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And now comes an era when we live immersed in computer-generated "virtual" realities, rendered through lavish games where ersatz selves get to do countless things that our mundane, fleshy selves cannot. Is it any wonder that some people have been talking about a near future when this process may reach its ultimate conclusion? When the denizens of Reality will not be able to verify, by any clear-cut means, that they aren't living in-or even existing because of-a simulation?

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Apple's new MacBook Air borrows a lot of things from the iPad, including hyperportability and instant-on flash storage. But the Air won't use an iPad-like touchscreen. Neither will any of Apple's laptops. That's because of what designers call "gorilla arm."

Surround Haptics, a new tactile technology developed at Disney Research, Pittsburgh (DRP) in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, makes it possible for video game players and film viewers to feel a wide variety of sensations, from the smoothness of a finger being drawn against skin to the jolt of a collision. The technology is based on rigorous psychophysical experiments and new models of tactile perception. The technology will enhance a high-intensity driving simulator game developed in collaboration with Disney's Black Rock Studio. With players seated in a chair outfitted with inexpensive vibrating actuators, Surround Haptics will enable them to feel road imperfections, objects falling on the car, skidding, braking and acceleration; and experience ripples of sensation when cars collide. They will also experience jumping, flying, falling, shrinking or growing, of bugs creeping on their skin, the researchers said. The DRP researchers have accomplished this feat by designing an algorithm for controlling an array of vibrating actuators in such a way as to create "virtual actuators" anywhere within the grid of actuators. A virtual actuator can be created between any two physical actuators; the user has the illusion of feeling only the virtual actuator, the researchers said. As a result, users don't feel the general buzzing or pulsing typical of most haptic devices today, but can feel discrete, continuous motions such as a finger tracing a pattern on skin. Disney is demonstrating Surround Haptics Aug. 7-11 at the Emerging Technology Exhibition at SIGGRAPH 2011, the International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Vancouver, B.C.

MIT researchers have developed a new application of carbon nanotubes that shows promise as an innovative approach to storing solar energy for use whenever it's needed. Storing the sun's heat in chemical form - rather than first converting it to electricity or storing the heat itself in a heavily insulated container - has significant advantages: in principle, the chemical material can be stored for long periods of time without losing any of its stored energy. The researchers created carbon nanotubes in combination with a compound called azobenzene. The resulting molecules, produced using nanoscale templates to shape and constrain their physical structure, and the concept that can be applied to many new materials. This material is vastly more efficient at storing energy in a given amount of space - about 10,000 times higher in volumetric energy density, making its energy density comparable to lithium-ion batteries, the researchers said. Ref.: Alexie M. Kolpak, Jeffrey C. Grossman, Azobenzene-Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes As High-Energy Density Solar Thermal Fuels, Nano Letters, 2011; 110705085331088 [DOI: 10.1021/nl201357n]

Jesse Schell's talk about the future of game design as it invades the real world is just astounding. If you do experience design of any kind it'll be the most valuable (and entertaining) 20 minutes you'll spend all week.

Can Android devices be tracked and located without internet? Yes, with a powerful Android Mobile Device Management Solution, Android devices can be tracked, located and secured. Read this to know how.

Learn how an Android MDM allows Enterprises to track, locate and manage Android devices remotely even without internet access.

As the 2012 hurricane season reaches full tilt, researchers at NOAA are hard at work hacking two different maritime robots that the agency hopes will become critical storm forecasting tools of the future. The first, Liquid Robotics' Wave Glider, is envisioned as a persistent surveillance platform, an army of mobile monitoring stations that will remain at sea for the duration of a hurricane season, waiting to swarm into the path of a developing storm. The second--Hydronalix's Emergency Integrated Life Saving Lanyard, or EMILY (a 2010 PopSci Best of What's New award winner)--will be capable of tracking the storm itself for days at a time, streaming continuous data directly from the center of the storm to researchers ashore.

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