[From TechNewsWorld; a 2:46 minute video is available here] Avatar Kinect Puts Your Best Face Forward Avatar Kinect allows for richer virtual interactions by tracking the actual facial expressions and gestures of users and letting their avatars express them on screen — or not. “With an avatar, people can choose which visual details they want to transmit,” observed UVa prof Kamin Whitehouse. The technology could go way beyond gaming — bringing dramatic changes to business teleconferencing, for example. By Mike Martin TechNewsWorld 01/06/11 2:50 PM PT “Avatar” movie director James Cameron couldn’t have scripted a better keynote speech for Microsoft (Nasdaq:…

[From iSmashPhone] They Work For Scale: Old-School Optical Illusion Propels Animated Fish Pond It’s interesting that the current 3D/CGI boom is not only pushing technological advances in the screening room AND the living room — it’s also resurrecting a scad of old-fashioned, low-tech tricks.  If your last name isn’t Cameron, you probably can’t afford to design your own stereoscopic HD videocamera rig and shoot a gazillion-dollar sci-fi blockbuster.  However, as we’ve seen on this very blogeroo, you can get “3D” on your iPhone with a brace of mirrors, or make ghostly text float in mid-air with your iPad. Now say…

[From Military & Aerospace Electronics; also see an article in Flying magazine in which a pilot describes his experience using Honeywell’s Smartview system] Designs for avionics and synthetic vision rely heavily on human factors research Jan 4, 2011 By John McHale People interact with machines in different ways — with their eyes, touch, voices, and even their brain waves. These human factors are important when designing cars, home theaters, and especially commercial and military aircraft cockpits. Telepathic flight control still resides in fictional realms such as the 1982 Clint Eastwood movie FireFox — in which a pilot stole a Soviet jet…

[From The Guardian] The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks – review Oliver Sacks’s study of optical dysfunction is a real eye-opener, says Tim Radford Tim Radford The Guardian, Saturday 1 January 2011 All reality is virtual: we reconstruct the outside world with a virtual reality headset pre-installed at birth and tuned by experience so perfectly that most of the time we are barely conscious of it. The optic nerve delivers data from a blitz of electromagnetic wavelengths: the brain filters the information, selects the focus, interprets the imagery and projects it on to an interior screen. This unthinking process is…

[From The University of Derby Connected Online] [Image: A 3D image produced by the VisiDeck system] Games Technology ‘Virtually’ Advances Architecture 7 December 2010  Architects’ two-dimensional plans are set to be turned into highly realistic three dimensional (3D) virtual worlds you can walk through and interact with, thanks to a joint hi-tech project between the University of Derby and one of its graduates. Tony Coates, a student on the University’s BSc (Hons) Architectural Technology and Practice degree course, and software consultant Andy Yelland, who worked on the popular computer game Spiderman 2 among others, established company VisiDeck Ltd. The company…

[From Singularity Hub] [Image: Ah, the holidays…when good people all over the world log on to Skype and share a virtual meal in Amsterdam.] Celebrate Together When You’re Worlds Apart: Virtual Holiday Dinner December 30th, 2010 by Aaron Saenz This holiday season 156 people living on six different continents got to eat dinner with their closest friends and loved ones even though they were thousands of miles apart. Was it Christmas magic, a Hanukkah miracle, or a Kwanza surprise? Nope, just another example of modern technology. Using five robotic telepresence ‘dolls’, Skype, and one oversized table, Dutch advertising firm Wieden+Kennedy…

[From The Los Angeles Times] [Image: An SPFXMasks employee, left, sprays a layer of paint on a mask called “The Player.” That model was used by a white man, right, in a string of robberies in Ohio. An innocent black man was held until the culprit was turned in. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times; Gary Landers / Associated Press)] Masks so realistic they’re arresting the wrong guy A white man who robbed Ohio banks looked so convincing in a black-male disguise that an innocent man was held. That’s not exactly how SPFXMasks of Van Nuys had intended its masks…

[From The Telegraph] Apple patent reveals plans for holographic display Television and cinema screens that produce holographic images without the need for special glasses are being developed by computer giant Apple. By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent 26 Dec 2010 A recently granted patent reveals that Apple, the company behind the iPod and iPhone, has been working on a new type of display screen that produces three dimensional and even holographic images without the need for glasses. The technology could be used to produce a new generation of televisions, computer monitors and cinema screens that would provide viewers with a more…

[From MIT’s Technology Review Editors blog]  Attending the Christmas Party as a Robot Office parties can be even more trying when you send an electronic avatar in your place. Tom Simonite 12/22/2010 My recollections of the Technology Review holiday party, which took place yesterday, are a whirl of awkward shouted conversations, blurred vision and an embarrassing incident where I ran into a wall. Fortunately that’s only because I was attending as a robot rather than in person. The party took place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while I was sat safely in my office in San Francisco, California.…

[From AP via NPR, where the story features additional images] Robot Waiters In China Never Lose Patience by The Associated Press JINAN, China December 22, 2010 Service with a smile also comes with an electronic voice at the Dalu Robot restaurant, where the hotpot meals are not as famous yet as the staff who never lose their patience and never take tips. The restaurant, which opened this month in Jinan in northern Shandong province, is touted as China’s first robot hotpot eatery where robots resembling Star Wars droids circle the room carrying trays of food in a conveyor belt-like system.…

[From TG Daily; additional information from other sources follows below] Christmas Yule Log to air in 3D for first time Mark Raby | Thu 16th Dec 2010 To countless Americans, watching the perpetually burning Yule Log on TV is a Christmas tradition, and this year it’s getting a high-tech makeover. It’s been part of the holiday TV makeup since the 1960s and has remained relatively unchanged over the last 44 years. Hundreds of millions of viewers have tuned in to see the relaxing fireplace burning with classic Christmas music in the background. This year, though, you can make it feel…

[From MIT’s Technology Review, where the story includes a 1:26 minute video] [Image: More than real: The Wrap 920AR glasses provide immersive augmented reality for $1,995.] Computing Augmented Reality Goggles New video glasses can produce dazzling special effects, but who’ll wear them? Wednesday, November 10, 2010 By Kristina Grifantini I held a black-and-white square of cardboard in my hand and watched as a dragon the size of a puppy appeared on top of it and roared at me. I watched a tiny Earth orbit around a real soda can, saw virtual balls fall through a digital gap in a table,…