[From The Philadelphia Inquirer] Oct. 1, 2010 History in 3-D Welcome to Liberty 360, a circular theater telling the American tale. By Kathryn Canavan For The Inquirer The centuries will collide in Philadelphia’s historic district this weekend when tour guides in 18th-century garb welcome visitors to the 21st century and a 3-D theater in the round. David Niles, designer of the well-received video wall at the Comcast Center, is offering a new 3-D attraction dubbed Liberty 360 that opened this week. It’s a 15-minute, sometimes-panoramic show about the iconic symbols of America. The onscreen host is tinkerer extraordinaire Benjamin Franklin…

[From SlashGear]  Namco Bandai and Nissan Team Up to Create Futuristic Yokohama City in Virtual Reality By Evan Selleck on Thu Sep 30th, 2010 Virtual Reality (VR) was all the rage several years ago. In arcades all over the world (where you could find them), there were rigs set up to showcase a digital world, where the player was fully submerged. A part of the game, and not just playing it. And while it may have quieted down over the years, it looks like Nissan and Namco Bandai have found a way to make it useful again. Both companies have…

[From IEEE Spectrum, part of a special report on telepresence that features much supplemental and related material] When My Avatar Went to Work A robot surrogate took my place at the office. Here’s why one may take yours, too By Erico Guizzo  /  September 2010 As I come down the hallway, heads start popping out of cubicles and offices, all eyes turning in my direction. Some of my colleagues laugh, some frown. One looks terrified and flees. That’s what happens, I suppose, when you show up at the office as a robot. The robot is acting as my stand-in at work.…

[From The Ottawa Citizen] [Image: Psychologist Kieron O’Connor, shown with a computer screen loaded with 3-D images from a hoarder’s stash, is conducting research into virtual reality therapies at the University of Quebec Outaouais in Gatineau.] Hoarding: The virtual reality of clutter By Maria Cook September 28, 2010 Psychologist Kieron O’Connor has compiled a list 30 pages long of different objects he has seen hoarders accumulate. The list includes newspapers, empty cornflake packages and toilet paper rolls. “It’s a very difficult problem to treat,” he says. “People collect things and they can’t get rid of them. They build up at…

[From GlobalPost, where the story includes a short video]   [Image: A visitor plays a new 3D game on Sony Corp’s PlayStation 3 motion-sensitive controller “Move” at Tokyo Game Show in Chiba, east of Tokyo Sept. 16, 2010. (Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)] Tokyo Game Show: Gamers go all out In Japan, it’s surreal reality meets virtual reality. By Jason Overdorf September 27, 2010 TOKYO, Japan — High atop a 30-foot tower built to showcase Microsoft’s new Xbox360 Kinect, Japanese models kitted out in short-shorts, pigtails and sneakers scrambled to kick their virtual selves into high gear before a giant, cinema-sized screen. As…

[From the web site of Stanford University’s School of Medicine] SEPT. 27, 2010 5 questions: Gaba on the LKSC’s simulation-based learning As associate dean for immersive and simulation-based learning, David Gaba, MD, has played a major role in the development of the Hon Mai and Joseph Goodman Center for Simulation and Immersive Learning — a virtual hospital floor on the ground level of the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge and one of the world’s largest medical simulation facilities. An internationally-renowned expert in this type of experiential, hands-on learning, Gaba, professor of anesthesiology, recently discussed the history of the…

[From The UK’s Independent] [Image: Crazy horses: Eadweard Muybridge’s studies of motion looked comically wrong to his peers] Tom Sutcliffe: Are we still backing the wrong horse? The week in culture Friday, 17 September 2010 There’s a venerable story about the painter Constable which is often cited by writers who want us to recognise that he was a modern pioneer, rather than an exemplar of chocolate-box traditionalism. He was having an argument with a friend about conventions of representation in landscape painting. The friend was trying to persuade him to paint grass as Poussin did, in the honeyed tones of…

[From The Gilroy Dispatch] Telepresence could unite world at expo Sep 22, 2010 By Martin Cheek At the Shanghai World Expo this month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the Bay Area’s bid to make Moffett Field the site of the 2020 World Expo. If we do get the go-ahead to put on this massive fair showcasing science, technology and industry, I say let’s do it Silicon Valley style. Let’s connect the world using the telepresence technology developed at the very location where the Silicon Valley World Expo might take place in a decade. NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field does…

[From Broadcasting & Cable] Beyond the Hologram New virtual technologies and enhanced displays are only the start of CNN’s midterm election coverage By George Winslow — Broadcasting & Cable, 9/20/2010 It’s odd to think of hologram technology as old-school, but for its midterm 2010 election coverage, CNN probably won’t be bringing back those images that seemed so dramatic during the last presidential election. Instead, the cable news network is looking to stay ahead of the news pack with a number of virtual-technology advances. “I think we were way ahead in 2006 and 2008 with our display technology and the Magic…

[From Avaya’s Connected blog] Collaboration | By Michael Killian | 9 Sep 2010 Virtual Conferencing And Collaboration – Where It Fits A few weeks back I had a chance to try out Avaya web.alive™ with a friend from Active Port and some Avaya colleagues. In short, it’s a web-based application that provides a good “3D” virtual representation of people via avatars, the meeting place/room, and displayed materials. Does virtual collaboration have a place in the collaboration communication landscape or is it just another interesting technology and communication mode to further complicate our communication choices? The major choices for real time…

[From Electrolux Design Lab; a 0:29 minute video is available here] Electrolux Design Lab 2010 Finalist: Daniel Dobrogorsky Published 2010-08-24 Daniel Dobrogorsky, a design student studying in Australia, is the creator of the Kitchen Hideaway. Here we provide a synopsis of his submission to the 2010 Electrolux Design Lab final and ask him a few questions about his concept. Background: The Kitchen Hideaway is a virtual reality concept that allows the inhabitants of a communal building to imagine being in a kitchen, preparing a particular meal rather than having to actually do this for themselves. The thoughts of the user are…

[From Kotaku] Play Frogger, On The Street, For Real By Luke Plunkett   Sep 14, 2010 Tellart have built a version of Frogger that you don’t play with a controller in front of a TV. You play with your feet, on the street, as it should be played. Of course, for safety reasons it should probably be played on the footpath, not somewhere with cars, but hey, this is still awesome. A game screen is projected onto the street while the player wears a helmet encrusted with LEDs. In a neat gesture, the team behind the game have released the software…