Giving Virtual Birth: 2009
We don't have the ability to recreate the feelings, trigger the emotions, and wonderful (and hellish) sensations of childbirth synthetically yet. However that has not stopped Second Life from going ahead.

The Elements of Good Mythtelling, Part Eight: Archetypical Setting
The last in this series, it looks at the setting of your myth capturing the feel of enduring myths from our world, and looking at the elements that set the tone, and trigger remvembrance.

Using LiDAR to create maps of Earthquakes
LiDAR is a mapping tool, using lasers to create a high-precision map of the lay of the land. Researchers using it, have shown how in a huge area, disparate separate faultlines can trigger massive earthquakes.

SAPBER: Robotic Bomb Disposal
Robotic sniffers have been available for some time, to trundle on down to a suspected bomb and examine the site. However, whilst they can lift the bomb up, or trigger it, such robots have never been able to disarm the bombs safely, much less disarm them and preserve all evidence. That task has always taken a human bomb expert, and presents a risk to life and limb. A new bomb disposal robot is attempting to fill that gap, by interacting with the sniffer robot, and disarming the bomb itself from a safe distance.

Applying for Wizardhood
Five helpful tips for anyone applying for a staff position on any not-for profit, or casual virtual world. Just like any interview situation, they help cover the basics, and increase your chances of working for them.

Telemedicine Tele-abused
There is a firm, which specialises in phone and telehealth services to help relieve the stress of hospitalisation. They provide a telephone/television unit next to the beds of more than 160 NHS trust hospitals in the United Kingdom. They may well be abusing their priviledged position.

The iClub is a 3D pointer of a sort. It does not work alone, but instead is designed to be fitted to a golf club. Once attached, it uses internal gyroscopes and accelerometers to track its own position and acceleration through 3D space, reporting that information to itself, for storage and later analysis.

AI Cars, Driving Like Hooligans
Stanford's Junior AI, on handbrake skid parking, without a human influence on the system, in dynamic environments, with only a two foot variance in position at 25mph. Or, the first baby steps towards dynamic switching between open and closed loop systems.

The Trazer by Cybex Incorporated. Billed as a virtual reality exercise machine, this $6,495 USD (?3,300) machine tracks an infrared belt worn by the exerciser, and uses changes in the position of that, and senses of increase or decrease in heat rate, to determine how much they are exercising.

Sony opens Virtual Goods Marketplace
Industry news, originally posted 22-04-2005. Massively Multiplayer Online world operator Sony Entertainment appears to have reversed its position regarding the buying and selling of virtual items.

(26/08/2008)
One thing long term immersion has in common with infirmity, is the necessity of exercising an unmoving body.

Now Charles Filipi, a surgeon at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, US, is looking to create a bed that goes a...

(30/06/2005)
Lost in the city without GPS? Skyhook Wireless has launched a new Wi-Fi positioning system, (WPS), offering an alternative to GPS for finding exactly where you are.

The WPS database includes the position and unique network c...

(24/08/2006)
Technology that transforms digital images into 3D models has been unveiled by Microsoft.

Microsoft's Photosynth takes collections of images, analyses them for similarities, and then displays them in a reconstructed 3D space...

(29/10/2009)
Many of us have been rescued from unfamiliar territory by directions from a Global Positioning System (GPS) navigator. GPS satellites send signals to a receiver in your GPS navigator, which calculates your position based on the location of ...

(13/03/2009)
Whether slalom or alpine skiing, competitive skiing is all about thousandths of a second. Hence, professional athletes must constantly refine their technique. Small radio frequency identification transmitters are being designed to make it p...