Oct 14 2009 Build Your Own Roller Coaster Ride At Disney
No this isn't Roller Coaster Tycoon, this is real life! The "Sum of all Thrills" is a new ride at Disney's Epcot Center that allows children to design their own roller coasters and then ride them in a virtual reality environment with the aid of a giant robotic arm. I smell vomit! No, seriously -- I think a cat puked under the bed.
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.
"This is really the next generation -- where there's a lot more personalization involved" in the amusement-park experience, said Eric Goodman, Disney's lead project manager on the ride.
Cool. Of course, I question how much customization you'll actually get to do (I want 30 loopty-loops in a row!), or how much you should actually trust a child with anyway (100% of 0). Just saying, I have the feeling a lot of coasters are gonna end with a giant robotic arm slamming you into the ground repeatedly. YOU KIDS WILL NEVER BE IMAGINEERS!
Hit the jump for a better shot of the last thing you'll ever climb inside.
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Sep 22 2009 Mad Scientist: We'll All Be Immortal Cyborgs In 20 Years. GW: In 19 Years I'm Offing Myself
Some crazy-ass jive talking nutjob (61-year old scientist, Ray Kurzweil) is convinced we'll have the technological capabilities and biological know-how to all be loveless immortal cyborgs within 20 years time. Uh-oh.
He says theoretically, at the rate our understanding is increasing, nanotechnologies capable of replacing many of our vital organs could be available in 20 years time.
Mr Kurzweil calls his theory the Law of Accelerating Returns. Writing in The Sun, Mr Kurzweil said: "I and many other scientists now believe that in around 20 years we will have the means to reprogramme our bodies' stone-age software so we can halt, then reverse, ageing. Then nanotechnology will let us live for ever."If we want to go into virtual-reality mode, nanobots will shut down brain signals and take us wherever we want to go. Virtual sex will become commonplace. And in our daily lives, hologram like figures will pop in our brain to explain what is happening.
First of all, The Sun is not an accredited scientific journal. And secondly, I prefer real sex to virtual reality any day. Trust me, it's not all that (I once tried making out with the television but she only shocked my tongue).
Immortality only 20 years away says scientist [telegraph]
Thanks to greenman and mystrb, who are already gonna live forever through their written words (in bathroom stalls).
Jul 8 2009 Yes Please: Virtual Reality Dinosaurs In Japan
Canon, using virtual reality technology (that I'm going to steal), is planning an entirely nonexistent dinosaur exhibit at a museum in Chiba, Japan.
Visitors will be allowed to don a pair of virtual reality glasses that will display nearly life-sized three-dimensional images of various dinosaurs right there on the museum floor.
Displaying over 260 dinosaur specimens, some of the virtual creatures in the exhibit will also move, adding to their realistic effect.
First of all, Canon, those are not virtual reality glasses. Glasses don't look like a Polaroid camera and have a power cord. Secondly, how funny would it be to see me some random guy with a VR mask on dry humping thin air in the middle of a museum? If you answered, "that's not funny, that's love", congratulations, I'll let you pay for my that other guy's admittance.
Canon launches virtual reality dinosaur exhibit in Japan [dvice]
Thanks to FDSY, b-man and Aaron, who BACK OFF THE TRICERATOPS, HE'S MINE.
Dec 19 2008 Cool: Augmented Reality Advertisements
MINI recently ran an augmented reality advertisement in several German automotive magazines (Auto, Motor und Sport, Werben & Verkaufen and Autobild). You head over to the MINI website, flash the print ad in front of your webcam (while doing a striptease -- ladies only, please) and TA-DOW -- a 3-D MINI appears on your newfangled typewriter screen. Go here to print out the ad as a PDF and then head here to try it for yourself. I tried to do it but I can't read German and get easily discouraged so I bailed. Besides, I'm waiting for some augmented augmented reality ads. You catch my drift? I'm talking boobs. Big-ass fake ones.
Hit it for another picture and a video of the making of the ad.
Nov 18 2008 Couple Divorces After Husband Is Caught Banging Virtual Prostitute In Second Life
In a story that reminds me of this one, a couple is getting divorced after a wife caught the husband banging a virtual hooker in Second Life. Jesus, this shit is pathetic.
