# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Firefighters: Augmented Reality in a breathing mask

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dixie® Cups With Interactive Tooth Brushing Games | Dixie®

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dixie® cups now come in fun augmented reality enabled designs, bringing the cups to life with two minute tooth brushing games that help kids have fun while brushing their teeth. And when kids have fun, they'll never rush the brush again.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn about the human body...on a human body. The Virtuali-Tee is the perfect science toy for curious kids. An AR t-shirt that doubles up as an educational STEM resource. It is the ultimate way to learn about the anatomy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SmartCam3D View Augmented Reality for Disaster Relief - Flooding

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Augmented reality overlays provide useful information to decision makers in flood relief. Missing structures, closed roads and the locations of infrastructure are all visible.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
ViewCop by A115 - Augmented Reality Technology for Road Traffic and Parking Control

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ViewCop by A115 combines a state-of-the-art head-mounted display (e.g. Google GLASS or similar) with highly efficient software for automatic number plate recognition, driver's license ID recognition, facial and behavioural recognition for drivers. Through a secure wireless connection, the device can retrieve and present to the police officer accurate and relevant data about the observed situation, in real time.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Augmented Reality Is Driving Today's Automotive Industry

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
ModiFace Augmented Reality Hair Coloration Demo

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For all the best in AR and VR News: http://www.uploadvr.com Follow us for up-to-the-minute updates: 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uploadvr/ 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/UploadVR 🎥 Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/uploadvr

# data[].attributes.headline
Augmented Reality for Architecture and Construction

# data[].attributes.subject
Augmented Reality for Architecture and Construction

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Augmented Reality for Architecture & Construction

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bring building plans to life with augmented reality. Download Augment for free today to get started!

# data[].attributes.headline
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality for Medical Students

# data[].attributes.subject
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality for Medical Students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
HeARt: Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR / VR) for Medical School Learning Tool Enhancement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
3D Visualization and Augmented Reality for Surgery: Top 10 Medical Innovations 2017

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The surgeon is about to get a few new tools. Some might even call them superpowers. For years, surgeons have relied on microscope oculars or other camera systems to operate. Even so, they typically depend on their own eyes and interpretations to execute the most precise of tasks with their heads down, peripheral vision limited, back and neck muscles strained.

# data[].attributes.headline
Could Augmented Reality Change How Surgery is Done?

# data[].attributes.subject
Could Augmented Reality Change How Surgery is Done?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nadine Hachach-Haram: How augmented reality could change the future of surgery | TED Talk

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you’re undergoing surgery, you want the best surgical team to collaborate on your case, no matter where they are. Surgeon and entrepreneur Nadine Hachach-Haram is developing a new system that helps surgeons operate together and train one another on new techniques -- from remote locations using lo…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Do you know what reality is? It's all around you! Reality is what you experience with your five senses. It includes anything that's real in your world. On some days, your reality might look like this: you wake up tired. You go to school all day. Then, you might have band or soccer practice. Finally, you head home with loads of homework. Doesn't that sound like a fun day?

Whew! It's no WONDER kids want to reality some days. How do you ? Some people dive into a book or TV show. Others might write stores or make art. For many kids, video game s are a great way to reality.

However, some video gamers want to actually go to a different world. They want to experience their video game adventures as if they were real life. And today, they can! With a special headset, gamers can into virtual reality.

Have you heard of virtual reality before? Sometimes it's called "VR." It's the use of technology to make a three-dimensional virtual world. Users can explore the new world as if it were real.

Jaron Lanier first used the term "virtual reality" in the 1980s. He led a team to how VR could become, well, a reality. However, it soon became clear that the technology of that time could not copy reality very well. Luckily, technology continued to improve.

Today, many reality in ways once thought impossible. Users can see, hear, and touch the virtual world. Sometimes, they can even smell and taste their surroundings . It's like they're actually in another world!

Have you ever seen a VR headset? Some kids use them to make their favorite video games more realistic. Just imagine! They can explore hidden places or talk to their favorite characters. And it feels so lifelike!

