[From IEEE Spectrum] OPINION Reflections: Driven to Distraction Engineers created the problem of cellphones in cars, but they may not be able to solve it BY Robert W. Lucky // January 2010 I used to feel that the ultimate aim of communications research was telepresence—creating the perfect illusion of being where you’re not. However, now I’m thinking that we did too good a job of creating this illusion and that the law of unintended consequences is taking hold. Sometimes you need instead to enforce the perfect sense of being exactly where you are at the moment—like when you’re behind the…

[From Gadget Venue; video demonstrations are here (0:15) and here (1:44)] iKat Augmented Reality App by Matthew Newill on March 10, 2010 iKat is quite a cool looking Augmented Reality application that requires no real-world prompt to function correctly. Normally when augmented reality is used a place card is held up with an image on it which the phone can then lock on to and replace with the 3D rendered model. In the case if the iKat it just takes a quick scan of what the camera is looking at and can figure out where to place the 3D object.…

[From the Buffalo News]   Bringing a world of avatars to Buff State Second Life thrives with virtual reality by Stephen T. Watson NEWS STAFF REPORTER Published: March 05, 2010 For World Creativity and Innovation Day last year, Buffalo State College hosted a forum that drew attendees from as far away as Switzerland and Alabama. A video shows participants sitting in rows, listening to a speaker who stands behind a podium as he gives a PowerPoint presentation. It looks like any other academic conference, except that it took place entirely online … in the virtual world of Second Life.…

[From CNET;  Ebert writes about the experience on his blog here; a short excerpt from the Oprah appearance is here] March 4, 2010   How Roger Ebert found his new voice (Q&A) by Lance Whitney Roger Ebert’s search to recapture his lost voice uncovered a company with a unique technology. When the famed film critic needed to find a way to communicate after losing his voice to cancer surgery, he turned to text-to-speech (TTS) software that speaks whatever he types. But the TTS software he initially tried sounded too robotic and computerized. He wanted a voice that sounded like him.…

[From MSNBC; a video is here] ‘Skinput’ turns body into touchscreen interface Tapping on arm allows users to scroll through menus and select options By Dan Hope TechNewsDaily updated 11:44 a.m. ET, Thurs., March. 4, 2010 Touchscreens may be popular both in science fiction and real life as the symbol of next-gen technology, but an innovation called Skinput suggests the true interface of the future might be us. Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University unveiled Skinput recently, showing how it can turn your own body into a touchscreen interface.…

[From CNET] March 2, 2010 Skype on TV: Will the videophone finally be reality? by Erica Ogg The imagined inventions of Victorian-era French novelist Albert Robida may be coming closer to reality. Who, you ask? Robida was an illustrator and writer for popular science-fiction magazines, and is sometimes compared to Jules Verne. In his 1890 novel “Le Vingtieme siecle. La vie electrique,” he described something called a “telephonoscope.” Since then, we’ve seen telephonoscopes–basically videophones–in everything from “The Jetsons” to “Blade Runner.” What we haven’t seen is the videophone in our living rooms. That may finally be changing. …

[From MIT’s Technology Review; Immersion’s web site is here] Touch Screens that Touch Back New piezoelectric technology will make screens more tactile. By Duncan Graham-Rowe Wednesday, March 03, 2010  Forget putting your phone on vibrate. A novel “high-definition” touch-feedback display can give a touch screen the feel of a textured surface. The technology was developed for mobile devices by the San Jose CA-based company Immersion, and is a step toward mimicking the feel of physical buttons on flat screens.…

[From Telepresence Options] DVE Launches Revolutionary Immersion Room – Telepresence and Visualization March 1, 2010 | Howard Lichtman Digital Video Enterprises (DVE) officially announced the launch of their next generation telepresence and visualization environment known as the DVE Immersion Room.  The room is both a 4 or 9 seat telepresence conferencing environment where participants face a seamless 120 inch screen that hides the camera at eye-level and a high definition visualization environment where volumetric images appear to float in 3D.  The room recently won Frost & Sullivan 2009 Global Conferencing Telepresence Product of The Year Award. The immersion room uses a Christie…

[From the New York Times; the Popular Photography editorial is here] Personal Tech From the Desk of David Pogue Photoshop and Photography: When Is It Real? By DAVID POGUE Thursday, February 25, 2010 In the March issue of Popular Photography magazine, the editor’s note, by Miriam Leuchter, is called “What Is a Photograph?” You’d think that, after 73 years, a magazine called Popular Photography would have figured that out. (Ba-da-bump!) Actually, though, the editorial is about the magazine’s annual Reader’s Photos Contest. This year, in two of the categories, the winners were what the magazine calls composites, and what I…

[From Stanford News Service; a 2-minute video is here] Stanford Report, February 25, 2010 Can avatars change the way we think and act? Experiences in virtual worlds such as video games and online communities can influence our behavior in the real world, says Stanford researcher Jesse Fox. Avatars can change the way we exercise or eat, or the way we view women. BY CHRISTINE BLACKMAN If you saw a digital image of yourself running on a virtual treadmill, would you feel like going to the gym? Probably so, according to a Stanford study showing that personalized avatars can motivate people to…

[From the University of Buffalo NewsCenter] News Release Introducing RoSS, a “Flight Simulator” for Robotic Surgery New surgical simulator developed by UB researcher and Roswell physician provides unique and effective training for surgeons Release Date: February 25, 2010 BUFFALO, N.Y. — A collaboration between the Center for Robotic Surgery at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the University at Buffalo’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has produced one of the world’s first simulators that closely approximates the “touch and feel” of the da Vinci™ robotic surgical system.…

[From Kotaku (“The Gamer’s Guide)] Are You Playing A Video Game Before You Are Playing It? By Stephen Totilo Feb 23, 2010 Last week, Will Wright was talking in New York City and saying brainy things. Among them was an idea I’d never considered before, that people will play the virtual reality that is a video game before they physically play it. Specifically, Wright, while speaking about toys [see below], was exploring the concept of model-building, in the context of how playing with toys and using our imagination allows us to mentally model how the world works. Play with toy cars, for…