub nurse or tell a computer to display medical images of the…

[From MuseumNext] Augmented Reality in the Museum Posted January 31st, 2011 In October 2010, a pair of somewhat mischievous new media artists staged a wholly 21st century intervention at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It involved placing numerous extra artworks in the galleries and introducing a whole new floor – the seventh – at the top of the MoMA building. And all this without the institution’s permission or knowledge (at least at first). If you haven’t guessed already, this seemingly impossible ruse was achieved using augmented reality (AR), the overlay of digital elements on a live view…

[From NPR’s The Two-Way blog, which also features a 4:28 minute audio story and a 1:03 video] Meet John and Julie: Holograms Beamed Into The Manchester Airport February 3, 2011 by Erin Killian Apparently people who fly from Manchester, England, often forget to throw away their liquids. Since 2006, when the policy that required travelers to ditch their liquids went into effect, staff at the Manchester airport has tried all sorts of mechanisms to get people to comply. “We’ve tried a number of things, from posters to leaflets, from real staff being there to remind people,” Russell Craig, spokesman for the…

[From the MIT Technology Review blog Mim’s Bits; more information on this and related work is available here] How Babies Know What Robots Are Thinking New research tells us something about infants’ theory of mind, as well as how to build robots humans instinctively recognize as sentient Christopher Mims 02/02/2011 Computer scientists don’t usually see their labs filling up with dozens of mothers and their infants, but that’s exactly what happened to Rajesh Rao as he embarked on one of his most recent experiments. In order to discover what it takes to make an infant engage with a robot as…