Virtual Reality - Science Daily
Virtual Reality. From the most realistic virtual reality game room in the world to training using virtual reality technology, find all the latest news here.
Updated: 1 day 3 min ago
What does your avatar say about you?
Old or young, beautiful or sinister - the choices are endless when designing an avatar or a virtual alter ego. In the end, do people choose one that is really different from themselves? Usually not, according to new research that shows in most cases, avatars reflect the personality of their creators. The study has implications for real-life companies who would like to reach both the virtual and real-world markets.
Categories: Virtual Reality
Virtual reality gives insight on protein structures
To understand a protein, it helps to get inside of it, and a professor has now figured out a way to do so. A new computer software program and projection system lets a person look at larger-than-life, 3-D structures of proteins in virtual reality. This allows scientists to walk inside, through or around the protein of interest for investigating its structure and function.
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‘The friend of my enemy is my enemy’: Virtual universe study proves 80-year-old theory on how humans interact
A new study analyzing interactions between players in a virtual universe game has for the first time provided large-scale evidence to prove an 80-year-old psychological theory called Structural Balance Theory. The research shows that individuals tend to avoid stress-causing relationships when they develop a society, resulting in more stable social networks.
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Making virtopsies a reality: New research project to develop reliable and cost-effective virtual autopsies
A new research project is set to play a vital role in continuing research into viable alternatives to invasive autopsies, which many families find to be unpleasant.
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Avatars as lifelike representations and effective marketing tools
It is predicted that 80 percent of active Internet consumers and Fortune 500 companies will have an avatar or presence in a virtual community, including social networks, by the end of 2011. A new article investigates the role avatars play in the virtual and consumer environment, how well avatars reflect the personality of their creators, the psychology behind self-representation, and how these virtually made identities are perceived by other members of the virtual community.
Categories: Virtual Reality
Virtual food causes stress in patients affected by eating disorders
Food presented in a virtual reality environment causes the same emotional responses as real food. Researchers compared the responses of people with anorexia and bulimia, and a control group, to the virtual and real-life snacks, suggesting that virtual food can be used for the evaluation and treatment of eating disorders.
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Virtual-worlds researcher's advice to retailers: Go with the 'flow'
As recession-weary consumers learn to make do with less in this, the real world, there is one area where they're still willing to spend freely: in online, "virtual" ones. A Florida researcher is studying the growing market for virtual products, particularly in Internet virtual worlds, and has identified several factors that appear to increase the likelihood that people will make these types of purchases.
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Enterprise PCs work while they sleep – saving energy and money – with new software
Personal computers in enterprise environments save energy and money by "sleep-working," thanks to new software called SleepServer. Sleep-working enterprise PCs are accessible via remote connections and maintain their presence on voice over IP, instant messaging, and peer-to-peer networks even though the PCs are in low-power sleep mode. SleepServer can reduce energy consumption on enterprise PCs previously running 24/7 by an average of 60 percent.
Categories: Virtual Reality
Stroke recovery goes 3-D: Canadian video game takes rehab to the next level
Montreal researchers' innovative use of virtual reality to tap into the power of brain plasticity is emerging as a major technique in brain recovery for stroke patients.
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Robots big and small showcase their skills
Two robotics events were designed to prove the viability of advanced technologies for robotic automation of manufacturing and microrobotics.
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Intelligent therapies with virtual reality for the psychological treatment of patients suffering from fibromyalgia
Researchers in Spain have developed a new therapy based on the use of mobile devices and virtual reality for the psychological treatment of patients suffering from fibromyalgia.
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Virtual humans appear to influence ethical decisions in gender-specific ways
Virtual humans are increasingly taking on roles that were once reserved for real humans. A study found that the decisions of men were strongly affected by presentational aspects of the simulated woman, while women's decisions were not.
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Researchers create software for robot to improve rescue missions
In disaster emergencies, such as the recent West Virginia mine explosion or the earthquake in Haiti, it is often unsafe for responders to enter the scene, prolonging the rescue of potential survivors. Now, researchers have developed software for a robot with a laser sensor that can enter dangerous structures to assess the structure's stability and locate any remaining people. This technology could lead to safer and more efficient rescue missions.
Categories: Virtual Reality
3-D environment model enhances collaboration during learning
Researchers in Spain have developed a model for 3-D virtual learning environments based on an autonomous virtual tutor that detects collaboration.
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New research offers security for virtualization, cloud computing
Virtualization and cloud computing allow computer users access to powerful computers and software applications hosted by remote groups of servers, but security concerns related to data privacy are limiting public confidence -- and slowing adoption of the new technology. Now researchers have developed new techniques and software that may be the key to resolving those security concerns and boosting confidence in the sector.
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3-D 'occupational therapy' for children: Virtual muscle machine for kids with disabilities
A researcher is using a "virtual tabletop" to "move" kids with disabilities and provide home-based treatments using virtual reality tools. Combining new three-dimensional exercises with two-dimensional graphical movement games already programmed into the tabletop (which resembles an early video game), she reports not only success but also enthusiasm among her young patients.
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Augmented reality brings movie magic to city visits
From the Italy of Visconti to the Spain of Almodovar, many people’s first encounter with a foreign country is in the cinema. Imagine if images from the silver screen could be conjured up anew when they do visit, for real?
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Haptic solution for modelling industrial designs
Industrial design modelling, used to make prototypes of home appliances or mock-ups of car parts, could soon make the leap from the world of plaster, plastic and sticky tape into the digital domain thanks to an augmented reality design system developed in Europe.
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Architects and engineers bridge the grid chasm
In the technology adoption cycle, a chasm separates powerful new technologies from the SMEs that could most benefit from them. Now, thanks to European researchers, architects and engineers are building a bridge to cross that chasm.
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Creepy crawly cockroach ancestor revealed in new 3-D model
An early ancestor of the cockroach that lived around 300 million years ago is unveiled in unprecedented detail in a new three-dimensional "virtual fossil" model.
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