Genetic Programming: Evolution of Mona Lisa

Roger Alsing Weblog Genetic Programming: Evolution of Mona Lisa: Certainly interesting if authentic!

Benefits in Battlefield Robots, Moral Questions Remain

NYTimes.com Benefits Are Seen in Battlefield Robots, but Moral Questions Remain:

"In the heat of battle, their minds clouded by fear, anger or vengefulness, even the best-trained soldiers can act in ways that violate the Geneva Conventions or battlefield rules of engagement. Now some researchers suggest that robots could do better.'

"C. Arkin, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech, is designing software for battlefield robots. 'My research hypothesis is that intelligent robots can behave more ethically in the battlefield than humans currently can,' said Ronald C. Arkin, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech, who is designing software for battlefield robots under contract with the Army. 'That’s the case I make.'"

Honda Unveils Robot That Helps You Walk

FOXNews.com One of the first commercial applications of what I expect will be a growing field of assistive prosthetics: "Imagine a bicycle seat connected by mechanical frames to a pair of shoes for an idea of how the new wearable assisted-walking gadget from Honda works.

The experimental device, unveiled Friday, is designed to support bodyweight, reduce stress on the knees and help people get up steps and stay in crouching positions."

Robotic ants building homes on Mars?

ICT Results -- cordis.europa.eu Robotic ants building homes on Mars?: "Recent discoveries of water and Earth-like soil on Mars have set imaginations running wild that human beings may one day colonise the Red Planet. However, the first inhabitants might not be human in form at all, but rather swarms of tiny robots.

“Small robots that are able to work together could explore the planet. We now know there is water and dust so all they would need is some sort of glue to start building structures, such as homes for human scientists,” says Marc Szymanski, a robotics researcher at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany.

Szymanski is part of a team of European researchers developing tiny autonomous robots that can co-operate to perform different tasks, much like termites, ants or bees forage collaboratively for food, build nests and work together for the greater good of the colony."

Researchers develop "robotic apprentices"

PC Pro: Researchers develop "robotic apprentices": "University researchers have developed an artificial intelligence that can learn by watching 'experts' perform a task.

The artificial intelligence was developed by Stanford University for use in robotic helicopters which learn to fly and perform stunts by watching 'expert' helicopters perform the same tasks, rather than by having software engineers input every individual instruction."

Technology Doesn’t Dumb Us Down. It Frees Our Minds.

NYTimes.com Technology Doesn’t Dumb Us Down. It Frees Our Minds. - : "It is hard to think of a technology that wasn’t feared when it was introduced. In his Atlantic article, Mr. Carr says that Socrates feared the impact that writing would have on man’s ability to think. The advent of the printing press summoned similar fears. It wouldn’t be the last time."

"When Hewlett-Packard invented the HP-35, the first hand-held scientific calculator, in 1972, the device was banned from some engineering classrooms. Professors feared that engineers would use it as a crutch, that they would no longer understand the relationships that either penciled calculations or a slide rule somehow provided for proficient scientific thought.

"But the HP-35 hardly stultified engineering skills. Instead, in the last 36 years those engineers have brought us iPods, cellphones, high-definition TV and, yes, Google and Twitter. It freed engineers from wasting time on mundane tasks so they could spend more time creating.

10 future shocks for the next 10 years

InfoWorld 10 future shocks for the next 10 years: "The past 30 years of InfoWorld's existence have seen a series of future shocks, from the ascent of the personal computer to horrifying strains of malware to the sizzling sex appeal of the iPhone. In honor of InfoWorld's 30th anniversary, we've decided to take a playful look ahead at the future shocks that could occur in the next 10 years (30 years seemed a little too sci-fi)."

Robot assistant gives surgeons a cutting look

New Scientist Tech 24 September 2008 Robot assistant gives surgeons a cutting look: "The surgeon's eyes dart to the left, and instantly a robotic laser shifts position and gets to work on a new section of tissue. No, this is not telekinesis, but a new eye-tracking technology that could soon be giving surgeons a hand during tricky procedures.

"The device has been integrated into a da Vinci surgical robot - a tool that allows surgeons to perform keyhole procedures by mimicking their hand movements. However, according to a team from the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery at Imperial College London, surgeons often need more than two hands when it comes to positioning additional instruments such as endoscopes or lasers."