Headsets aren't the only VR . Virtual reality body suits and gloves also exist. These allow a person to use many of their senses at once in the virtual world. Sometimes, the virtual environment can even change with the user's movements.

Virtual reality can be fun! It also has uses other than entertainment . Sometimes, VR is used for pilot training. Learning new skills in virtual reality is much safer than learning in the air. It's also commonly used in military training. Even astronauts train in virtual reality before a trip to space!

Have you ever used virtual reality ? Would you like to? What virtual worlds would you want to explore? Can you think of any other uses for VR? There's always room for VR technology to grow!

CCRA.L.3, CCRA.L.6, CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.10, CCRA.W.2, CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2, CCRA.SL.1

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Do you know what reality is? It's all around you! Reality is what you experience with your five senses. It includes anything that's real in your world. On some days, your reality might look like this: you wake up tired. You go to school all day. Then, you might have band or soccer practice.

# data[].attributes.headline
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in Video Games

# data[].attributes.subject
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in Video Games

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A sword and shield hang on the wall in James Anhalt's office. Soon, he'll add a crown to this collection. He is a software engineer at Blizzard Entertainment in Irvine, Calif. This company has created many hit video games, from World of Warcraft to the StarCraft and Diablo series. Swords, shields and crowns abound in these fantasy-themed games. So the company gives out real ones when employees reach work anniversaries. When Anhalt gets the crown, it will represent 20 years with the company.

Anhalt's job is fun but also demanding. "Kids who play a lot of games might not realize how much work it takes," Anhalt points out. One major game, 2015's StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, took more than 2.5 years to develop. And that was with the help of more than 80 engineers, programmers, designers, artists, writers and others working long hours. Every little detail needed time and attention.

Anhalt worked on the game engine. This software is the framework that developers start with when they create a new game. It includes ways to add artwork, sound, special effects, characters, enemies and more. But programmers often need to modify the game engine. They may fix errors or add new features for artists and designers. That's where Anhalt came in. He made sure all the parts of the game fit together and ran well.

Clearly, the team succeeded. The game was a big hit, just like the previous two games in the Starcraft II trilogy, which began in 2010. Every year, thousands of elite players from around the world compete in StarCraft II tournaments for prizes of up to $100,000.

But video games are about much more than winning or losing. In this story, we'll meet two engineers and a neuroscientist who take games very seriously. Anhalt and his colleagues work hard to make their games as fun as possible. An audio engineer is working on a new kind of interactive technology. It's called mixed reality, and it could transform how people interact with all digital media, not just games. And a neuroscientist builds games to fix people's brains. He believes that doctors may one day prescribe video games to treat a variety of conditions.

Making the most of memory

StarCraft II is a game of strategy. Players make split-second decisions about which structures to build, where to explore and when to fight or retreat. All these tasks take up space in a computer's memory. Memory is the space available on a physical chip or disk for storing information. A computer (or tablet or mobile device) only has so much memory. To keep a game running smoothly, developers must pay close attention to how that game is using a device's memory. If it uses up too much memory, the game will run slowly or even freeze or crash.

Top-of-the-line computers pack in more and more memory every year. But game developers have to make sure that their product will work on everyone's computers, not just the most powerful ones, Anhalt says. So those developers want to make the game run as efficiently as possible. And that means getting creative with code. Computer code is the set of step-by-step instructions a computer program follows.

Sometimes, following those instructions takes too long. As an example, Anhalt points to graphics (a game's visual elements). At any moment in the game, each pixel on a display screen needs to be a certain color. Many factors affect that color. A pixel in the sky might be blue, but one on a character's armor might be gray. Nearby light and shadows or special effects (such as snowfall or an explosion) can affect the color too. "If we have, say, 16 different options that can all be on or off, that generates 65,000 different programs," Anhalt explains.

While working on StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, his team found that running through all the color-choosing programs for every pixel on the screen was using too much memory. They managed to compress all those programs down to just 5 percent of their original size. They combined some similar programs together and cut out others completely. They also rewrote sections of the code to make it simpler.

Making the color-choosing process more efficient gave game artists more memory to work with. That meant they could add even more special effects to the game.

