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Posts Tagged “

Virtual reality

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book

Is Virtual Sex Really Cheating?

With all the talk about sexuality in games following the Mass Effect drama, it's interesting to see discussions centering around purposeful sex in games, such as Second Life. Author Tim Guest's new book, Second Lives: A Journey Through Virtual Worlds, takes a close look at the alternate lives, including sexuality, lived by people in Second Life. He spent months investigating virtual worlds and the people who inhabit them, from part-time virtual escorts, to a very serious virtual hitman, and many other personalities. In a Q&A with Nerve.com's Screen Digest, Guest reveals some of the interesting questions of morality, legality, and love that arise from the experience:

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3:40 PM on Tue Mar 11 2008
By torif
7,242 views, 66 comments

Latest by n/a: I think he did do some extensive work on this subject but of course that will not be in the book.!!!!! more »

clips

VR Head Tracking For The PS3

Sony Computer Entertainment America programmer Thomas Miller has pulled a Johnny Lee, throwing together a working demonstration of head tracking virtual reality on the PlayStation 3 using the PlayStation Eye, a filter made from exposed and developed film, and a pair of cobbled together infrared glasses. Using the filter to block out all light but infrared, the PlayStation Eye can track the location of the light coming from the glasses, moving the viewpoint according to the position of the beam. The results are pretty damn amazing - pretty much a WiiMote for your face. The potential for this sort of technology for console gaming is near endless, from simple menu navigation to full on head tracking for an FPS title. Miller has uploaded the tech so PS3 programmers can fool around with it. Hopefully some enterprising developer will pick up this ball and run with it. Awesome stuff.

8:40 AM on Fri Feb 1 2008
By Mike Fahey
16,142 views, 182 comments

Latest by n/a: Boom Blox (for the Wii) features head tracking [gonintendo.com] more »

gaming goodness

Virtual Crack House Aids Drug Rehab

As a gamer, I've been through many virtual-reality crack houses in my time, usually with guns blazing. Duke University professor Zach Rosenthal, however, has an entirely different way of dealing with crackheads in virtual reality - curing them.

"What we're trying to do is take people into a virtual crack-related neighborhood or crack-related setting and have them experience cravings, just like they would in the real world," Rosenthal said.
Therapists then wait for the cravings to subside and associate it with a trigger such as a specific sound, conditioning the addicts to associate said sound with the cessation of cravings. The idea is that when the addict encounters real-world sensations they can call a phone number to hear the tone, and the cravings go away.

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9:20 AM on Tue Nov 6 2007
By Mike Fahey
2,275 views, 33 comments

Latest by n/a: how great would this game be if you played it high on crack? this concept reminds me of the time i kicked my PCP addiction by actually becoming a player in TRON and decisively (and barely) succeeding.no...upon further reflection, i was more »

weird science

Out Of Body Gaming

Ever have a dream where you are watching yourself in third person? The out of body experience is a well documented phenomenon in the science world, generally associated with trauma or near-death experiences, but now scientists in Sweden and Britain have begun inducing the sensation, and the gaming implications of the technology are intriguing indeed. Here's how it works: Scientists fit a customer with goggles that contain video screens. Two cameras film the subject left and right, feeding the images into the corresponding eyes to create a three dimensional image behind them. The scientists then provide a stimulus...say touching a plastic rod to their chest, while at the same time performing a similar motion to the 3D image. In the UK study, Dr. Henrik Ehrsson reports that 18 of the 19 subjects said they felt as if the 3D image they were watching was the real person. More »