Amy Taylor, 28, said she had caught husband David Pollard, 40, having sex with an animated woman. The couple, who met in an Internet chatroom in 2003, are now separated.
"I went mad -- I was so hurt. I just couldn't believe what he'd done," Taylor told the Western Morning News. "It may have started online, but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much now it is over."The couple's real-life wedding in 2005 was eclipsed by a fairy tale ceremony held within Second Life.
Fairy tale wedding ceremony in Second Life, beautiful. But here comes the kicker -- wait for it, wait for it.
Taylor is now in a new relationship with a man she met in the online roleplaying game World of Warcraft.
BWHA HAAH AHA HAH HAHAA! Dreams really do come true!
Second Life affair ends in divorce [cnn]
Thanks to Allegro, Curtis, and Ryan, who have never cheated on their significant others because they aren't giant sacks of shit. Ladies?
Oct 3 2008 3-D Force Field May Make Touching Princess Leia In (And Out Of) Her Metal Bikini A Reality
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed the Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display, a 3-D interactive force field that may make touching Princess Leia's golden boobies a reality.
This tactile display enables tactile feedback superimposed over 3D graphics projected in free space, which provides more intuitive handling of 3D "touchable" graphics. For example, users could touch Princess Leia projected in the air.
ZOMG!
The Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display uses multiple ultrasound transducers to project waves into the air. Without gloves or attachments, and without risk of penetration in the body, the device takes advantage of a nonlinear ultrasound phenomena called acoustic radiation pressure. This allows for the creation of spatial shapes of acoustic ultrasound radiation pressure, which is what gives you the sensation of touching Princess Leia's breasts for real, even feeling the nature of the material
And you thought I was kidding, didn't you? I was not! And also, I demand a demo. A private demo. With mood lighting and aromatic candles.
3D Force Field Opens Door for Holodeck, Virtual Touchable Leia [gizmodo]
Thanks to Sean and Michael, who both claim to have been intimate with Princess Leia in her younger (but still totally legal) years.
May 22 2008 VR Masks: The Future Is Gonna Suck
If there's one thing I hate, it's reality. I wake up in the morning and gone is the hot chick I was making out with in my dream. And gone right along with her is not having to work, pay bills, or build a robot/zombie proof bunker. God I really hate waking up sometimes. Well to make reality a little bit more bearable comes these conceptual virtual reality masks.
In a troubling future, these augmented reality devices would offer a new dimension - a virtual layer that could be used to "re-skin" the troubling outside world. A boundary between the wearer and the world around him, the device would become a sort of visual drug, used to make the world appear a better place - even if just for a moment. Within the mask, smells, sounds, even air quality would be imitated to create a full sensory experience. The facial expressions of those wearing the device would be detected and projected onto personal avatars visible to others also living behind the shield of the mask.
Man, at first I thought this sounded promising, now it just sounds stupid. Screw this. I'm just gonna triple my dosage of Ambien and try to sleep 20 hours a day. What's that -- I should wash it down with a liter of bourbon? You got it!
A couple more pictures, including a look inside the (conceptual) mask, after the jump.
Jan 9 2008 Johnny Lee Is My Hero: Headtracking With Wii
We saw Johnny Chung Lee make a huge multi-touch screen in his last installment, and now he's back at his Wii antics, this time making a sick virtual reality 3D headtracking system. It is freaking awesome.
Using the infrared camera in the Wii remote and a head mounted sensor bar (two IR LEDs), you can accurately track the location of your head and render view dependent images on the screen. This effectively transforms your display into a portal to a virtual environment. The display properly reacts to head and body movement as if it were a real window creating a realistic illusion of depth and space.
As a sidenote, Johnny Lee could pretty much explain anything to me and I think I would understand. Like with Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs, I think I'm developing a man-crush.
Dear Johnny,
I think you are so cool. I was wondering if sometime you would like to hang out with me.
Yes No
(Please circle one and give back to me at my locker between classes)
Your (hopeful) friend,
The Geekologie Writer
Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote [core77]
