Swiss scientists have recently demonstrated how a paralyzed individual could control robots with just the power of thought in order to interact with their environment. Although similar experiments have been done by scientists in the United States and Germany, they generally required able bodied patients or painful invasive brain implants.

A team of scientists at Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne used a simple head cap to record brain signals of Mark-Andre Duc (who lost control of his legs and fingers in a fall and is now considered partially quadriplegic) located at a hospital 62 miles away in the Swiss town of Sion.

His thoughts were then decoded by a laptop at the hospital and transmitted to a one foot tall robot back in Lausanne almost instantly.

Swiss Scientists Demonstrate Thought Controlled Robots, Future Hope For Paralyzed is a post from: The Inquisitr

Microsoft is preparing to pull all “gun-like’ avatar props from its XBox Live system on January 1.

News of the strange occurrence was announced by Gears of War developer Epic Games.

According to Community Manager Will Kinsler:

As of January 1, the Hammerburst, Lancer, and other items wouldn’t be available as a matter of policy.

There is some good news for current avatar owning gamers, anyone who purchased their avatar before Jan. 1 2011 will be able to keep them.

At this time Microsoft has not made an official announcement about the decision, however they are likely attempted to soften their image as a young family oriented base gravitated towards the gaming platforms Kinect system.

I should be quick to point out that games using the Kinect tend not to include props such as Kinect Adventures which makes it an odd decision to pull the weapons which in turn could anger part of the company’s traditional gamer base.

In the meantime Sony and Nintendo have been able to avoid this issue all together by not allowing props in the first place for their avatar based characters.

Do you think it’s right for Microsoft to pull the avatars because a new demographic has been introduced to their gaming system or should they stay true to their original game buying base?

Microsoft Pulling “Gun-Like” Avatars On Jan. 1 is a post from: The Inquisitr

One of the most common knocks against the virtual worlds and the avatars we use to negotiate our way though them is that they cause us, and especially young people, to disengage from real life.

Well it turns out that this may not actually be the case.

The Academics on the Inter-Life project created “Virtual Worlds” that were meant to act as private communities where young people would be able to interact in shared activities using avatars. The project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and was created to offer the possibility of realistic interactive environments that could also go beyond typical curriculum.

Students were encouraged to undertake projects like film-making and project activities with the virtual environment.

The project’s lead researcher, Professor Victor Lally, said: “We demonstrated that you can plan activities with kids and get them working in 3D worlds with commitment, energy and emotional involvement, over a significant period of time.”

“It’s a highly engaging medium that could have a major impact in extending education and training beyond geographical locations,” Professor Lally added. “3D worlds seem to do this in a much more powerful way than many other social tools currently available on the internet. When appropriately configured, this virtual environment can offer safe spaces to experience new learning opportunities that seemed unfeasible only 15 years ago.”

via PhysOrg

The project is a part of the larger Technology Enhanced Learning research program and looks to help narrow the gap between young people’s experience of learning and the technological world we have to deal with every day.

I don’t know about you but this sounds a lot like Second Life but without the sex.

Avatars could actually be helpful in learning skills is a post from: The Inquisitr

More boringly, there’s also a ton of shirts and hoodies – head here to see what’s on offer. Items start at 160 Microsoft Points.

[Xbox Live Marketplace, via Joystiq]

Disney Avatar gear now on Xbox Live Marketplace is a post from: The Inquisitr

Well okay maybe it isn’t a business plan but I could see it getting real popular with a certain segment of people on Twitter. The problem is how much will it piss people off. What I am referring to is the graphic at the top of the page which happens to be the Twitter avatar for Rob Corddry who some will recognize – maybe – from the Daily Show.

I found out about this from my friend Paul O’Flaherty when he IM’d me to get my take on this ‘naked’ avatar. My first reaction when he asked was pretty well that it’s a stupid idea and almost guaranteed to get one blocked as a porn spammer or something. That’s when Paul shot me a link to his post about this with the actual avatar being used. This was when he also let me know that Rob Corddry is also one of Twitter’s Suggested Users List – or whatever they’re calling it – so in effect anyone coming on to Twitter is going to see that avatar.

Paul’s question was whether or not I thought Twitter was condoning this type of avatar or as he asked in his post

Now, I’ve got no problem with Rob Corddry flashing his arse on Twitter, if I don’t want to see it I just won’t follow him, but I have to wonder if this is the kind of message Twitter really wants to be sending out – that “nude avatars are okay”.

We’ve seen a massive influx of porn spam on the service and god only knows the numbers of “horny kitties” I’ve had following me lately and if Twitter continues to, both allow the spam and promote Corddry as he flashes his backside to the world, then you can only assume that they endorse the use of such avatars.

Now that I have thought about it for a little bit I don’t think it is a matter of whether Twitter will condone it or not. The fact is I don’t see how they can touch this one with a ten-foot pole. You can almost be assured that if they did and try to step in on this they would face a howl of protest from the more vocal “social media” types on Twitter, especially if they happened to take down someone like Corddry’s avatar.

Sure this might make for a ‘cute’ avatar but really do we need to go this route as an attention getter?

BREAKING: Twitter business plan discovered but it’s NSFW is a post from: The Inquisitr