10:40 AM on Fri Aug 24 2007
By Mike Fahey
1,879 views, 19 comments

Latest by Number41: Okay, I don't get this. Basically, when people see objects coming at the camera, they think the objects are coming at themselves, because their eyes are seeing through the cameras directly. Cool effect, but not necessarily surprising. But what more »

not what you think

Second Life Wiimote Training

Take the innumerable possibilities present in the world of Second Life and combine them with the motion-sensing capabilities of the Nintendo Wiimote, and what do you get? If you're MIT research fellow David E. Stone, you get a highly customizable training simulator. Calling the controller "one of the most significant technology breakthroughs in the history of computer science," Stone is using the Wiimote in conjunction with Second Life to create training simulators for companies such as Orkin Pest Control. Companies that classically have trouble finding training methods the truly engage the user. Within the world of Second Life the company could potentially run employees through checking a house for moisture or mixing chemicals.
"This isn't the kind of technology, or model, that this industry — or Orkin — is used to considering," notes David Lamb, Orkin's vice president of learning and media services. He's working with senior officers in the company to build a business case for such training, and, given the potential savings the company could eventually realize across its 400 branch offices, "there's a very high probability we'll move into this arena."
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10:20 AM on Fri Jul 27 2007
By Mike Fahey
1,609 views, 11 comments

Latest by OMG! Ponies!: I think the only person who actually cares about SL is Regina Lynn over at Wired... ...because Wired is still so, so relevant. more »

wii

Nintendo Takes Wii To The Streets

Limpit over at WiiDs found this outdoor Wii kiosk in his home town of London. Two young gentlemen in white puffy Wii coats and hats demoed Wii Sports outdoors to an adoring crowd of onlookers on a Samsung HD TV. More »

2:00 PM on Sat Jan 13 2007
By fdemarco
174 views, 18 comments

second life

Second Life Interview Wanged

CNET's Second Life bureau was assaulted the other day during an interview with virtual land magnate Anshe Chung. As the interview was set to begin, the CNET theater was set upon by a horde of animated flying penises. More »

12:40 PM on Thu Dec 21 2006
By Mike Fahey
4,053 views, 24 comments

street fighter 2

Street Fighter 2: The Virtual Reality Ride!

This may very well be the lamest thing to ever come out of the Street Fighter franchise: a Virtual Reality ride through Bisonopolis. What's the point of putting Street Fighter and VR together if you're not going to use it to zoom up Chun Li's vagina in first person? Florian Eckhardt

1:40 PM on Fri Sep 29 2006
By kotaku.com
665 views, 38 comments

vr

Virtual Reality Mario Continues Kotaku's 'Too Much Mario' Day!

We're calling bullshit on this. The tiny man-child playing Mario gives the world a convincing bit of thespianism, but there are too many parts where the action doesn't quite match up. We know that for some people, the Nintendo ON is the gamer's wet dream, but everytime we look at VR, we can't help but think how much of a pain in the ass it all looks. Thanks, Josh!Florian Eckhardt

12:40 PM on Mon Jul 17 2006
By brownlee
119 views, 8 comments

ps3

Rumor: Primesense Promises VR PS3

Evil Avatar spotted a rumor as juicy as it is implausible about an upcoming PS3 peripheral designed by Primesense: More »

8:40 AM on Mon Jun 26 2006
By brownlee
725 views, 2 comments

therapy

Virtual Reality as Therapy

Very serious website Serious Games Source has a feature on VR being used as therapy for those suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: More »

8:40 PM on Wed May 31 2006
By egauger
182 views, 4 comments

fighting

The Kick Arse Kung Fu Game

Kick Ass Kung-Fu is a virtual reality (soooo 1990's) installation that gives players a chance to really, well, kick ass. Players' physical movements correspond to the in-game character. In the above clip, a bunch of black belts show off just how the game works and demonstrate a smorgasboard of kicks, flips and punches. Uh, this looks kinda hard. —Brian Ashcraft More »

5:22 AM on Tue May 23 2006
By Brian Ashcraft
184 views, 4 comments

trimersion

Trimersion Virtual Reality HRD for Gamers and Hospitals!

GamesFirst has posted a look at one of those quasi-virtual-reality doodads, the Trimersion Head Mounted Display. More »

8:40 AM on Fri May 19 2006
By brownlee
546 views, 5 comments