As computers get more and more powerful, graphics and other game features will get more realistic, Anhalt says. More memory means more lifelike detail.

New realities

Soon, games will be so lifelike that they jump off the screen. Anhalt and many other experts agree that the next big things in gaming - and in technology in general - are virtual and augmented realities.

Virtual reality is already here. The Oculus Rift headset came out in March 2016 and the Sony PlayStation VR will come out soon. These headsets both resemble something a deep-sea diver might wear. But when you put one on, you find yourself in another world. Everything you see, hear and touch is a digital illusion.

Augmented reality, in contrast, places digital illusions into the real world. Pokémon Go is a recent augmented reality sensation. The game uses a smart phone's camera and global positioning system (GPS) to reveal Pokémon monsters sitting on sidewalks or in parks.

But Pokémon Go still uses a screen. "I think screens are going away," says Gene Rozenberg. He's an engineer at a company called Magic Leap in Dania Beach, Fla. The company is developing a new kind of augmented reality technology that it calls "mixed reality."

"We make you believe that a computer image is really in the world around you," Rozenberg says. In a demonstration for the magazine Wired, this new technology made text messages float above a person's desk. It also made three-dimensional jellyfish swim toward the ceiling.

Rozenberg's role at Magic Leap is to design sound effects. Throughout his career, he has worked on many games, including the Madden NFL series. No matter where he has worked, he's spent his days composing music and recording sound effects or voiceovers. He also has made sure that these sounds play at just the right moments in a game. That means programming.

"I myself am not a programmer," he says. But he's taking a class now to learn more about reading and writing computer code.

Why does a sound guy need to know about programming? Think about footsteps, Rozenberg says. The sound has to change every time a character steps on a different surface, like grass, wood or stone. Characters might be gigantic or tiny, or wearing different types of shoes. To make footsteps sound good, he says, "I have to think like a computer would." He has to give very precise instructions to make sure the right sounds play at the right time.

In both virtual and augmented reality, sound gets even more complicated. Developers in these new mediums face a big problem when it comes to sound, explains Rozenberg. A mixed-reality device, for example, plays sounds straight into someone's ears. But those sounds need to seem as if they are coming from above, below, behind or in front of that person - not from the headphones they are wearing. "This hasn't been done before," he notes.

He can't talk about the steps he might be taking to solve this problem, though. Since Magic Leap's technology hasn't come out yet, the company is still secretive about exactly how it works and what it does.

One thing Rozenberg can say is that the human brain is a very important part of the system.

"Your brain is a computer. It processes information and decides how that information is [delivered] to you, the person," he says. To fool the brain into thinking there really is a jellyfish on the ceiling, developers need to understand how the brain processes information. If they give the brain the right visual and sound signals, the jellyfish will seem like reality.

Fixing brains with games

At his lab in California, neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley is delving even more deeply into the mysteries of the human brain. And it's not only for the sake of fun. He wants to turn video games into medicine.

An iPad game nicknamed Project: EVO got its start at Gazzaley's lab at the University of California, San Francisco. Its players drive through frozen and fiery worlds at top speed. They have to navigate around icebergs and fire pits. At the same time, they perform tasks such as collecting all the red creatures that pop up, while ignoring green and blue ones.

Right now, different teams of researchers are studying whether the game can treat a variety of disorders, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism and depression. If it works, then the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) might approve the game as a medical treatment.

Imagine going to the doctor and getting a prescription for a video game! This could happen within just a year or so, says Gazzaley. He co-founded a company, Akili Interactive Labs, to turn Project: EVO into a product that people can buy.

And Gazzaley has good reason to think this game could become a success. Before EVO, there was Neuroracer. This early version of Gazzaley's game also challenged players to drive while collecting objects. In a 2013 study, the scientist and his colleagues showed that the multi-tasking in Neuroracer could give older adults a brain boost.

Attention and memory get worse as people age. So Gazzaley recruited volunteers ages 60 to 85 to practice the game for a month. They got much better at playing the game. More importantly, they performed better in tests of their attention and working memory. (Working memory is the brain's ability to hold onto information for a short period of time.) Control groups - people who were not being treated - did not show the same benefits.

