Teenage boys, especially those with emotional problems, aren't the most receptive group when it comes to therapy. So Jason Kahn, a researcher at Children's Hospital Boston, and Peter Ducharme, a clinical social worker also at Children's, have developed a Space Invaders-like video game that they hope will help engage their adolescent patients in therapy. "This changes the perception of therapy because it's about playing games," said Ducharme, who presented the research at the Future of Health Technology conference at MIT earlier this week.

The game, in which players shoot down alien invaders while avoiding friendly ships, is rigged to a heart-rate monitor worn by the player. If the player's heart rate goes too high during the game, the game becomes more difficult to control. In response, the player then employs relaxation techniques previously learned in therapy within the context of the game, slowing their heart rate and calming them down. "The idea is to create a mildly stressful situation where the player must regulate his response," said Kahn. "Hopefully that ability to exert control will expand to other situations."

Readybot operates autonomously or through remote control. (Courtesy of Readybot)

Readybot, a research group that last year released videos of a simple prototype cleaning robot, has revealed that the robot is managed through a combination of cloud-based software and skilled remote teleoperators.

The company's Cloud Robotics Collaborative Control (CRCC) system monitors a semi-autonomous robot via a broadband connection. When faced with a particularly tricky task, such as opening a cabinet door, the robot will send a request for a human supervisor to step in and take over. The human operator does this by selecting or refining one of several prepared code of instructions ("scripts") or writing new ones, according to Readybot's director, Tom Benson. The CRCC system is designed to let a single user supervise a large team of robots.

"This has the potential to deploy large quantities of robots much sooner, because they're cheaper and because you aren't required to build high levels of autonomy," Benson said. "It's much more forgiving in the sense of allowing you to have less sophisticated systems and still do the job." Benson says that Readybots would be best suited for applications like home assist or manual labor.

Using a regular mouse and monitor, a user can switch between 3D simulations of different robots (with a video feed showing the bot's environment) and can swap between supervising and taking completely control of a robot. Currently, the software can control a single prototype Readybot and up to nine virtual robots.

The company says it took inspiration from video gamers by examining how people playing World of Warcraft, The Sims, and other games and designing the system based on those observations. Gamers who tested out Readybot's operating software were able to operate it quickly and efficiently, according to the group. People who have played a lot of video games "can manage large amounts of remote devices and can think in that way," says Benson. "They are capable of managing vast amounts of multitasking."

Courtesy of Readybot

So far, Readybot can clear a kitchen table, load a dishwasher, transport objects, paint walls, and clean and dry surfaces. The group is currently looking for partners to build more prototypes and to expand the capabilities of CRCC.

Mainstream TV audiences will get a taste of the virtual world tonight in an episode of CSI: New York titled "Down the Rabbit Hole." The show's creator, Anthony Zuiker, a keynote speaker at the recent Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo in San Jose, CA, has designed a cross-platform experience that will route CSI viewers into Linden Lab's Second Life, where they will be able to participate in content related to the show, and can continue following the show's narrative. A follow-up episode will air on TV on February 6, 2008, bringing the Second Life storyline back into the mainstream. For the occasion, the Electric Sheep Company has created a custom Second Life viewer, designed to make navigating in the virtual world more intuitive to a mass-market audience.

Television and Internet moguls have been struggling to integrate the two mediums for some time, with mixed success. TV shows have come out attempting to grab popular Internet videos and bring them to the small screen. From the other side of the divide, MySpaceTV launched the atrocious original Web series Roommates earlier this week. The show attempts to integrate with the social-networking site's features to create a more well-rounded experience for fans, but it's too vapid to maintain interest. Zuiker, however, brings a savvier perspective to the attempt and seems to care about keeping the content engaging. Although he told interviewers that his aim isn't to impress longtime Second Life residents, he is putting some effort into CSI's foray into the virtual world. (Interviews with Zuiker and the Electric Sheep Company's Sibley Verbeck can be found here.)