A friend of mine pointed me to Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. The group has a whole slew of interesting projects and publications.
Jeremy Bailenson leads the group. Nick Yee (architect of the Daedalus Project) works within the group.
Noel Sharkey, professor of robotics and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Sheffield, discusses ethical issues with robots.
William Saletan of the the New York Times reviewed Michael Belfiore’s new book, The Department of Mad Scientists (book, audio). The book is about DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the controversial and secretive military group that produces projects (the internet, artificial limbs, human-machine interfaces, etc.) that fundamentally change our lives. And those are only the projects we know about….
Spend a few minutes looking through Popular Science Best Innovations of 2009. All sorts of interesting inventions / products are featured. Some of the ones that caught my eye: a stethoscope that uses bluetooth to send the audio file to your PC for waveform analysis, a “flute” that helps clear lung secretions, a military device that can triangulate the originating point of gunfire, and much much more…..
via Gallery: Looking Back at the 100 Best Innovations of 2009 | Popular Science.
Microsoft filed an interesting patent this week trying to protect the linkage of personalized health records (e.g. Microsoft’s own Health Vault) to avatar characteristics and abilities.
An interesting (but short) concept description on GameSpot.
Have you ever wondered how 3D movie projection works? Check out this article in Wired…
via Wired Explains: How 3-D Movie Projection Works | Gadget Lab | Wired.com.
Haptic sensation (virtual touch) is the slowest sense to develop in virtual environments. It still is not possible for humans to feel accurately in virtual worlds.
An article in New Scientist described work to give ROBOTS the sense of touch through artificial skin embedded with optical sensors.
I have been a science fiction fan for as long as I can remember. Despite my wide reading in this genre, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) never ceases to amaze me. The work they fund is straight from the pages of the books I read in my youth.
I found this blog post about a project presented this week at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), in Baltimore, Md. Cornell University engineers presented their work with hybrid cybernetic organisms. In a nutshell, they are able to control the flight path of an insect. These can be used for stealthy military reconnaissance, etc.
Each year the New Media Consortium along with Educause Learning Initiative publish a report on trends in educational technology. The preview of this report is now available online. You can follow the deliberations choosing the topics on their WIKI. The full report will be available in January 2010.