Categories
-Updates 11.7 The High-Tech Home 6.3 From Hypertext to Interactive Multimedia

Is Virtual Reality an Empathy Generator?

Project Syria

Most of us think about video games as escapist fare. But a new genre of games, called news games, can take players deeper into real-world situations, helping them to develop an understanding of news that goes far beyond headlines. This NPR story talks about the potential impact of these games, including a USC student project called Project Syria.
This short video goes deeper into the Project and the process of creating this compelling virtual reality experience.
Categories
-Context 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 11.7 The High-Tech Home

In Defense of Games

In the ongoing debate about the impact of video games on the human brain, emotional arguments are seldom grounded in solid research. In this TED talk, Daphne Bavelier claims that current research contradicts many common-sense beliefs about the psychological impact of fast-paced gaming. The research is still in the early stages; after all, computer gaming is a relatively new human activity. And there remain questions about violence, addiction, and other big issues. But the research described here is a small step toward understanding how what we do changes who we are.
http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_bavelier_your_brain_on_video_games.html

Categories
-Inventing the Future 11.7 The High-Tech Home 15.6 The Robot Revolution 4.4 The User Interface: The Human-Machine Connection

The Robot in Your Future Home

Personal robots are coming. This fascinating NPR story gives an audio peek inside the labs that are working hard to bring robots to everyday people.
wbur.org/npr/155278207/you-know-you-want-one-personal-robots-not-ready-for-you-yet

Categories
-Multimedia 11.5 High-Tech Schools 11.7 The High-Tech Home 6.3 From Hypertext to Interactive Multimedia 9.2 Inside the Web

The Web’s Global Art Museum

Many of the greatest works of art are inaccessible to most of the world’s population. In this short TED talk, Google’s Amid Sood demonstrates Art Project, a multimedia web gateway to many of world’s foremost art museums and the treasures they hold.
[ted id=1144]

Categories
-Multimedia 11.5 High-Tech Schools 11.7 The High-Tech Home 5.4 Beyond the Printed Page 6.3 From Hypertext to Interactive Multimedia

A next-generation digital book

Most of the e-books published so far have been on-screen versions of paper books. In this short TED presentation, Mike Matas gives us a peek at the possibilities when digital books combine state-of-the-art interactive multimedia with compelling text.
[ted id=1134]
View at TED site