[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…

[From NewsOK] Kayakers head indoors U.S. Championship Machines will simulate rowing BY ED GODFREY The Oklahoman Published: February 19, 2010 Oklahoma City will be the site Saturday for the first U.S. Indoor Kayak Championship at the Cox Convention Center. About 40 top kayakers from as far away as Washington and Hawaii will be competing in the inaugural event. The Cox Center will not have an indoor water course. Instead, the kayakers will be paddling in virtual reality.…

[From the University of Alabama’s UAB Reporter Online] Visualization cube offers infinite educational possibilities Posted by Traci Bratton on 2/18/2010 12:55:00 PM Imagine if a recent amputee could learn to ski without risking serious injury. Or a bomb squad could disarm explosive devices with no risk of casualties. Or doctors could perform flawless surgical procedures before they ever touch a patient. The Enabling Technology Laboratory in the UAB School of Engineering is such a place — a virtual-reality environment that can be used for a host of creative applications. This “visualization cube” is the latest expansion of the school’s computer…

[From MIT News] Feeling the way Robotic device developed in MIT’s Touch Lab can help visually impaired people navigate around a virtual model of a real building. Anne Trafton, MIT News Office November 23, 2009 For many people, it has become routine to go online to check out a map before traveling to a new place. But for blind people, Google maps and other visual mapping applications are of little use. Now, a unique device developed at MIT could give the visually impaired the same kind of benefit that sighted people get from online maps. The BlindAid system, developed in…