[From the University of California, San Diego News Center; a 0:31 minute video is here] Heads-Up Virtual Reality (HUVR) Bridges Visual with Tactile, in 3D and on the Cheap July 16, 2010 By Tiffany Fox Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, have created a new, relatively low-cost virtual reality device that allows users not only to see a 3D image, but “feel” it, too. The Heads-Up Virtual Reality device (or HUVR, pronounced ‘hover’) couples a consumer 3D HDTV panel with a half-silvered mirror to project any graphic image onto the user’s hands and/or into the space surrounding them.…

[From BBC News, where the story includes a 3:55 minute video] 13 July 2010 Milo made his world debut in 2009 at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles ‘Virtual human’ Milo comes out to play at TED in Oxford By Jonathan Fildes Technology reporter, BBC News, Oxford Microsoft has shown off its “virtual human” that reacts to a person’s emotions, body movements and voice. Milo, as he is known, is designed for use with the firm’s hands-free Xbox 360 motion controller called Kinect. The technology is the brainchild of veteran UK games designer Peter Molyneux. “I want to introduce a…

[A press release from Stony Brook University] Stony Brook University Receives NSF Grant to Design Revolutionary “Reality Deck” One-of-a-kind ‘holodeck’-like virtual reality theater will have more than a billion pixels for life-like immersion into data to be explored and manipulated STONY BROOK, N.Y., July 13, 2010 – Stony Brook University received a $1.4 million National Science Foundation grant to build what its creator described as the closest thing in the world to Star Trek’s “holodeck.” Known as the “Reality Deck,” the Immersive Giga-pixel Display will be a 40′ x 30′ x 11′ high room in Stony Brook University’s Center of…

[From CNN] ‘Virtual preaching’ transforms Sunday sermons By John Blake, CNN July 14, 2010 (CNN) — The Sunday morning service at Fellowship Church in Dallas, Texas, was humming along with hymns and prayers when something unusual happened. The lights in the sanctuary suddenly dimmed, and members of the church hushed as they peered at a pulpit shrouded in darkness. The parishioners then erupted in cheers and whistles as Ed Young Sr., the church’s senior pastor, emerged from the darkness with a microphone in hand. “Please be seated, be seated,” Young said as he grabbed the Bible. “How are you guys…

[From The New York Times]   July 4, 2010 Discovering a Soft Spot for Circuitry By AMY HARMON Nothing Eileen Oldaker tried could calm her mother when she called from the nursing home, disoriented and distressed in what was likely the early stages of dementia. So Ms. Oldaker hung up, dialed the nurses’ station and begged them to get Paro. Paro is a robot modeled after a baby harp seal. It trills and paddles when petted, blinks when the lights go up, opens its eyes at loud noises and yelps when handled roughly or held upside down. Two microprocessors under…

[From The New York Times Bats blog]   July 11, 2010, 9:00 pm Get Ready for Baseball in 3-D By RICHARD SANDOMIR Baseball would seem to be difficult to portray in 3-D. With cameras for baseball production positioned far away — from center field and high above home plate — and a baseball field lacking interesting contours, the likelihood of 3-D cameras providing impressive depth perception did not appear to be high Saturday and Sunday when the YES Network carried the Yankees-Mariners games. The productions were done in conjunction with DirecTV and FSN Northwest. But once a fiber problem from…

[From The Wall Street Journal via LiveMint] Posted: Thu, Jun 17 2010 Thy hand, great doctor Created at its second global headquarters, in Bangalore, a tech giant’s flawless illusion takes doctors to places where they are not. Welcome to the next Internet By Seema Singh Bangalore: Outside, in the lobby, the flags of several countries seek to signify the boundary-less nature of the work that goes on here. Inside, true-to-life TelePresence (a video conference on steroids kind of thing) screens emphasize this point further, and create a flawless illusion of being where one is not. This is Cisco Systems Inc.’s…

[From The Boston Globe; the web story includes a 1:04 minute video] You, robot Nashua start-up hopes to revolutionize meetings at work by untethering video equipment from the conference room By Scott Kirsner, Globe Columnist Sitting in his cubicle in Nashua, Tim Root clicks his mouse a few times to steer a tall, white robot around a corner and through the doorway of a conference room. Root’s face is visible on a small screen where you’d expect the robot’s head to be. He says hello, and joins a meeting in progress. Both Root’s cubicle and the conference room are inside…

[From ReadWriteWeb’s Guest Author blog] [Image: “Future computers” – Natalie, Age 10] The Future of Tech According to Kids: Immersive, Intuitive and Surprisingly Down-to-Earth Written by Kim Gaskins / July 7, 2010 If we were to ask you to name one thing you wish your computer (or another Web-enabled device) could do, but doesn’t now, what would you say? How about the ability to “touch the things that are in the screen, to feel and move them.” That’s what 7-year-old Daniela* wants. Matthew, 6, wishes he could play 3D games on his computer, and Jenna, 7, would like a solar-powered laptop.…

[From MSNBC’s Cosmic Log blog] 3-D pictures writ in water “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.” It’s been 33 years since Princess Leia’s tiny hologram made that 3-D plea in the “Star Wars” saga – and ever since, researchers have been working on image projection systems that could turn that science-fiction special effect into reality. Today, Carnegie Mellon University is highlighting a projection system called AquaLux 3D that takes one more small step toward that virtual-reality dream – but the system is just one of many approaches that’s being tried.…

[From The Telegraph; the article is available here] Virtual reality food could be used in therapy for eating disorders Sufferers of anorexia and bulimia could reduce their fear and anxieties around food by visiting a computer generated restaurant and pretending to dine, a study shows. By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent Published: 02 Jul 2010 Researchers believe that the technique could reverse their unhealthy relationship with food to the point where they can eventually be reintroduced to the real thing. The novel approach could be developed after scientists found that food presented in a virtual reality environment causes the same emotional responses…

[From PhysOrg.com]   Virtual reality you can reach out and touch A team of European researchers has “virtually” teleported real objects through cyberspace, touched things in virtual reality and even felt the movements of a virtual dance partner July 1, 2010 It sounds like science fiction, but advances in haptic technology and a new approach to generating virtual reality (VR) content are helping to create virtual experiences that are far more realistic and immersive than anything achieved before. Not only do users see and hear their virtual surroundings, objects and avatars, but they can touch them as well, paving the…