This stuff.co.nz article talks about a project designing virtual work environments to give students practical experience. From the article: "Students will be able to peek inside chemical reactions and explore three-dimensional models of ear canals in virtual technology being developed at Canterbury University.

The university has received $1.77 million from the Government's Encouraging and Supporting Innovation Fund for a three-year project designing virtual work environments to give students practical experience.

Canterbury University HitLab director Mark Billinghurst, who is leading the project, said New Zealand is lagging behind in virtual technology.

"There's not much government investment in the area, so this will allow us to catch up with some of the teaching and technology trends internationally."

This PSFK article talks about improving the online experience of a shopping expedition. From the article: "It may be too early for online retailers to declare a combined holiday sales victory over brick and morter stores. But if Amazon’s latest results are any sign, consumers are getting as comfortable shopping with a mouse and keyboard as with a shopping cart.

This Seattle Times article talks about an installation that allows visitors to explore a larger-than-life reconstruction of the Berlin Wall in 3D. From the article: "Imagine if your map of Seattle ended at the same place your neighborhood does. If, for instance, your parents live in the University District, but when trying to plan a trip there from Capitol Hill, you realize it's impossible: Nothing is charted beyond the Montlake Bridge. What's past that border is marked on your map as a color field. A no man's land.

This International Space Fellowship article reports technicians in Orbiter Processing Facility-3, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, are preparing space shuttle Discovery for its transport to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Jan. 7.

From the article: "The vehicle will be jacked up and its wheels secured to enable the Orbiter Transport System, or OTS, to slide underneath it for the short trip.

Meanwhile, work to remove and replace the shuttle’s side hatch tiles is progressing and will continue though the holiday.

Discovery’s payload, the S6 truss segment and solar arrays are scheduled to be loaded into the transport canister Jan. 7 and transferred to the launch pad Jan. 11.

At NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the STS-119 astronauts are in the Motion Base Simulator practicing launch procedures.

From this News Channel 10 article : "While there is not any snow in the immediate forecast, TxDOT is making sure the snow plow drivers are prepared for the next winter blast. This is the the first year TxDOT invested in virtual reality snow plow training.

Sixty six snow plow drivers from Amarillo and Childress sat behind the wheel of a virtual snow plow machine over the past week. It looks like something straight out a video game, but in reality, it's teaching the drivers how to handle the icy roads and dangerous conditions.

TxDOT says the biggest benefit to this new virtual training system is it's risk free.

From this ScienceDaily article: "A system that can recognize human gestures could provide a new way for people with physical disabilities to interact with computers. A related system for the able bodied could also be used to make virtual worlds more realistic.

Manolya Kavakli of the Virtual and Interactive Simulations of Reality Research Group, at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, explains how standard input devices - keyboard and computer mouse, do not closely mimic natural hand motions such as drawing and sketching. Moreover, these devices have not been developed for ergonomic use nor for people with disabilities.

This msnbc.com article reports testing subjects in a virtual building could lead to improved design. From the article: "Getting test subjects lost in a virtual building could reveal a lot about how to construct more people-friendly hospitals, schools and other spaces, according to a unique collaboration by a group of California neurologists and architects.

The merging of neuroscience, architecture, psychology and virtual reality is allowing researchers to track the brain signals of study participants as they navigate through a simulated building within a high-tech room called the StarCAVE.

From this ScienceDaily article : "You really can learn a lot from a dummy. For decades, automakers have been crashing test dummies to gain insight to how various auto safety systems protect — or fail to protect — people during car accidents. But those dummies are made of plastic and steel, not tissue and bone. They can teach only so much.

A new generation of dummies will tell a lot more. An international group of automakers and suppliers has formed a Global Human Body Models Consortium to fund the best minds to build a better dummy.

Two teams of engineers with U.Va.'s Center for Biomechanics will play major roles in the creation of this new "virtual" dummy, one that will live entirely within computers, but will be more realistic than any physical dummy ever subjected to a crash test.

From this Telegraph.co.uk article: " Sony has announced that its online virtual community, PlayStation Home, is coming to all PlayStation 3 owners on Dec 11.

The Second Life-like virtual world will provide PS3 users with a three-dimensional social gaming space in which to interact and communicate with other players.

Sony said the service would deliver "overwhelming visual graphics and rich gaming social experiences only possible on the PS3 platform."

This Science Centric article reports scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed software that improves the accuracy of the tracking devices by at least 700 percent. From the article: "The software can be used by scientists in other immersive environments with slight modifications for their individual laboratories. This advance is a step forward in transforming immersive technology that has traditionally been a qualitative tool into a scientific instrument with which precision measurements can be made.