virtual

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What's a Good Way to Send Myself Reminders?

Our geeks have the answers to your toughest tech questions

It’s a fine time to ditch paper for good and move to an all e-mail- and SMS-based system. Start with Google’s online calendar (google.com/calendar), which lets you set up multiple alerts for one event—for example, a text message one week before Mother’s Day, then another the day before in case you still managed to put off sending flowers. New event pop up while you’re away from a computer? Add it to GCal from your cellphone by texting the event details to GVENT (48368).

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Brave New World

PopSci takes the virtual plunge with the introduction of our Second Life Future Lounge

First, way back in 2002, we reported on this crazy new kind of movie-making, called â€machinima,†that uses videogames and virtual worlds as platforms for creating animated films.

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The Smell of War

To improve its virtual-reality simulators, the military wants to incorporate smell. For help, it's turning to Hollywood

Hear more about author James Vlahos's experience in the Army's new smell simulator on the PopSci Podcast.

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Air Band

Using a webcam and gesture-recognition software, engineers create a motion-detecting air guitar that really rocks.

Eric Clapton wannabes have strummed the classic riff from â€Layla†on imaginary Fenders for decades. Now, thanks to a virtual-reality rig developed at the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland, air guitarists can finally hear themselves jamming. The best part is that the machine can actually make them sound good.
To play, you simply put on a pair of bright orange gloves and start strumming. A webcam records your hand motions and relays the data to a PC.

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The Holographic Television

Think Reality TV Isn´t Realistic? Watch This

Even if you had free run of any skybox in Madison Square Garden, you still wouldn’t see half the action that you will in your own living room, one day soon, on a large-screen holographic television. Without ever leaving your chair, you’ll be poised to watch each play unfold from whatever perspective you choose, gazing into the depths of your TV.

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Race Against Reality

You´re pushing 185 mph. The trees to your left have melted into a green blur, the tachometer needle shakes frenetically as it nears the end of its ascent, and the engine is screaming.

Pulse pounding, you hit the brakes and crank the wheel, but it´s too late: The
car can´t overcome its own momentum, and you slam into the wall at 150. And
then?

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November 2009: Astronaut 3.0

Inside NASA's astronaut bootcamp and the grueling new training regimen for deep space. Plus, ten young geniuses shaking up science today, one writer's quest to analyze every man-made chemical in her body and more.

Check out the issue's full contents online here

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