Wall Street's collapse may be computer science's gain

Computerworld Wall Street's collapse may be computer science's gain: "The collapse of Wall Street may help make computer science and IT careers attractive to students who abandoned these fields in droves after the pop of the last big bubble, the dot-com bust of 2001.

"William Dally, chairman of the computer science department at Stanford University, said that for the last several years, he has watched some students interested in technology go into banking and finance because those fields could be more lucrative.

"'Many thought they could make more money in hedge funds,' Dally said. He said students are returning to computer science because they like the field and not because it can necessarily make them rich.

"John Gallaugher, associate professor of information systems in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, said he's already seeing a shift in student interest.

"'Students have commented to me and written on their course wikis that they're considering changing from finance [majors], both based on the appeal of IS and concern over availability of finance jobs' in the future, Gallaugher said."

GR: I like the trend -- choose computer science because you love it, not just to get rich (although employment trends are strong!)

Technology could have prevented train crash

The Associated Press Technology could have prevented train crash: "The system known as positive train control monitors train location and speed using satellite-based positioning systems and digital communication. It can engage the brakes if a train fails to heed signals or gets on the wrong track."

Should technology be given more autonomy, to overrule human error?

Blog post on Study CS! describes new game

Here is a great blog post on the blog Study CS! about a 'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

Hmmm, I have a new idea for a virtual online world in which people play characters who post blog posts on virtual virtual blogs.

'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

The Onion - America's Finest News Source reports on a 'Warcraft' Sequel that lets gamers play a character playing 'Warcraft'...

I can't wait for World of World of World of Warcraft!

First Humanoid Robot That Will Develop Language

First Humanoid Robot That Will Develop Language May Be Coming Soon: "iCub, a one metre-high baby robot which will be used to study how a robot could quickly pick up language skills, will be available next year."

"ITALK aims to teach the robot to speak by employing the same methods used by parents to teach their children. Professor Nehaniv and Professor Dautenhahn, who are European leaders in Artificial Intelligence and Human Robot Interaction, will conduct experiments in human and robot language interaction to enable the robot to converse with humans.

"Typical experiments with the iCub robot will include activities such as inserting objects of various shapes into the corresponding holes in a box, serialising nested cups and stacking wooden blocks. Next, the iCub will be asked to name objects and actions so that it acquires basic phrases such as "robot puts stick on cube".

A Market Decline in Search of a Reason - NYTimes.com

A Market Decline in Search of a Reason - NYTimes.com: "Stocks on Wall Street plunged on Thursday, but few investors seemed to know why.

A broad sell-off sent the Dow Jones industrial average down 260 points in afternoon trading, hours after the government reported that the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week."

See I told you the market was crashing

Where are the researchers for AI with a conscience?

From KurzweilAI.net Are AI researchers looking for intelligence at the expense of morality?

J. Storrs Hall: "Most existing AI research is completely pragmatic, without any reference to moral structures in cognitive architectures. That is to be expected: just getting the darn thing to be intelligent is as hard a problem as we can handle now, and there is time enough to worry about the brakes after the engine is working. As I noted before, much of the most advanced research is sponsored by the military or corporations. In the military, the notion of an autonomous machine being able to question its orders on moral grounds is anathema. In corporate industry, the top goal seems likely to be the financial benefit of the company. Thus, the current probable sources of AI will not adhere to a universally adopted philanthropic formulation, such as Asimov's Three Laws. The reasonable assumption then is that a wide variety of AIs with differing goal structures will appear in the coming decades."

Virtual Reality Gets Real: Augmented Reality

ScienceDaily (Aug. 18, 2008) — "Up to now virtual reality has proved cumbersome as a design tool, but European researchers are finalising a system that brings ‘virtuality’ to the wider world.

"Virtual reality (VR) is a powerful tool, but its true potential remains unrealised. Applications mixing the virtual and real worlds, called mixed or augmented reality (AR), are weak. There are few reliable systems, and what exists are very expensive. Collaboration is limited and still relatively unsophisticated. And the state of the art is anchored to the desktop or multi-tiled, or multi-screen, displays. Both are fixed solutions.

"But VR and AR could do so much more. They could enable onsite sketching of a proposed building design, to reveal the real-world impact on the cityscape, or allow teams to review, annotate and amend proposed and existing car designs. The technology could enable engineers and designers to collaborate with other, distant teams. And it could pave the way even for consumers to contribute to production of better, more successful products."

