Today I stumbled across this great bunch of photos on the National Geographic site, showing a range of advanced robotics projects underway (some of which I’ve covered here before, including the one pictured).
Have a look through them all and you can see some of the superb simulation opportunities these robots will provide. Would love to hear your thoughts on potential applications as well!
Via www.metaversehealth.com

It’s that time of year where a lot of people look back on the year that was. Over the coming week we’ll be featuring retrospectives from other blogs, whether they are a broad look back at a virtual world or a more personal view. Here’s a nice one to start with from Second Life’s Yordie Sands:
“Second Life makes it easy to capture some of the moments that make a second life a wonderful fantasy. 2011 was by far the wildest roller coaster ride of my nearly five years as an avatar. At New Years, the future seemed to be an adventure with no end, but by Summer the adventure had ended terribly. Then I began again, started anew and here we are at Christmas.
The thing is, Second Life has it’s own kind of reality and for many of us, maybe most of us, each year is a roller coaster ride. I have girlfriends I love who’ve been through their own ups and downs and ups in the past year. I’ve seen some friends who just can’t take the emotional swings and leave forever. But for those of us who remain, no matter how crazy the ride is, we stay because there are some great memories. So, here are some favorite memories from my 2011 fantasy”
Via yordiesands.blogspot.com

A fascinating video on mounting an LED in a contact lens. In the virtual worlds speher, the applications are obvious and appealing to say the least. Have a watch for yourself, but here’s the video maker’s description:
“Every so often, internet news aggregator sites run a story about a research group that put an LED into a contact lens, then inserted it into a rabbit’s eye. I figured that I would try the same thing, but put the lens into my own eye.
I accomplished this by laminating a coil of wire and an 0402 surface-mount LED between two ordinary soft contact lenses. I was hoping the lenses would stick to each other, but they did not, so I ended up fixing the edges together by pinching the plastic together with hot tweezers. This held well enough to capture a minute of video with the LED illuminated in my eye. For video purposes, I mounted the LED facing outward. An actual VR/AR display would have the LED facing inward”
Via www.youtube.com

Via Scoop.it – Metaverse News

The Marvel Comics MMO formerly known as Marvel Universe Online has finally been officially christened. Gazillion Entertainment announced in a press release today that, due to the central role that classic Marvel heroes play in the upcoming title, the game will be known as Marvel Heroes.
Via massively.joystiq.com

Via Scoop.it – Metaverse News

Doctors are hoping that virtual reality can help cure soldiers of their all-too-real wartime traumas. The New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Cente has received a $11 million grant from the Department of Defense to continue its research in using virtual reality therapy to heal those with combat-related PTSD. Suffers experience flashbacks, nightmares and unrelenting anxiety from their experiences in the battlefield. Working with colleagues at Emory University and the University of Southern California, the researchers use specialized software to guide patients through familiar trauma scenes.
Via articles.nydailynews.com

Via Scoop.it – Metaverse News

After an eight-year run, Sony Online Entertainment has officially pulled the plug on the subscription-based MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies. The virtual epic adventure across George Lucas’ Force-themed universe came to a close today thanks to the end of a licensing contract between Lucas and SOE.   It also conveniently shuts down operation as a newer, BioWare-developed Star Wars MMOG prepares to launch next week: Star Wars: The Old Republic.   According to several different reports, the virtual Empire-ridden universe went offline following various closing events in the early hours of the morning. The developers even participated in these events, deploying a host of X-Wing fighters and shooting off fireworks similar to the show seen in The Return of the Jedi. PC Gamer actually provides a lengthy insight called “Inside the final hours of Star Wars: Galaxies” which paints a bitter-sweet goodbye to a universe carved out by developers and subscribers alike. “The death of a player-driven MMO like SWG is different to that of a more prescriptive game,” PC Gamer writes. “What is being lost is not just the accumulated experience and credits of thousands of players, but the cities and sculptures that the advanced object manipulation system allowed players to create. Pod-racers created from hundreds of tiny parts; a custom starport built from the ground up. Unless Sony open the game up to the community, all of these are gone forever, beyond the reach of archeology.”
Via www.tomshardware.com

Via Scoop.it – Metaverse News

You know WHY you want to get started with 3D virtual worlds in your school. Well, now you can know HOW. This e-book provides an introduction to OpenSimulator, step-by-step setup instructions etc
Via www.scribd.com

Via Scoop.it – Metaverse News

Rezzable notes from immersive education summit in Madrid November 2011.  
Via rezzable.com

Via Scoop.it – Metaverse News

Someone recently asked me to check with the Lab and ask about the “Big Marketing Push” that the Lab said at SLCC that it was gearing up for. If I recall rightly, the question was along the lines of “Has it happened yet?
Via dwellonit.taterunino.net

Via Scoop.it – Clinical Simulation

With more than 150 million profiles, Club Penguin might be the biggest social network for kids ever.
Via mashable.com