One control group didn't play the game. Another control group played the racing part of the game without the collecting task. Six months later, people who had played the full game still had sharper brains compared with the other two groups.

Kids with ADHD also struggle with attention and working memory. EVO might give these kids a brain boost just as Neuroracer did for older adults. In 2015, one of the first studies of EVO got positive results. Kids with ADHD who played the game regularly for four weeks became better at paying attention. They also were less impulsive, meaning they were less likely to act without thinking.

Gazzaley sees Neuroracer and EVO as personal trainers for the brain. "The game is constantly recording how you're doing and then adjusting the challenge level to be appropriate to your ability," he says. The better you play, the harder it gets.

Right now, these games use a player's mistakes or successes to set the level of difficulty. But eventually, Gazzaley hopes to connect games directly to a player's brain.

In the lab, he's testing a technology he calls "glass brain." It lets people see their own brain activity in real time. To use it, a person wears an electroencephalography (Ee-LEK-troh-en-seff-uh-LAH-grah-fee) cap. This cap contains sensors. They record a person's brainwaves and feed those data to the glass-brain computer system. The system displays a three-dimensional image of the brain. Active brain areas flash with colored light.

A video game could use this real-time brain activity to figure out why a player made a certain mistake, Gazzaley explains. Maybe the person's reaction time was too slow, for example. The game could then create challenges to train - and then treat - reaction times.

Why would a neuroscientist turn to games to fix people's brains? Simply put, because games are fun.

Typically, Gazzaley says, when researchers want to study the brain, "We use such boring tests. People don't engage in them deeply." People are more likely to learn and build skills if they enjoy the training process.

Anhalt, Rozenberg and other game creators also work hard to create exciting, engaging experiences. When they succeed, you won't think about how hard they worked behind the scenes. You'll be having too much fun playing your favorite game.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A sword and shield hang on the wall in James Anhalt's office. Soon, he'll add a crown to this collection. He is a software engineer at Blizzard Entertainment in Irvine, Calif. This company has created many hit video games, from World of Warcraft to the StarCraft and Diablo series.

# data[].attributes.body
Visit National Marine Sanctuaries

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Dive in without getting wet! Your National Marine Sanctuary System protects a network of underwater parks encompassing more than 620,000 square miles of marine and Great Lakes waters, and now you can visit these amazing places in the blink of an eye. From the thriving kelp forests of Channel Islands to the treasured coral reefs of the Florida Keys, few places on the planet can compete with the wonders of the National Marine Sanctuary System. Come along as we experience these underwater treasures through virtual reality.

Check out the Next Generation Science Standard lesson plans for grades 6-8 that complement the VR videos to go deeper. For younger audiences, explore the VR activity, facts, and drawing sheets.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
national oceanic and atmospheric administration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sanctuaries 360 | Office of National Mairne Sanctuaries

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Though our planet is mostly ocean, we still know little about what lies far beneath the surface. Approximately 95 percent of the ocean remains unexplored, much of it in the deep sea. Even your national marine sanctuaries contain areas that have still not been seen by humans.

# data[].attributes.headline
Cool Jobs: Doing Real Science in Virtual Worlds

# data[].attributes.subject
Cool Jobs: Doing Real Science in Virtual Worlds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Strap on a virtual reality headset and you'll enter a different world. Without leaving your house, you can fly a spaceship through a make-believe galaxy. You can play pool with friends. Or you can perform surgery on an alien.

Virtual reality, or VR, uses special technology to trick the brain into thinking these experiences are real. A technique called stereoscopy (STAIR-ee-OSS-kuh-pee) sends a slightly different image to each eye. This can create the illusion of depth. It certainly makes video games feel more realistic. But VR isn't just for fun. It also can help scientists do their research or share it with others.

