[From The Irish Times] [Image: Avatars on a computer-generated version of the Front Square of Trinity College Dublin] Thursday, December 9, 2010 Creating better digital denizens We are incredibly sensitive to human movement and appearance, which makes it a big challenge to create believable computerised crowds, but researchers at Trinity are working on improving that. As you settle down to watch the seasonal feast of movies on TV this Christmas – or maybe as you get stuck into computer games that found their way under the tree – take a closer look at any virtual humans that crop up. Are…

[A press release from NEVERDIE Studios via SourceWire] Virtual Worlds Pioneer Brings Fiancée Back From The Dead In Virtual Reality Monday, 20 December 2010 20th December 2010. Hollywood, CA – Virtual worlds pioneer, Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs, has revealed that he has brought his fiancée back from the dead as an avatar, and part of the launch of his latest virtual destination, the new Club NEVERDIE. The controversial entrepreneur believes that virtual reality will be the means by which humanity transcends death itself, and has taken the first step towards this with the inclusion of the avatar representing his late fiancée, Tina…

[From The Peninsula; more information about the Center is here] Hospital training, orientation go hi-tech at Sidra center Friday, 17 December 2010 By Sonya Schneider-Ghaddar, RN Qatar Health 2010, an annual Health Congress and Exhibition held earlier this week, presented exciting new ways of approaching healthcare, patient care and staff training. One presentation focused on the staff orientation project for the new Sidra Medical and Research Center, which is scheduled to open by the end of 2012. The presentation outlined the daunting and unique task of bringing onboard and orienting 5000 to 6000 new staff members for a facility that…

[From The Washington Post, where the story features a slideshow; additional details follow below] Taiwan flora show features high-tech displays By ANNIE HUANG The Associated Press Tuesday, December 14, 2010 Paper-thin speakers blare pop music. 3D films appear on elongated screens with no need for special viewing glasses. Viewers’ pulses turn cocoons into butterflies in an interactive display. Welcome to the Pavilion of Dreams, a high-tech enclave within the Taipei International Flora Exposition, where Taiwanese artists and engineers are using technology-generated flowers and plants to strut the island’s cutting edge know-how to onlookers from around the world.…

[From MIT’s Technology Review TechSpecs blog; a 1:08 minute video is available here] A Minority Report Interface for the Rest of Us You don’t have to be rich like Tom Cruise to rock a gestural interface. John Pavlus 11/16/2010 Gestural computing: ever since a be-gloved Tom Cruise blew everyone’s minds in Minority Report, interface dorks have been trying hard to bring it into the real world. But here’s the problem: who actually wants to spend their whole workday wildly waving their arms around? Well, musicians and dancers just might. That’s the idea behind Toscanini, a gestural computer interface named after…

[A press release from Digital Elite Inc. via PR Web] METAMORPHOSIS – A 360° Immersive Film Wins Hollywood Award Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) December 10, 2010 Digital Elite Inc. Los Angeles in partnership with researchers at the Technical University of Budapest in Hungary have developed a fully interactive Panoramic Broadcasting technology, called PanoCAST, for producing 360° Immersive Films for parallel cinematic and on-line experiences. Using this technology they have produced an experimental short film, an authentic adaptation of THE METAMORPHOSIS, a film that has now won the Best Short Film Award at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival. “You have…

[From The New York Daily News] Playing for real: Game technology dissolves distance between ‘Tron’ and world reflected in sequel BY Michael Sheridan DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Sunday, December 12th 2010 “Tron: Legacy,” opening Friday, is a case of past and present colliding with a future vision that has come true. Nearly 30 years ago, Disney’s original “Tron” hit the big screen with a mixture of computer-generated effects and wacky science fiction concepts unseen before. Its man-inside-of-a-video-game concept was perfect for the newborn Pac-Man era, and the standup Tron video game was like an instant companion piece to the film:…

[From ABC News, where a 1:56 minute video is featured] Virtual Reality Study Encourages Subjects to Save for the Future Morphed Photographs Show What You’ll Look Like ‘When You’re 64’ By JOHN BERMAN and JENNIFER METZ Dec. 9, 2010 At the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University, researchers are tackling one of the Beatles’ crucial questions: “Will you still feed me, when I’m 64?” Hal Ernser-Hershfield, a behavioral-finance researcher from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, has developed a new idea to help young people answer that question — to determine if they’ve saved enough to feed and…

[A press release from Luxurious Animals and Panasonic via PR Web; a 1:57 minute video is here] Luxurious Animals Turns to Panasonic for New 3D Gesture Control Technology Luxurious Animals turns to Panasonic’s 3D Gesture Control technology for their new virtual reality lounge called “Dream of Flight”. The high tech lounge, sponsored by Lufthansa, is part of a multi-million dollar project for Esquire Magazine. Panasonic Electric Works’ 3D Image Sensing Camera, the D-IMager, was chosen as the preferred motion–detection device for this state-of-the-art installation that is free of conventional controllers. New Providence, NJ and New York City, NY (PRWEB) December…

[From The Epoch Times] [Image: Psychic Toys: Software developer Robert Oschler looks at his WowWee Rovio robot while wearing an Emotiv EPOC headset. Using the headset, he programmed the robot to be controlled by his thoughts. (Robert Oschler)] Emotion Tech Developer Shares Dreams of Electric Sheep On the tech frontier, boundaries between man and machine fade By Joshua Philipp Epoch Times Staff Created: Dec 6, 2010 Last Updated: Dec 7, 2010 Few may remember the 1982 film, “Firefox” about the Soviet fighter jet controlled by the pilot’s mind. The film, starring Clint Eastwood, set out on a premise that technology…

[From MIT’s Technology Review Editors blog] Robots for Our Old Age iRobot’s CEO says robots will help the elderly and infirm live independently, for longer. Kristina Grifantini 11/24/2010 Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot, gave a keynote talk last month at the 2010 Connected Health Symposium in Boston. He didn’t say what the company is working on in its new healthcare robots business unit, but he predicted robots will have a crucial role to play in the future of healthcare. Angle said that assistive robots will enable old or sick people to live independently for longer.…

[From New Scientist] Microsoft develops shape-shifting touchscreen Updated 13:16 29 November 2010 by Paul Marks Microsoft this week filed a patent application covering a novel way to construct a “tactile” touchscreen – a display that uses technical tricks to convince users they are actually touching the ridges, bumps and textures of a displayed image. Whereas previous screens produced only an illusion of texture, Microsoft proposes producing a real texture, using pixel-sized shape-memory plastic cells that can be ordered to protrude from the surface on command.…