Avatars deserve nice hair, too

ScienceDaily (Aug. 22, 2008) — University of California, San Diego today announced a new method for accurately capturing the shape and appearance of a person’s hairstyle. The results closely match the real hairstyles and can be used for animation.

"Imagine avatars of your favorite actors wandering through 3D virtual worlds with hair that looks almost exactly like it does in real life. This level of realism for animated hairstyles is one step closer to the silver screen, thanks to new research being presented at SIGGRAPH, one of the most competitive computer graphics conferences in the world. The breakthrough is a collaboration between researchers at UC San Diego, Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"The computer graphics researchers captured the shape and appearance of hairstyles of real people using multiple cameras, light sources and projectors. The computer scientists then created algorithms to “fill in the blanks” and generate photo-realistic images of the ha"

Kidney Surgically Removed Using Robotics

ScienceDaily (Aug. 25, 2008) Kidney Surgically Removed Using 3-D Robotics Through Single Incision: "For the first time in Michigan, a diseased kidney has been surgically removed at Henry Ford Hospital using highly sophisticated 3D robotics through a single incision."

"We traditionally try to save the kidney for smaller tumors, performing a robotic partial nephrectomy", says Dr. Rogers. "For larger tumors, however, patients would get a very large incision on their side. Now, we can remove kidneys with cancer through a single three- inch incision near the patient's belly button."

"The potential benefits to performing the SIRS nephrectomy are improved cosmetics, quicker recovery times, less scarring and blood loss.

Automated writing tutor assists, outperforms human experts

NEWTOWN, Pa., Aug 18, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE)

"Twenty four districts have decided to use MY Access! this school year after teachers, directors and administrators from across the state saw a marked improvement in student performance.

"... students write an essay based on a teacher's assignment, and submit it to the Web-based system. The program instantly analyzes over 350 semantic, syntactic, and discourse characteristics, and scores the students on focus and meaning, organization, content and development, language use and style, mechanics and conventions, and overall writing proficiency."

The program, called MyAccess, "...instantly scores the essays on a scale of one to six. This provides immediate feedback to students, and saves teachers valuable grading time so they can focus on personalized, targeted student instruction instead. Students are engaged and motivated by immediate remedial instruction. And teachers say MY Access! scores are more accurate than expert human scorers, giving educators the time and confidence to focus on one-on-one instruction instead of paper-grading."

"Students are engaged and motivated by immediate remedial instruction. And teachers say MY Access! scores are more accurate than expert human scorers, giving educators the time and confidence to focus on one-on-one instruction instead of paper-grading. That's the kind of help teachers in Utah's schools need to assist them in managing large classrooms, many of which have up to 40 students."

MIT Helps Computers Think Like Humans

Information Week MIT Model Helps Computers Think Like Humans

"The researchers' algorithm lets computers use multiple approaches to examine data, much like the way humans size up the world."

"In a development that will extend the eternal quest of creating computers that think like humans, two researchers working at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a model that helps computers recognize patterns in the same way as humans do.

The two researchers, associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences Josh Tenenbaum and recent MIT PhD recipient Charles Kemp, produced a broad algorithm that examines several different approaches of looking at data that is similar to the way humans typically size up different situations."

Computer program gains ground in "go" competition

American Go Association "In a historic achievement, the MoGo computer program defeated Myungwan Kim 8P Thursday by 1.5 points in a 9-stone game. “It played really well,” said Kim, who estimated MoGo’s current strength at “two or maybe three dan,” though he noted that the program – which used 800 processors, at 4.7 Ghz, 15 Teraflops on borrowed supercomputers – “made some 5-dan moves,” like those in the lower right-hand corner, where Moyogo took advantage of a mistake by Kim to get an early lead. “I can’t tell you how amazing this is,” David Doshay -- the SlugGo programmer who suggested the match -- told the E-Journal after the game."

Could RFID and satellites help fight kidnappers?

Scientific American Blog: "The use of microchips to track people (such as those embedded in hospital wristbands) and products (those uncomfortable tags on clothing that have to be cut off prior to wearing) has come under fire from civil rights groups who claim that big corporations are using this technology as a tool for spying. But what about when these tags are embedded in people themselves, rather than the things they wear?"

"That's what Mexican security firm Xega SA, which sells technology for tracking people, wants to do, particularly in cases when people are held for ransom. For about $3,700, the company will implant a chip the size of a grain of rice (it costs another $1,800 per year for monitoring), reports the Telegraph. Although it is unclear where the chip is likely to be implanted in a person's body its customers carry with them a panic button that can be pressed if a person feels he or she is in danger. A transmitter then sends signals via satellite to pinpoint the location of a person in distress, reports Reuters.