Scientists are using VR to learn more about people and the planet. One engineer uses this technology to let kids build mountains and carve out rivers with their bare hands. A scientist who studies language puts people in a virtual restaurant to learn what happens in their brains as they converse. A doctor takes patients on a virtual field trip to swim with dolphins. The worlds they visit are not real, but the science is.
Decoding dialogue
David Peeters loved learning foreign languages when he was growing up. His first language was Dutch. He studied three others at school - German, French and English.

In college and graduate school he focused on linguistics. It's the science of human language. And the more he learned, the more Peeters began to wonder what happens inside our brains as people converse. He began to look at language through the lens of neuroscience - the study of the brain.

"There's a lot about the way the brain processes speech that we don't understand," he says. Peeters is a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen (Nih-MAY-jin), a city in the Netherlands. Peeters studies the way people communicate. To answer some of his questions, he built a virtual restaurant.

Real people stroll into it. To do this, they wear 3-D glasses. The small room they walk in has screens on every wall. It's called a cave automatic virtual environment - CAVE for short. It's basically a theater with a 3-D movie projected on every wall. To someone wearing 3-D glasses, it feels almost like a real world. (For people familiar with Star Trek: Next Generation, CAVEs are essentially a real-life version of the holodeck.)
Story continues below image.

Stefanie Kranaan

The screens show scenes inside the virtual restaurant. Each person who takes part in the study "becomes" a waiter or waitress through an avatar. That avatar is a make-believe character. It can be moved around and used to talk to others in a virtual world. Participants move their avatar simply by walking around the CAVE.

Peeters wants to find out what happens in people's brains as they speak with virtual restaurant customers through their avatar. He does this by having each person wear a cap covered in electrodes.

These small sensors on wires attach to the outside of the head. Cells in the brain communicate with each other by sending tiny zaps of electricity back and forth. Electrodes listen for these electrical impulses and then report them to a computer. The computer records this brain activity as a set of wavy lines called an EEG. That's short for electroencephalogram (Ee-LEK-troh-en-SEFF-uh-low-gram).

Peeters uses the EEG data to see which parts of the brain are most active during a conversation. This gives him clues about how the brain processes or understands different patterns of speech.

For example, there are direct and indirect ways to say something. "Please bring me another soup" is a very direct way to communicate a need, Peeters points out. But a lot of our conversations are indirect. In the virtual restaurant, a customer may simply say, "My soup is cold."

"We understand this means the customer wants another soup, even though they didn't ask for it," says Peeters. That's indirect language.

Peeters studies the differences in brain activity when a person hears direct versus indirect speech patterns. He hopes such research will one day help scientists better understand disorders such as autism. That's a condition in which people have a hard time processing speech and communicating.

A new way to relax

For many years, Wim Veling used VR to help patients overcome phobias, or fears. As a psychiatrist, he treats patients with mental-health disorders. Veling works at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

A person with a fear of heights, for instance, might wear a VR headset and practice standing on top of a virtual building. When that person feels comfortable with a low-rise building, he or she can move to a higher one, Veling explains. This technique is called exposure therapy. It involves exposing people to frightening situations without putting them in true danger.

Veling also treats patients with other mental-health disorders. These include depression and anxiety. Such patients can have problems with nervousness, irritability, sleeping and concentrating. "It can be very difficult to relax if you are feeling depressed or anxious," he notes.

Some people with these disorders try therapy with animals to help them feel calm. One form, known as dolphin therapy, has patients swim with the marine mammals. But there can be drawbacks to this. Dolphins are big, strong animals. So swimming with them can be dangerous. Some people, of course, cannot swim . They may even be afraid of immersing themselves in open waters. This activity also can cost a lot of money if it requires traveling to where the dolphins live.

Veling wondered whether VR might offer a safer and easier alternative.

W. Veling

Simply watching a television show about dolphins can feel relaxing too. But VR might create a much more powerful response in the brain, says Veling.

When you put on a VR headset, a virtual world surrounds you on all sides: Schools of tiny fish pass by. Waves splash overhead. These images and sounds trick the brain into thinking you're really in the water with dolphins swimming all around you, even though you're sitting on a comfy couch. And, Veling adds, "When you're really immersed in that environment, you begin to forget your worries."

