[I’ve often enjoyed listening to church bells marking the current time and spreading music through a neighborhood but I didn’t realize they probably weren’t ‘real’ chimes – at least according to the company BRG Precision Products; there’s more information at this site); a related item about a ‘simulated’ grand piano follows below. –Matthew Lombard] BRG Electronic Carillon Church Bells and Chimes. Did you know that most church bells installed today are digital electronic chime systems? It’s true! Advanced electronic carillon (kare’ uh-lawn) bell systems include digital recordings of real cast bells, chimes and carillons. Even more important, digital electronic bells…

[From The Sunday Times; more information, including a video segment, is available in a post at GameSpot – an excerpt follows below] From The Sunday Times October 18, 2009 EyePet brings augmented reality into the home Alex Pell Parents, pay attention and spare yourself serious aggravation this Christmas. Every year there is a must-have video game. The one for this festive season goes on sale next week so you have time to avoid that dreaded late-December mission where you scour empty shelves like a wild-eyed lunatic. Why is it special? Well, prepare to cosy up with EyePet, the virtual pet.…

[From Network World (“the premier provider of information, intelligence and insight for Network and IT Executives”)] Cisco telepresence cuts near $1M in travel costs for law firm Conferencing gear pays for itself within five years, frees up attorneys’ time. By Tim Greene, Network World, 10/07/2009 Sprawling international law firm DLA Piper has upgraded from videoconferencing to telepresence that will save the firm nearly $1 million dollars per year in reduced travel costs and lost productivity. The conferencing gear that simulates across-the-table meetings has a provable and achievable return on investment over five years, and may actually pay for itself before…

[From Business Wire via Reuters] European Hospitals Test Anesthetists’ Skills On Computers, Not People, Using SensAble`s Haptic Devices Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:00am EDT Pan-European Clinical Trials Led by Cork University Hospital Assesses Whether Lumbar Puncture Skills Can Be Accurately Assessed on Computers, At Zero Risk to Patients WOBURN, Mass.–(Business Wire)– SensAble Technologies, Inc., announced that its customer, the Cork University Hospital, is leading clinical trials in two European hospitals using a haptically-enabled computer simulation system for testing physician competency in administering spinal anesthesia. SensAble is the leading manufacturer of haptic devices and toolkits, and its PHANTOM® force- feedback haptic devices…

[From BBC News; more information is available in a story in Wired, and a 1 minute video of a mouse performing in the study can be found here] Thursday, 15 October 2009 Virtual maze ‘maps’ mouse memory By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News With the help of mice scampering through a virtual maze, scientists have taken recordings from inside individual brain cells, or neurons. The researchers report in the journal Nature how they recorded from cells in the brain’s memory centre. These neurons fired in a rhythmic pattern that could be related to the animal’s location. They hope their…

[A press release from Queen’s University Belfast] Increased success a `virtual´ certainty for rugby players October 14, 2009 Rugby players worldwide could benefit from a new virtual reality training programme created at Queen´s Belfast. Team members from Ulster Rugby have been working with researchers in the School of Psychology at Queen´s on a range of virtual training scenarios that test expert players´ perceptual skills. Lead researcher in the project is Dr Cathy Craig, a Senior Lecturer in Visual Perception who has previously collaborated with Adidas and top professional world class goal-keepers to study perception of curved free-kicks in football. She…

[From CNN] Disney debuts do-it-yourself thrill ride Wed October 14, 2009 By John D. Sutter CNN (CNN) — Any kid can dream up a roller coaster. But those who visit a new exhibit at Walt Disney World’s Epcot theme park can actually take a ride on their fantasy creations. Epcot on Wednesday opened a new attraction called “Sum of All Thrills,” which lets kids use computer tablets to design a virtual roller coaster, bobsled track or plane ride. After inputting their designs, kids climb into a robotic carriage that uses virtual-reality technology to help them experience the ride they’ve created.…

[From The Vancouver Sun] Virtual meditative `walk in park´ aimed at relieving long-term pain By Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun October 12, 2009 A virtual meditative walk in the park may be just what the doctor ordered for chronic pain sufferers. Simon Fraser University associate professor Diane Gromala claims research shows a 3-D stroll in the forest has the power to help people manage chronic pain, sometimes with better results than traditional means such as morphine. Gromala, head of SFU´s Transforming Pain Research Group, is in the midst of developing such a virtual reality technique called  “walking meditation.” The technique is…

[From The Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel] Milwaukee firm shows off star power at White House Posted: Oct. 10, 2009 The Milwaukee Eluminati helped the White House host a “star party” last week out on the lawn using two of its GeoDome Theaters, which are portable, inflatable projection chambers that surround viewers in virtual environments. While more than 100 middle school students showed up with telescopes to gaze at the heavens, D’nardo Colucci, a light plumber with the Milwaukee-based Eluminati, was on location to help NASA run the GeoDomes and give the youngsters a different celestial view inside the portable planetarium.…

[From Metapsychology Online Reviews; a more detailed review can be found here] Review – The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self by Thomas Metzinger Basic Books, 2009 Review by Kamuran Godelek, Ph.D. Oct 6th 2009 (Volume 13, Issue 41) Thomas Metzinger, one of the leading philosophers in theoretical philosophy and a prominent figure in the philosophical discussions of consciousness, in his new book, The Ego Tunnel, tackles with the same problem David Hume dealt with centuries ego which is whether the self exists. Following the footsteps of Hume, Metzinger, in this stunningly original…

[A step beyond photo editing that further blurs the distinction between recorded and created reality, PhotoSketch was created by students at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore in China and will be presented at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 in December – see the 3:41 video at Vimeo (“a respectful community of creative people who are passionate about sharing the videos they make”)] PhotoSketch: Internet Image Montage by tao chen Wed, Sep 9, 2009 We present a system that composes a realistic picture from a simple freehand sketch annotated with text labels. The composed picture is generated by seamlessly stitching…

[A press release from Ford] Sound Effects: Ford Using Virtual Reality to Fine-Tune Sound Quality Inside Future Vehicles DEARBORN, Mich., Oct. 6, 2009 – It looks a bit like a racing game in a video arcade, but the driver wears headphones. The object of this high-tech drive down the digital highway: perfect the sound quality inside a future Ford vehicle long before the first prototype is ever built. Ford Motor Company is the first North American automaker to utilize the Virtual Vehicle Sound Simulator to fine-tune sound inside a vehicle’s cabin, part of a continuing effort by Ford to deliver…