This Press Release reports "the virtual aquarium, using rear-projection technology, is one of the largest in the world to showcase aquatic life digitally. Manufactured by Reynolds Polymer Technology Inc., the panel featured mermaids "swimming" in the water at the grand opening to enchant guests.

The 2nd International Workshop on Blending Physical and Digital Spaces on the Internet will be held in conjunction with the Future Internet Symposium 2009, September 1-3, in Berlin. From the OneSpace 2009 website: "One of the most important effects of the Internet and of the Web has been to relax spatial and temporal constraints on human activities – the so called “space-time collapse” – allowing fast global access to information as well as to physical resources and services.

Cisco TelePresence team sent us information about the recently launched “Why I Want Cisco TelePresence” video contest at http://www.whyiwantciscotelepresence.com/contest/. This new contest is designed to entice individuals from around the world to submit their ideas about why or how they would like to use Cisco TelePresence in their work lives – how they might connect to co-workers or peers in other locations; the benefits they would uniquely reap; why they would be the ideal person to use a Cisco TelePresence system. Winners in two categories, Productivity and Shaping the Future, have a chance to win $3,000 each.

From this ScienceDaily article: "Photovoltaic and wind energy plants, hydroelectric power stations and biogas plants supply energy without polluting the environment. However, they are complex to design and maintain. Virtual reality (VR) makes planning and operation easier.

The design engineer’s head is spinning. She has been analyzing data on her computer for hours, with no end in sight. Designing a hydroelectric power station, she would like to know what the pressures, temperatures and fluid flows will be in the facility. She may simulate them with simulation software. However, this only delivers vast columns of numbers or a one-dimensional representation which she will have to analyze bit by bit – a laborious task.

"A First Implementation of an Advanced 3D Interface to Control and Supervise UAV (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles) Missions"

Francesca De Crescenzio, Giovanni Miranda*, Franco Persiani, Tiziano Bombardi

Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments, June 2009, Vol. 18, No. 3, Pages 171-184.

This Press Release talks about the use of VR in a new research initiative at De Montfort University.

"IN RECENT years, significant resources and research activities worldwide have been invested in the creation of Virtual Reality (VR) environments to train specialised skills for surgeons. Virtalis was one of the first, creating a trainer for minimally invasive therapy. Now, a research team from De Montfort University has begun work on assessing the feasibility for a whole team VR surgical trainer with Virtalis both supplying and designing the VR research platform.

From this ScienceDaily article : "Social problems like bullying and stereotyping involve thoughts, feelings and reactions that resist change. New research shows that when students play active roles in virtual dramas their attitudes and behaviour can change.

In 2006, a group of European educators, psychologists and IT specialists realised that emotionally driven problems, such as bullying, stereotyping and scapegoating demanded emotionally compelling interventions.

The researchers set out to create virtual worlds with characters that children could interact and empathise with powerfully enough to change their own attitudes and behaviour.

This Wired Gadget Lab post talks about the ‘Tele-immersive Environment for Everybody’ project of researchers at the University of Illinois. From the article: "If your Wii boxing buddy or Star Wars light saber duel partner moved to a different town, technology can help bring you together for just one more game. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Intel have created a system that can support collaborative physical activities from different geographical locations.

“We can capture motions of the human body in real time and bring them together on a big screen,” says Ahsan Arefin, a doctoral student currently involved with the project.

This Telepresence Options article talks about a new way to mass-produce flexible OLED displays that could mean affordable commercial products. From the article: "Flexible, full-color video displays could be closer to market because of a new advance by researchers at Arizona State University's Flexible Display Center (FDC) and at Universal Display, in Ewing, NJ. The researchers have made bendy organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays employing processes and tools that are used to make today's flat-panel LCD screens. They demonstrated a new 4.1-inch video-quality display at the 2009 Society for Information Display conference last week.

This Science Daily article reports the Nintendo Wii may enhance Parkinson's treatment. From the article: "The Nintendo Wii may help treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease, including depression, a Medical College of Georgia researcher says.

Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disease that impairs motor skills. Dr. Herz theorized that the popular computer game console, which simulates various sports and activities, could improve coordination, reflexes and other movement-related skills, but he found additional benefits as well.