Veling teamed up with a filmmaker who uses a special VR camera. This camera can rotate 360 degrees to make virtual-reality movies. The filmmaker took the camera into the ocean to make a VR video of a pod of wild dolphins.

But Veling needed evidence that the video actually helped people. So he started a small experiment to see if virtually swimming with dolphins helped his patients relax. To test this, he had his patients watch the video through a VR headset. At the same time, Veling watches them for signs of stress. He counts how fast his patients' hearts beat. He also measures whether they're tensing their muscles and how much they sweat.

A rapid heartbeat, muscle tension and sweating are signs that someone is not very relaxed, he says. He cannot say with certainty that the VR sessions are helpful. He's still gathering data. But he does hope to have some answers soon.

Veling plans to make the dolphin immersion video available to the public in the next year so that anyone with a VR headset can try it at home. He hopes it will be a new way for people to relax.
Story continues below video. Moving rivers
In California, Jeanette Newmiller wants to solve a very different kind of problem. She's a water-resources engineer at the University of California, Davis. Her mission? "Figure out the best way to get water where we need it, when we need it," she says.

Sometimes, though, engineers like Newmiller get concerned with the fish in those waters. Newmiller is working with biologists on a project to move young salmon from the Sacramento River onto flooded rice fields. That may seem like an odd place for young fish, but it could help them reach adulthood.

The Sacramento River is California's biggest. It runs from mountains in the North of the state through its Central Valley. From there, it flows to the Pacific Ocean through San Francisco Bay. Every spring, salmon are born in the Sacramento River. These small fry travel down the river and into the ocean where they will grow into adults. When it's time to lay eggs, those adults will return to spawn in the river of their birth.

Jeanette Newmiller

But several years ago, biologists noticed the baby salmon were reaching the ocean too quickly. They were too tiny when they got there. Small salmon are more likely to be eaten by predators such as orcas, sharks and seals.

The biologists showed, though, that they could fatten up the baby salmon by slowing their migration. They put young fish from a hatchery onto trucks. Then they drove these fish to flooded rice fields. The fields are purposely flooded in late winter to create a temporary home for the salmon. (That flooding doesn't hurt the farm because it occurs during a part of the year when rice isn't grown.) In these fields, the baby salmon feasted on tiny bugs for a few weeks before being released into the Sacramento River. These young fish grew bigger than did salmon that swam straight out to sea.

The rice fields could be a pit stop for salmon on their way to the ocean. But it isn't practical to take the fish in and out on trucks. So scientists need to reroute the water to carry the tiny fish there and away again. That's where engineers such as Newmiller come in. She makes computer models to help design gates along the waterways that connect the Sacramento River to the rice fields.

How big should we make the gates? Where should we put them? How will water flow through them? Newmiller tests out different real-life scenarios with computer models.

She uses augmented reality (AR) to bring her computer models to life. Augmented reality is a technology that lets you see virtual images layered on top of real-life environments. (Think Pokémon GO.)

Newmiller combines AR technology with an ordinary sandbox. Another UC Davis researcher created the first AR sandbox. Newmiller made a version on wheels and takes it to classrooms. Kids can use their hands to push its sand into hills and valleys. A Microsoft Kinect 3D camera detects any changes to the sand. A projector displays colors on top of the landscape like a topographical map - one that depicts hills and valleys. If someone holds her hand over the sand like a raincloud, virtual water appears beneath it. If playful fingers carve out a riverbed or build a dam, the flow of the virtual water will follow a new path.

Newmiller uses the AR sandbox to teach kids and adults about her work. "People in California vote on water resources all the time. Teaching them about what I am doing helps them become better citizens," she says.

This engineer hopes her AR sandbox might get kids interested in engineering too. Newmiller admits she had no idea what engineers did when she was a teenager. "As a result, I almost missed out on a really cool career. I want to show kids what we do," she says. With her help, they won't miss out.
This is one in a series on careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics made possible with generous support from Arconic Foundation.

