[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…

[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…