[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…

[From Delta, the newspaper of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands; more information is available here] October 6, 2009 | Nadine Böke Aantal On top of the world It’s the latest craze in smartphone applications: augmented reality. Point your camera at a street and information about restaurants or other attractions are displayed on top of the video image of that particular street. But there is a similar technique that´s arguably even better: see-through augmented reality. Imagine finding your way by car without having to look at the screen of your tomtom; instead, you’d just put on a special pair…

[From The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle] A dose of virtual reality: Sanitation workers receive accident training through a simulator October 5, 2009 To become better drivers and reduce accidents, the city’s sanitation workers took a safety course that included videos, computer work and driving a simulator. By Jodi Rogstad CHEYENNE — As Chris Hinds turned the packer truck around a corner, the suburban neighborhood and landscape gave way to an abandoned downtown. It was raining, which made for slick roads. But Hinds never logged a mile: He was driving a simulator inside a semitrailer parked next to the sanitation department’s transfer station.…

[From Digital Arts (“comprehensive coverage of the art of graphic design, 3D, animation, video, effects, web and interactive design, in print and online”); the Virtual Box Simulator is here] AKQA and Skive show off augmented reality projects using Adobe Flash Tuesday 13 Oct 2009 I just got back from the Adobe Max conference in Los Angeles and I am very excited. There was a lot to be impressed about and one of the technologies getting a lot of attention was augmented reality (AR). AR is the technique of overlaying graphics on an image of the real world such that the…

[From San Jose (California) Mercury News] Santa Cruz agency starts pilot study of virtual reality drug treatment By Cathy Kelly 09/30/2009 SANTA CRUZ — Drug addiction counselors usually frown on patients dipping into alternate “realities,” but a Santa Cruz non-profit agency this week will become what a researcher says is the first clinic to use a virtual reality system to treat drug addiction. A pilot study treating addicts of heroin and other opiate derivatives will be conducted at Janus of Santa Cruz. The technology was featured at a Tuesday conference organized by the agency. The third annual substance abuse conference…

[This week’s episode of the series House featured an interesting portrayal of characters immersed in a vivid virtual gaming environment, as well as a patient who believes that the nonmediated ‘real’ world has become the gaming environment; details are in the press release below from BusinessWire; the beginning of the episode is available in HD at Amazon.com; the full episode will be available on Hulu on October 6, and the episode will be shown on USA Network in the U.S. on October 11 at 11:00 PM EST] September 29, 2009 Encore Hollywood Builds Unprecedented Visual Effects for House’s ‘Savage Scape’ HOLLYWOOD–(BUSINESS…