[From GreenMuze (“Green Ideas and Innovations!“)] Virtual Reality Veneer Monday, 14 June 2010 Michael Jantzen For over forty years I have been working as an experimental artist and designer. In all of that time I have become very aware of how important aesthetics are in dictating the amount of the Earth’s resources that are consumed by the human population. Most things, including building, have to look a certain way in order for people to feel good about using them, and most often a lot of resources are consumed just to make these things look a particular way. Much of the…

[From TechNewsDaily via MSNBC; a 0:57 minute video is here]   ‘Imaginary’ interface could replace real thing Screen, even keyboard, for mobile devices might be supported by gestures By Adam Hadhazy, TechNewsDaily Staff Writer June 8, 2010 Researchers are experimenting with a new interface system for mobile devices that could replace the screen and even the keyboard with gestures supported by our visual memory. Called Imaginary Interfaces, the German project uses a small, chest-mounted computer and camera to detect hand movements. Unlike Tony Stark in “Iron Man,” who manipulates holographic elements in his lab with his hands, users conjure up…

[From Fox News]   Octavia the Android, a Real-Life Rosie the Robot By John R. Quain Published May 26, 2010 She has an expressive, alabaster face, a delicate touch — and two wheels where her feet should be. She is Octavia, a brand new robot designed to improve interactions with humans. And at the annual Fleet Week in New York City, the Navy is bringing its débutante out of the lab.…

[From CNN] Kids experiment with ‘video playdates’ By John D. Sutter, CNN June 11, 2010 (CNN) — At first, Ella didn’t really understand Skype. Don’t get all tech-elitist on her, though. She was only 1. Back then, Ella would do silly things like try to hand her grandmother stickers through the computer screen during video chats, says her mother, Robin Riggs. But now, at age 2, Ella has come a long way. She understands now that her grandparents are five hours away, looking at her through a webcam, Riggs said. “She knows the noise the computer makes when Mimi and…

[From TechNewsDaily; a 0:49 video is here; the Wearable Absence web site is here] ‘Smart’ Clothing Responds to Wearer’s Emotions By Michelle Bryner, TechNewsDaily Contributor 08 June 2010 High-tech clothing with embedded biosensors and an Internet connection could respond to your mood and help you get through the day. The new “smart” clothing contains wireless biosensors that measure heart rate and temperature (among other physiological indicators), small speakers, and other electronics that wirelessly connect to a handheld smartphone or PDA. Data from the sensors is sent to the handheld where it is converted into one of 16 emotional states, which…

[From The Associated Press via National Public Radio; the Kokoro web site is here] Eyes Flashing, Robot Conducts Wedding In Tokyo by The Associated Press TOKYO May 16, 2010 Almost everyone stood when the bride walked down the aisle in her white gown, but not the wedding conductor, because she was bolted to her chair. The nuptials at this ceremony were led by “I-Fairy,” a 4-foot (1.5-meter) tall seated robot with flashing eyes and plastic pigtails. Sunday’s wedding was the first time a marriage had been led by a robot, according to manufacturer Kokoro Co.…

[From The Guardian] Extraordinary Measures Belsay Hall, Northumberland Laura Cumming The Observer, Sunday 2 May 2010 The beautiful room is empty. The atmosphere is tense and cold, even though the sun glows beyond the high windows. You open the door to leave, only to find another door before you – and through it a further surprise. In the next room sits a naked man, flinching and clutching at his wooden stool as if terrified by your sudden arrival. This is what strikes first: the sense that he was waiting there in fear, perhaps even listening out for your footsteps. Which…

[From Southern Methodist University; a 3:35 minute video report is here]   Practicing assertiveness skills on virtual-reality “dates” may help women prevent sexual victimization Posted in Mind & Brain on June 3, 2010 It’s a stormy night when a young man offers a young college woman a ride home. First he makes friendly small-talk. But then he becomes sexually aggressive and angry. Can she get out of this situation without getting hurt? While this could be a real experience for many women, in this case it’s virtual reality. The purpose is role-playing in a psychology laboratory at Southern Methodist University…

[From The Seattle Times] Future of display is here: Latest tech visions for touch screens, monitors of next-Gen gadgets Brier Dudley Seattle Times staff columnist Talk about gazing into the future. Imagine ultra high-definition TVs not much thicker than a millimeter. How about electronic books made with plastic screens that flex like a magazine? Or perhaps a display that lets you touch a virtual version of yourself on the other side of the glass? The technology to build these crazy new gadgets is being shown in Seattle this week during Display Week, the Society for Information Display conference. A combination…

[From 1UP.com (“Where Gamers Call Home”)] New Company to Make Full Body Exoskeleton Game Controller XIO will debut at E3, offering movement tracking and physical feedback. By Frank Cifaldi, 06/03/2010 In 2006, Nintendo’s Wii stripped down the concept of a virtual reality interface to an affordable plastic peripheral, finally bringing the VR promise of the early 90s into the home. Microsoft is simplifying things even further this year with Project Natal, which takes away controllers entirely in favor of a camera that senses your body’s movement. But Forcetek USA, a new player in the game interface market, wants to bring…

[From MIT’s Technology Review Invited Guests blog]   Friday, May 28, 2010 The Challenges of Virtual Hairstyling New system uses haptics to allow designers to comb hair just like they would in real life. By Christopher Mims Imagine that you had to design a virtual hairstyle by painstakingly defining the position and shape of every single hair on a character’s head. It sounds like a joke, but modeling hair in this way – with a heaping helping of post-processing for added realism – remains the industry standard for creating virtual 3D hairstyles. If you were an animator at Pixar or…

[From Business Insider; follow the links for pictures and video]   Google Powers Awesome Iron Man Flight Simulator (GOOG, NTDOY) Nick Saint Tuesday, June 1, 2010 A team of virtual reality enthusiasts working in Israel has built a simulator that recreates the experience of flying in the Iron Man suit. Via the Google Earth Blog, the system is built around the Google Earth Flight Simulator, which lets you fly around Google’s 3D representation of the world. This program is fed into a set of virtual reality goggles, controlled by a motion-sensitive Nintendo WiiMote attached to the wing off of an…