How RFID Tags Could Be Used to Track Unsuspecting People

Scientific American. Radio-frequency identi­fication (RFID) tags are embedded in a growing number of personal items and identity documents.Because the tags were designed to be powerful tracking devices and they typically incorporate little security, people wearing or carrying them are vulnerable to surreptitious surveillance and profiling..."

"If you live in a state bordering Canada or Mexico, you may soon be given an opportunity to carry a very high tech item: a remotely readable driver’s license. Designed to identify U.S. citizens as they approach the nation’s borders, the cards are being promoted by the Department of Homeland Security as a way to save time and simplify border crossings. But if you care about your safety and privacy as much as convenience, you might want to think twice before signing up."

RFID--A Key to Automating Everything: Scientific American

"Thirteen years ago, in an article for Scientific American, the late Mark Weiser, then my colleague at Xerox PARC, outlined his bold vision of “ubiquitous computing”: small computers would be embedded in everyday objects all around us and, using wireless connections, would respond to our presence, desires and needs without being actively manipulated. This network of mobile and fixed devices would do things for us automatically and so invisibly that we would notice only their effects. Weiser called such systems “calm technology,” because they would make it easier for us to focus on our work and other activities, instead of demanding that we interact with and control them, as the typical PC does today.

"Today systems based on radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology are helping to move Weiser’s vision closer to reality. These systems consist of tags (small silicon chips that contain identifying data and sometimes other information) and of readers that automatically receive and decode that data.

'Frankenrobot' Has Biological Brain

Discovery News "Meet Gordon, probably the world's first robot to be controlled exclusively by living brain tissue.

"Stitched together from cultured rat neurons, Gordon's primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday.

"Their groundbreaking experiments explore the vanishing boundary between natural and artificial intelligence, and could shed light on the fundamental building blocks of memory and learning, one of the lead researchers said."

Human exoskeleton suit helps paralyzed people walk

"HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - paralyzed for the past 20 years, former Israeli paratrooper Radi Kaiof now walks down the street with a dim mechanical hum.

"That is the sound of an electronic exoskeleton moving the 41-year-old's legs and propelling him forward -- with a proud expression on his face -- as passersby stare in surprise.

"The device, called ReWalk, is the brainchild of engineer Amit Goffer, founder of Argo Medical Technologies, a small Israeli high-tech company.

"Something of a mix between the exoskeleton of a crustacean and the suit worn by comic hero Iron Man, ReWalk helps paraplegics -- people paralyzed below the waist -- to stand, walk and climb stairs."

Are you a human scanner?

Scientific American "Those anti-bot security forms that slow you down when you're entering information just might serve a larger purpose. You're just about ready to buy a pair of tickets on Ticketmaster, but before you can take the next step, an annoying box with wavy letters and numbers shows up on your screen. You dutifully enter in what you see—and what a bot presumably can't—in the name of security."

"But what you may not know is that you also have helped archivists decipher distorted characters in old books and newspapers so that they can be posted on the Web."

A sign of human-machine collaborative thinking?

Supercomputer Beats Go Master

More Complex Than Chess, More Possible Combinations Than the Number of Particles in the Universe Supercomputer Beats Go Master: "During the Go Tournament in Paris, staged between 22 and 24 March 2008 by the French Go Federation (FFG), the MoGo artificial intelligence (IA) engine developed by INRIA -- the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control -- running on a Bull NovaScale supercomputer, won a 9x9 game of Go against professional 5th DAN Catalin Taranu. This was the first ever officially sanctioned 'non blitz' victory of a 'machine' over a Go Master."

It was just a 9x9 board, but still an impressive step for AI.

Web Mashups Made Easy

Technology Review: Web Mashups Made Easy: "Software being developed at Intel makes it easy for people with no programming experience to combine data from different Web pages.

"The Web, for all its usefulness, is still a fairly unorganized collection of information. For years, programmers have been connecting disparate bits of information by making "mashups," websites that combine information from two or more sources, such as Google maps and Craigslist rental listings. But mashup making has remained the domain of geeks who know how to program, or at least highly motivated novices who want to learn.

