[From NextGov (“Technology And The Business Of Government”)] Defense readies system to treat PTSD, brain injuries remotely By Bob Brewin 03/22/2010 Thousands of miles and a lack of facilities have kept the Army from providing treatment to soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. But the Defense Department plans to deploy a solution soon that relies on a transportable telehealth system that will virtually bring doctors to patients.…

[From New Scientist; a :30 video is here] HDTV reveals brainy octopus has no personality 12 March 2010 by Shanta Barley Octopuses make for discerning TV viewers: it seems they prefer high-definition to traditional cathode ray images (CRT). What’s more, the first study using video to trick octopuses, finds that they may be the Jekyll and Hydes of the oceans: aggressive one day, shrinking violets the next. “People have been trying for over a decade to get proper behavioural responses from octopuses and other cephalopods using videos,” says Roger Hanlon, an octopus researcher at the Marine Resources Center, Woods Hole, Massachusetts,…

[From Gizmag] Power Gig game uses real guitar controller By Paul Ridden March 11, 2010 There’s a Battle of the Bands scenario brewing now that a new contender has arrived on the “play along to your favorite tunes with a game controller instrument” scene. Seven45 Studios has just released details of its new gaming system called PowerGig where the buttoned and plunger interface of the familiar Guitar Hero and Rock Band gaming interface has been tossed out in favor of a real six-string guitar. Seven45 Studios has taken a more hands-on approach to its game and interface development than most…

[From The New York Review of Books] Volume 57, Number 5 · March 25, 2010 The Wizard By Daniel Mendelsohn Avatar a film directed by James Cameron [snip] What’s striking is that so many critiques of Avatar ‘s political shortcomings often go out of their way to elide or belittle the movie’s overwhelming successes as a work of cinema—its enormous visual power, the thrilling imaginative originality, the excitingly effective use of the 3-D technology that seems bound to change permanently the nature of cinematic experience henceforth—as if to acknowledge how dazzling it is would be an admission of critical weakness.[2]…

[From the News Center of the University of Texas at Dallas] Game Trains Soldiers in a Virtual Iraq or Afghanistan ATEC Wins National Modeling and Simulation Award for 3D Interactive Program Feb. 23, 2010 A training tool being developed by a research team from the Arts and Technology (ATEC) program may soon make it easier for military service men and women to perform their missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The work we’re doing has to do with the facilitation of cultural training,” said Dr. Marjorie Zielke, an assistant professor in the ATEC program and the principal investigator on the project.…

[From www.army.mil (“The Official Homepage of the United States Army”); more information about the finalists is available here] Image: VADER Island, a virtual world where developers submitted entries to the competition Army announces virtual worlds challenge finalists Mar 9, 2010 By Michelle Milliner ORLANDO, Fla. – This week, the U.S. Army announced finalists in a competition designed to uncover new potentials in virtual worlds. The Research, Development and Engineering Command’s simulation and training center launched the Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge in August 2009 to reach a global development community and explore innovative, interactive training and analysis solutions in virtual worlds.…

[From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Book Patrol reader blog] Ghost Army Haunts Michigan Library Posted by Nancy Mattoon at March 12, 2010 1:44 a.m. An invisible army, operating in obscurity, mastering the arts of illusion, deception, and disinformation to defeat the Nazis in World War II. This could be a description of the French Resistance fighters, the band of brothers who operated in utmost secrecy under the noses of the German occupation forces, and have been called “The Army of Shadows.” But it also describes an amazing division of American troops stationed in the European Theatre: the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops,…

[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.…