3pointD.com

A “virtual reality room” at Iowa State University is getting an upgrade courtesy of Fakespace Systems, according to a press release. The room, which consists of full screens covering all four walls, the floor and the ceiling, is used for things like visualizing genetic data, developing tools to help engineers in decision-making, and as a control room for the military’s unmanned vehicles. Researchers are building “a virtual environment that allows operators to see the vehicles, the surrounding airspace, the terrain they’re flying over as well as information from instruments, cameras, radar and weapons systems. The system would allow a single operator to control many vehicles.” The room will cost more than $4 million to upgrade, and will feature a total of 100 million pixels on display.

Forbes.com (on Wired News) flags 10 of their favorite GPS devices — including the GPS-enabled wheelchair pictured above. Get directions, geotag photos, keep track of family members (or ex-cons) and go off-roading even if you can’t walk. Good stuff.

If you’re in New York or Washington over the next several weeks, you’ll have the chance to have your consciousness raised in 3D by an “interactive virtual reality installation” called Beyond Manzanar, created by Tamiko Thiel, who worked on Steven Spielberg’s Starbright World, and Iranian-American writer and multimedia artist Zara Houshmand. The show, whose title refers to a World War Two-era American internment camp for Japanese, plays on themes of xenophobia in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing and the World Trade Center attacks of 2001. [Via Chris Carella.] (more…)