"A new research project from Intel Research, in Berkeley, CA, is trying to take some of the mystery out of crafting a mashup. Called Mash Maker, the project aims to let people use their ordinary Web browsers to combine information from different sites. If, for example, you are looking at apartments on Craigslist, you can easily add information about nearby restaurants from Yelp, a recommendation site, essentially augmenting the data on the Craigslist page. With another few clicks of a button, you can put the apartments and Yelp listings on a Google map, which will also appear within the Craigslist page. The next time you visit the Craigslist page, you can reopen the mashup, and it will automatically use new data from the site.

AI researchers think 'Rascals' can pass Turing test

EETimes.com AI researchers think 'Rascals' can pass Turing test: "Passing the Turing test--the holy grail of artificial intelligence (AI), whereby a human conversing with a computer can't tell it's not human--may now be possible in a limited way with the world's fastest supercomputer (IBM's Blue Gene), according to AI experts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. RPI is aiming to pass AI's final exam this fall, by pairing the most powerful university-based supercomputing system in the world with a new multimedia group designing a holodeck, a la Star Trek.

'We are building a knowledge base that corresponds to all of the relevant background for our synthetic character--where he went to school, what his family is like, and so on,' said Selmer Bringsjord, head of Rensselaer's Cognitive Science Department and leader of the research project. 'We want to engineer, from the start, a full-blown intelligent character and converse with him in an interactive environment like the holodeck from Star Trek.'"

Robot rights - a poser for the 21st century

Science | The Guardian Robot rights - a poser for the 21st century: "The fight against discrimination based on race, gender, class and sexuality may not yet be won, but experts in artificial intelligence are warning that this century societies will have to tackle a new prejudice - against individuals with brains made of silicon.

Even the most enthusiastic promoters of robot rights admit that it is likely to be mid-century before humanity has to grant legal rights to our creations, but they say we should start considering the problems now."

Shape-shifting magnetic bots take a page out of the Dharma playbook

Engadget Shape-shifting magnetic bots take a page out of the Dharma playbook: "Research is still in the early stages, but the concept renders are straight out of science fiction. Some friendly folks at Carnegie Mellon University are working towards electromagnetic microscopic bots that cling together and can assume virtually any shape."

Week in video: Robots of the future

CNET News.com Week in video: Robots of the future, technology today: "At the RoboDevelopment Conference and Exposition in San Jose, Calif., we get a look at some robotics that could make their way to the market in the next few years. Also, we have a special look at Tokyo, a city well-known for its efficiency and as an epicenter for technology."

Contact lenses with circuits, lights a possible platform for superhuman vision

University of Washington News and Information Contact lenses with circuits, lights a possible platform for superhuman vision: "Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

'Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside,' said Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering. 'This is a very small step toward that goal, but I think it's extremely promising.'"

New Games Merge Fantasy With Real World

FOXNews.com New Games Merge Fantasy With Real World: "'AR Facade' is an 'augmented reality' game, a genre that mixes a virtual world with physical reality. The technology is still emerging, though someday people may play such games with gear as simple as their cell phones."

Ray Kurzweil talks about 'augmented reality' and the Singularity

The Grill: Ray Kurzweil talks about augmented reality and the Singularity The computers will be watching what you watch, listening to what you’re saying, and they’ll be helping. So if you look at someone, little pop-ups will appear in your field of view, reminding you of who that is, giving you information about them, reminding you that it’s their birthday next Tuesday. If you look at buildings, it will give you information, it will help you walk around. If it hears you stumbling over some information that you can’t quite think of, it will just pop up without you having to ask.

About On-A-Slant Virtual Village - NSDU ATL

About On-A-Slant Virtual Village - NSDU ATL: "With support from the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation, the North Dakota State University Archeology Technologies Laboratory (ATL) has reconstructed the On-A-Slant Mandan Village using Virtual Reality technology. The remains of On-A-Slant village are located near Mandan, ND on the grounds of the Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park.

The On-A-Slant Virtual Village was modeled based on scholarly research of the site, the Native population, and the era. The Virtual Village is as historically accurate as the documentation allows. The slice of time presented to viewers is ca. 1776, five years before the village's abandonment in 1781."

Using VR to increase intelligence

ISRAEL21c: "Dr. David Passig is someone who could never being accused of living in the past. Living in the future, however, is a charge to which he would plead guilty.

Passig is a 'futurist' whose teaching and research involves concepts - like virtual reality - used to only talked about in science fiction novels. But while his methods may seem exotic, his goals are very real: finding better ways of helping people - particularly children - learn."

