Getting Virtually Better

And yet another project focusing on making virtual humans or so-called avatars more life-like, with a more natural look, more intelligent and context-specific interaction, and more emotional feedback. Somehow, I don't expect the great breakthrough since over the past decades many groups have had a similar agenda (ICT, US; VHIL, Stanford, US; DFKI, Germany, MIRALAB, Switzerland, you name them) and were only able to produce partial results, usually limited by availability of technology, insufficient body of science or -worst of all - insufficient understanding of human behavior.

I anyhow wish them success, because the technology is important and has many real-world applications from healthcare to education and training: The Next Best Thing to You

Plug it in, plug it in ...

We were always concerned about the cost of retrofitting existing homes with IT infrastructure to make many of our home-centered heatlhcare ambitions come true. Now there's a light at the horizon. These inexpensive computers by Marvell Technology Group promises an explosion of innovation about for the home because of the combination of open-source software and powerful chips that are becoming available at very low costs. Home data centers, home entertainment center, and home health centers seem to be the a plausible beginning.

Plugging In $40 Computers - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com