[From StaffNurse.com] [Image: Dartmoor National Park, UK] VR Greenery Aid to Convalescence May 25, 2011 University scientists are seeking to take virtual reality to a new level – with a view to helping sick people who cannot get access to the outside world. The researchers in Birmingham plan their new worlds to be “sensorily rich”. They are using large screen TVs, video projectors and head mounted displays to create virtual versions of soothing rural and coastal scenes. The initial development is re-creating a stretch of the coastline of south Devon and an area within Dartmoor National Park. The developers say…

[From New Scientist’s One Per Cent blog, where the post features a 1:17 minute video] Telepresence robots go airborne 12 May 2011 Jim Giles, contributor, Vancouver, Canada Picture the scene: your boss phones to say he is working from home. A calm descends over the office. Workers lean back in their chairs. Feet go up on desks – this shift is going to be pretty chilled. Suddenly, a super-sized video feed of your boss, projected onto to the front of a helium-filled balloon equipped with a loudspeaker, floats silently into the room and starts issuing orders from above your head. Not…

[A press release from Sharp; a 1:24 minute video is available here] Sharp and NHK Successfully Develop 85-Inch Direct-View LCD Compatible with Super Hi-Vision, a World First*1 NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) (Shibuya Ward, Tokyo; President: Masayuki Matsumoto) and Sharp Corporation (Abeno Ward, Osaka; President: Mikio Katayama) have jointly developed an 85-inch LCD compatible with Super Hi-Vision, a next-generation television broadcast format. This is a world first for a direct-view display.…

[From The Drum] Thu 19 May 2011 Virtual reality – museum gives web users a real tour Digital / UK A new museum in Belgium is offering you the chance to take a real live tour of its exhibits – without ever leaving the comfort of your chair. Visit the website of the MAS Museum in Antwerp and a tour guide carrying a camera will show you around the place in real-time as though you are really there with them. If that already sounds cool, wait until you hear the best bit. You can control your tour guide’s movements using…

[From Wired magazine’s Danger Room blog] Bin Laden Compound Now a Virtual Training Ground for Commandos By Spencer Ackerman May 18, 2011 TAMPA, Florida — To passers-by, T.J., a fit 20-something, is running around a red felt carpet about half the size of a basketball court inside a convention center. In his mind, he’s wearing a full set of body armor, his face obscured by a ski mask with a death’s head silkscreened on it. And he’s just dropped a terrorist inside Osama bin Laden’s Abbotabad compound. “Pushing out!” he yells, eyes obscured to the outside world by virtual reality goggles.…

[From a promotional brochure (in pdf format) on the web site of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol] Airport Park Amsterdam Airport Schiphol offers a surprising new attraction: a green ‘city park’ www.schiphol.nl/airportpark Airport Park is for everyone to enjoy. Relax, work, meet people and enjoy food and refreshments in the park. Once beyond passport control, passengers will now be able to spend their time at the airport in a surprising, park-themed area. Travellers can even step outside to enjoy the sunshine on the terrace. Airport Park offers an all-embracing city park experience, unique in the world. Airport Park owes its park feeling…

[From MIT’s Technology Review] Street View Steps Inside Google will let users check out a restaurant’s décor without leaving their computer Monday, May 9, 2011 By Tom Simonite Since 2007, Google’s Street View service has provided interactive panoramic photos that make it possible to virtually stroll down streets all over the globe. Within the next two days, Street View users will be able to click on the doorways of some restaurants and other businesses to take the experience indoors. At the Social Loco conference in San Francisco last week, Google vice president Marissa Mayer, who leads the company’s location-based technologies,…

[A press release from Yoostar via Business Wire] You May Now Kiss the Bride (or Groom): Fairy Tales Can Come True….It Can Happen to Yoo as Yoostar Releases Free Download of the Royal Kiss Scene for Kinect for Xbox 360 By Business Wire May 12, 2011 It was the moment the world cheered – with over two billion people watching across the globe, the image of Prince William and Kate Middleton enjoying their first public kiss is sure to become one of the most iconic images of 2011. Now Kinect for Xbox 360 owners can make their own Royal Wedding…

[From the Reporter blog of Imperial College London] A Model Patient Sam Wong, Communications and Development 13 May 2011 In the Paterson Wing at St Mary’s Campus, a surgeon tries to stem the flow of blood from a patient who’s been stabbed in the abdomen. As a heart monitor bleeps urgently and fluid continues to emerge, the pressure of the situation is inescapable. Yet the man lying on the operating table is not a man at all, but a very convincing dummy. Simulated operations are increasingly becoming a major part of a surgeon’s training. Virtual reality is commonly used to…

[From the web site of New York’s Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) , which features more information and many images] [Image: Alan Wolfson’s Canal St. Cross-Section, 2009-2010] Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities June 7 – September 18, 2011 Virtual reality has been a powerful factor in shaping our social and artistic environment since the 1970s. Today, innovations in digital technology have completely transformed film, video, and television: extraordinary special effects and three-dimensional imaging created using computer-based software are commonplace. However, while the digital world continues to expand into more and more areas of our lives, a profound human…

[From The National Science Foundation (NSF) , where the story features additional material including a 2:33 minute video] [Image: This is an example of the interactive visualization of proteins from the Protein Data Bank (PDB), using PDB browser software on the C-Wall (virtual reality wall) at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at the University of California, San Diego. The work was performed by Jürgen P. Schulze, project scientist, in collaboration with Jeff Milton, Philip Weber and Professor Philip Bourne of the University of California, San Diego. The software supports collaborative viewing of proteins at multiple sites on…

[From The U.S. Department of Defense American Forces Press Service] [Image: Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, then commanding general of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, now the Army’s chief of staff, discusses the capabilities of remote training with Keith Johnston at the February 2011 Winter Association of the U.S. Army Exposition in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Angelica Golindano] Army Warfighters Go Digital to Hone Skills By Cheryl Pellerin American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, May 10, 2011 – With more than 1 million service members on active duty in the United States, the military services,…