[From Aggie Town Square (“Utah State University’s Meeting Place”)] Aggies use virtual-reality programs for research by Jesse Fowers January 27, 2010 Several researchers at USU are collaborating with Intel Labs to conduct their research in a 3-D virtual environment. Biology doctoral student Arron Duffy is using ScienceSim, a “virtual land-grant” program offered by Intel, to model how population genetics are affected by the unique life cycles of fern plants. Intel hosts hundreds of virtual acres of land on its powerful servers through a Web application called OpenSim, which is an open-source version of the popular social media video game “Second Life.”…

[From CISCO] Duke University Extends Global Learning With Cisco TelePresence Lecture Hall Custom-Built Virtual Lecture Hall Provides Fuqua School of Business Students With Access to World’s Most Influential Leaders and Extends Classroom Environment DURHAM, N.C., and SAN JOSE, Calif. Feb. 10, 2010 — Duke University and Cisco today unveiled a first-of-its-kind virtual lecture hall for students enrolled in Duke’s Fuqua School of Business in Durham, N.C.  Custom-built using Cisco TelePresenceTM technology, the new lecture facility provides business school students with access to professors, business leaders and guest lecturers located around the globe, extending the in-person classroom environment across campuses and…

[From The Washington Post] Heavy Rain, the PS3 Exclusive That’s Not a Game Matt Peckham PC World Sunday, February 14, 2010; 12:19 AM Remember the phrase “interactive movie” tossed around in the 1990s when games like Myst and The 7th Guest and Gabriel Knight were in the headlines? Heavy Rain, Sony’s PS3-exclusive noir murder-mystery, may be the first game worthy of what those words actually mean. As overused phrases go, “interactive movie” is a doozy, right up there with “virtual reality.” It’s also historically misleading. What we used to call an “interactive movie” looked nothing like an actual movie. Even the…

[From the Plastic Pals blog] Wearable Robot Hitches A Ride on Human Meat-Puppets Here’s an unusual robot project from the Tsumaki Telerobotics Laboratory (Yamagata University); a Wearable Robot. The experimental model (Telecommunicator T1) seeks to provide gestural presence that you don’t get from a cellphone conversation. A person connects to the small robot through the internet, controlling where it looks by simply tilting their head. Arm gestures, such as waving, are also possible though limited by the current hardware. Anything the robot sees is transmitted to the operator via goggles, who can speak and hear through the robot’s speaker and microphone.…

[From Wired] Game Changers: How Videogames Trained a Generation of Athletes By Chris Suellentrop January 25, Wired Feb 2010 The situation was desperate for the Denver Broncos. On the first Sunday of the National Football League’s 2009 season, with only 28 seconds left in the game, they trailed the Cincinnati Bengals 7-6. The ball was on the 13-yard line — their own 13-yard line. On second down, Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton heaved the ball downfield, only to see a Bengals defender deflect the pass away from the receiver. And then something remarkable, close to miraculous, happened. Instead of falling to…

[From Free-Press-Release.com; watch a local news segment on this topic from NBC 15 in Madison, Wisconsin here] Speed Skating “Avatar” Racers Debut at Vancouver Olympics By Bruce Winkler on February 5, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 5, 2010 — The world’s first Virtual Reality Speed Skating avatars will be unveiled by RA Sports, LLC at the Winter Olympics Pavilion in Vancouver, where, onsite participants will race virtual avatars on-line, in real time, against competitors in both Holland and London. The “skaters” will utilize new Speed Skating Simulators equipped with inertial sensors allowing them to race their on screen avatars down the track…

[From MIT’s Technology Review Editors blog; see a 3 minute video of Siri here] Friday, February 05, 2010 An Intelligent Software Assistant Debuts By Erica Naone Last year, we selected the “intelligent software assistant” Siri as one of our top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2009. Now, you can try the software out for yourself, as the app has be added to Apple’s app store. Siri, which the company’s CEO Dag Kittlaus describes as “the mother of all mashups with a big brain in the front,” tries to perform all sorts of useful tasks based on simple voice or text commands.…

[From the News section of the ABBAWORLD web site] 25 January 2010 Dreams Come True at ABBAWORLD – Perform Live with ABBA on Stage! In what promises to be one of the most exciting and spectacular features of the upcoming ABBAWORLD exhibition, the audience will be able to sing and dance together with the Swedish supergroup ABBA on stage. With the high definition holographic video system Eyeliner, ABBA returns to the stage through a holographic illusion of the group for the visitor to interact with. Senior director of production Mats Daleskog of Touring Exhibitions, the company behind ABBAWORLD, says, ‘‘We were…

[From the Washington Post] Housewatch Digital images give home buyers a vivid new perspective By Katherine Salant Saturday, February 6, 2010 Can you know what it feels like to stand in a house without actually standing in it? Can a computer-generated image of an interior that includes every detail, right down to the high-heeled shoes on the floor of a dressing room where the imaginary owner kicked them off, truly convey a sense of place? These are not theoretical questions. As computer-generated virtual-reality images of homes become less costly to generate, many in the home-building industry expect them to play a…

[From Education Week] Published Online: December 22, 2009; Updated: January 5, 2010 Scholars Test Emotion-Sensitive Tutoring Software ‘Intelligent’ Systems Respond to Students’ Cues By Debra Viadero A high school student is working on a geometry problem with her tutor, “Jane.” The student solves the problem incorrectly and expresses frustration. Empathetic, Jane shows momentary frustration, too. Then she responds encouragingly, “Let’s read again what the problem is asking.” This scene would not be out of place in most educational environments were it not for one important detail: Jane is a character on a computer screen.…

[From The Wichita (Kansas) Eagle] Posted on Sun, Jan. 31, 2010 Technology changing how we work, play, shop BY ROY WENZL The Wichita Eagle Our avatars are coming. Those mobile and 3-D and interactive technologies being created around us are about to beam us into a new world, filled with workday holograms, avatars and stuff we called magic only a few years ago. Some of the new magic is being created in Wichita. It’s going to enrich and disrupt our lives. It’s going to delight us and plague us. In that augmented reality that may soon envelop us, in a world…

[From North Carolina’s News & Observer] Virtual looks and feels almost real BY DAVID BRACKEN – Staff Writer DURHAM — As Mushtaqur Rahman floated to the rafters of Duke Chapel, it was easy to forget that he was neither in a church nor off the ground. “Feeling rather angelic right now?” asked Rahman’s colleague, William Rice II, as both men peered through oversize 3-D goggles at the virtual chapel being projected above, below and all around them. Rahman and Rice are engineers with Parsons Brinkerhoff, one of the world’s largest civil engineering firms. They had come to Duke’s Pratt School…