Augmented Reality: A New Way of Seeing

Augmented Reality: A New Way of Seeing: Scientific American: "What will computer user interfaces look like 10 years from now? If we extrapolate from current systems, it's easy to imagine a proliferation of high-resolution displays, ranging from tiny handheld or wrist-worn devices to large screens built into desks, walls and floors. Such displays will doubtless become commonplace. But I and many other computer scientists believe that a fundamentally different kind of user interface known as augmented reality will have a more profound effect on the way in which we develop and interact with future computers."

Howstuffworks "How Augmented Reality Will Work"

Howstuffworks "How Augmented Reality Will Work": "Video games have been entertaining us for nearly 30 years, ever since Pong was introduced to arcades in the early 1970s. Computer graphics have become much more sophisticated since then, and soon, game graphics will seem all too real. In the next decade, researchers plan to pull graphics out of your television screen or computer display and integrate them into real-world environments. This new technology, called augmented reality, will further blur the line between what's real and what's computer-generated by enhancing what we see, hear, feel and smell."

Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch

Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch - New York Times: "Until I talked to Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxford University, it never occurred to me that our universe might be somebody else’s hobby. I hadn’t imagined that the omniscient, omnipotent creator of the heavens and earth could be an advanced version of a guy who spends his weekends building model railroads or overseeing video-game worlds like the Sims."

Top 10 Smart Technologies for Schools: Virtual Reality

techLEARNING.com "The next wave of VR promises experiences so real you can almost feel them."

Virtual Eve: first in human computer interaction

Massey News Article Virtual Eve: first in human computer interaction: "The near-human performance of a virtual teacher called Eve created by Massey researchers has drawn the attention of scientists across the computing world.

Eve is what is known in the information sciences as an intelligent or affective tutoring system that can adapt its response to the emotional state of people by interaction through a computer system.

The system “Easy with Eve” is thought to be the first of its type."

Pendulum Links Virtual Reality To Real System

Pendulum Links Virtual Reality To Real System: "What's nerdier than creating an online avatar that fights dragons and raids strongholds? Creating a virtual pendulum that you can sync up to your real-life pendulum. Leave it to physicists to do just that, resulting in a mixed reality state in which the two pendulums swing as one."

Mathematician Work To Make Virtual Surgery A Reality

Mathematician Work To Make Virtual Surgery A Reality: "A surgeon accidentally kills a patient, undoes the error and starts over again. Can mathematics make such science fiction a reality?"

'Virtual Iraq' Simulation To Study Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

'Virtual Iraq' Simulation To Study Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: "Weill Cornell Medical College researchers are using a virtual reality simulation called 'Virtual Iraq' to better understand how symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develop. In their ongoing research trial, participating Iraq War and Gulf War veterans with and without PTSD are shown a brief, 3-D virtual-reality simulation of an urban combat scenario. They wear a headset, through which they hear, see, and — using a keypad — 'move' through a 'virtual world' in which images change in a natural way along with head and body movement."

Virtual Reality For Virtual Eternity

Virtual Reality For Virtual Eternity: "Imagine having a discussion with Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein on the nature of the universe, where their 3-D, life-sized representations looked you in the eye, examined your body language, considered voice nuances and phraseology of your questions, then answered you in a way that is so real you would swear the images were alive."

Getting There Faster With Virtual Reality

Getting There Faster With Virtual Reality: "Is the navigation system too complex? Does it distract the driver’s attention from the traffic? To test electronic assistants, their developers have to build numerous prototypes – an expensive and time-consuming business. Tests in a virtual world make prototypes unnecessary."

Virtual-Reality Video Game Helps Link Depression To Specific Brain Area

Virtual-Reality Video Game Helps Link Depression To Specific Brain Area: "Scientists are using a virtual-reality, three-dimensional video game that challenges spatial memory as a new tool for assessing the link between depression and the hippocampus, the brain's memory hub. Spatial memory is the memory of how things are oriented in space and how to get to them. Researchers found that depressed people performed poorly on the video game compared with nondepressed people, suggesting that their hippocampi were not working properly."

Coming Soon: The Most Realistic Virtual Reality Room In The World

Coming Soon: The Most Realistic Virtual Reality Room In The World: "You're high above the desert peaks. Your aircraft are approaching their targets. Information from instruments, cameras and radar is before your eyes. And with the help of 100 million pixels of bright and vivid virtual reality you're in control of a swarm of U.S. Air Force unmanned aerial vehicles."