[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…

[From MSNBC’s Cosmos Log blog, which features more links and a 0:26 minute video] Control the cosmos with your fingers By Alan Boyle What do you get when you cross a WorldWide Telescope with a Kinect motion-sensing game controller? You get the “universe at your fingertips,” according to Microsoft Research’s Curtis Wong, who demonstrated the gesture-controlled cosmos today at the MIX11 conference in Las Vegas. Actually, having the universe at your fingertips is how Wong has thought of the freely available WorldWide Telescope project since it was first unveiled in 2008. The software, which is freely available through a Web-based interface…

[From UCLA’s Daily Bruin] Taking architecture to new dimensions Virtually mapped French Gothic buildings allow complete immersion through computer models By James Barragan Published April 12, 2011 A smile spreads across Stephen Murray’s face as he answers a question about the building Royce Hall was modeled after. “The Basilica of Saint Ambrogio,” he says confidently. He knows. Of course he knows – he is an expert in Romanesque and Gothic art. The Columbia University professor presented only the second public showing of his new project “Mapping Gothic France” Monday night as a part of the 12th annual Hammer Foundation Lecture…

[From Ubergizmo; more information and pictures at Engadget and the Telepresence Tech web site] Samsung telepresence booths to change the future of shopping? By George Wong 03/24/2011 At the Samsung Mobilization event today, Samsung unveiled their new 3D communication kiosk that makes use of TelePresence Technology. It renders 2D images that float and rotate in space, allowing users to see every angle of a product they are interested in. If you’ve always felt cheated by products you purchased online because of how they end up on your doorstep not looking like the photographs, these kiosks should be right up your…

[From The Atlantic Magazine, where the long article includes sidebar features] [Image credit: Bryan Christie] Mind vs. Machine In the race to build computers that can think like humans, the proving ground is the Turing Test—an annual battle between the world’s most advanced artificial-intelligence programs and ordinary people. The objective? To find out whether a computer can act “more human” than a person. In his own quest to beat the machines, the author discovers that the march of technology isn’t just changing how we live, it’s raising new questions about what it means to be human. By Brian Christian March…

[From The Oxford Mail; more information including pictures is available here] It’s Google earth for RAF jumpers Friday 8th April 2011 By Dan Hearn RAF recruits are using a state-of-the-art simulator to learn how to parachute safely. Students at RAF Brize Norton’s parachute training school use harnesses and virtual reality goggles to ‘jump’ in a range of different environments. Instructors can simulate rain, fog and snow, and choose any time of day or night. Wind speed and direction can also be adjusted to make the descent more challenging. Last night instructors praised the new £500,000 system at the Carterton RAF…

[From Fast Company; more information including images and videos is available here] It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s … a New Seagull-Like Robot Spy Drone! By Kit Eaton Fri Mar 25, 2011 A new robotic flying drone, styled like a seagull, has arrived on the scene. It doesn’t squawk, poop or steal french fries from your hand, but it’s an example of incredible bio-mimicking design that could be the future of airborne robots. We’ve met a Festo robot before–a robotic manipulator/gripper arm with a design that’s heavily inspired by elephant trunk muscles–and so we know about the company’s penchant…

[From The New York Times’ Bits blog, where the story includes a 1:03 minute video]   Augmented Reality Comes Closer to Reality By John Markoff April 7, 2011 Last week I wrote about how cyber politics and crime on the Internet had been foreseen with eerie accuracy by science fiction writers. For example, the computer scientist Vernor Vinge’s classic 1981 novella “True Names” described the impact of the Net long before most people had personal computers, let alone an Internet connection. But it’s not just the dark side of the Internet that Mr. Vinge got right. In his 2006 “Rainbows End,”…

[From The Stanford Report, where the story includes a 1:56 minute video also available here] New virtual reality research – and a new lab – at Stanford Cutting down a virtual redwood with a virtual chainsaw may lead you to save trees by recycling more paper. That finding is an example of how real-world behavior can be changed by immersing people in virtual reality environments – a notion that is at the heart of work under way in Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. By Adam Gorlick April 8, 2011 If a tree falls in a virtual reality forest, will anyone…

[From I Programmer, which features a 1:01 minute video also available here] The cutting edge of touch – Slice Written by Ian Elliot Sunday, 03 April 2011 Slice is a breakthrough game that uses touch input in a new way. It is a game of skill coupled with a surprising negative feedback – you get it wrong and you get cut, virtually of course! Virtual reality is a difficult thing to get hold of. When it works, an immersive virtual environment can suddenly become real – when it fails you just get a headache. Sometimes however you can be surprised…

[From CNET’s Crave blog] [Image: The avatar me and the real me share a virtual karaoke moment. (Credit: Screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)] 3D Tunes: My life as a virtual karaoke star Amanda Kooser April 5, 2011 Karaoke scares the wits out of me. I can sing in front of a crowd with a guitar and my own songs without batting an eyelash, but something about karaoke makes me want to hide under the nearest table. The only time I’ve karaoked was in a backwoods bar called The Rose in Cuba, Mo. I barely survived a shaky rendition of “Jumping Jack Flash”…