Power Words
More About Power Words

anxiety A nervous reaction to events causing excessive uneasiness and apprehension. People with anxiety may even develop panic attacks.

augmented reality A technology similar to virtual reality that places digital illusions into the real world.

autism (also known as autism spectrum disorders ) A set of developmental disorders that interfere with how certain parts of the brain develop. Affected regions of the brain control how people behave, interact and communicate with others and the world around them. Autism disorders can range from very mild to very severe. And even a fairly mild form can limit an individual's ability to interact socially or communicate effectively.

avatar (in virtual reality) An electronic rendering of some image. It becomes the virtual form of some character (even a computer or game user) that will be moved and manipulated by a computer user. It can interact with its environment and other characters.

bug The slang term for an insect. Sometimes it's even used to refer to a germ.

CAVE Short for cave automatic virtual environment. It's a blank-walled room into which a virtual environment is projected. People can walk through it, wearing virtual-reality head gear and other devices to seeming move, touch or experience the projected "world."

cell The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. Typically too small to see with the unaided eye, it consists of a watery fluid surrounded by a membrane or wall. Depending on their size, animals are made of anywhere from thousands to trillions of cells. Some organisms, such as yeasts, molds, bacteria and some algae, are composed of only one cell.

computer model A program that runs on a computer that creates a model, or simulation, of a real-world feature, phenomenon or event.

depression A low spot, such as in a field or the surface of a rock. (in medicine) A mental illness characterized by persistent sadness and apathy. Although these feelings can be triggered by events, such as the death of a loved one or the move to a new city, that isn't typically considered an "illness" - unless the symptoms are prolonged and harm an individual's ability to perform normal daily tasks (such as working, sleeping or interacting with others). People suffering from depression often feel they lack the energy needed to get anything done. They may have difficulty concentrating on things or showing an interest in normal events. Many times, these feelings seem to be triggered by nothing; they can appear out of nowhere.

disorder (in medicine) A condition where the body does not work appropriately, leading to what might be viewed as an illness. This term can sometimes be used interchangeably with disease.

dolphins A highly intelligent group of marine mammals that belong to the toothed-whale family. Members of this group include orcas (killer whales), pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins.

electricity A flow of charge, usually from the movement of negatively charged particles, called electrons.

electrode A device that conducts electricity and is used to make contact with non-metal part of an electrical circuit, or that contacts something through which an electrical signal moves. (in electronics) Part of a semiconductor device (such as a transistor) that either releases or collects electrons or holes, or that can control their movement.

engineer A person who uses science to solve problems. As a verb, to engineer means to design a device, material or process that will solve some problem or unmet need.

environment The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or some device and the condition those things create for that organism or device. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature, humidity and placement of components in some electronics system or product.

field An area of study, as in: Her field of research was biology. Also a term to describe a real-world environment in which some research is conducted, such as at sea, in a forest, on a mountaintop or on a city street. It is the opposite of an artificial setting, such as a research laboratory.

fry (in biology) Hatchling fish that are tiny and defenseless.

graduate school A university program that offers advanced degrees, such as a Master's or PhD degree. It's called graduate school because it is started only after someone has already graduated from college (usually with a four-year degree).

hover To above the ground, maintaining an intentional position.

illusion A thing that is or is likely to be wrongly perceived or interpreted by the senses.

marine mammals Any of many types of mammals that spend most of its life in the ocean environment. These include whales and dolphins, walruses and sea lions, seals and sea otters, manatees and dugongs - even polar bears.

migration (v: to migrate) Movement from one region or habitat to another, especially regularly and according to the seasons. One that makes this move is known as a migrant.

model A simulation of a real-world event (usually using a computer) that has been developed to predict one or more likely outcomes.

muscle A type of tissue used to produce movement by contracting its cells, known as muscle fibers. Muscle is rich in protein, which is why predatory species seek prey containing lots of this tissue.

orca A large species of black-and-white porpoise. Also known as the killer whale.

Pacific The largest of the world's five oceans. It separates Asia and Australia to the west from North and South America to the east.

phobia An extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something.

planet A celestial object that orbits a star, is big enough for gravity to have squashed it into a roundish ball and has cleared other objects out of the way in its orbital neighborhood. To accomplish the third feat, the object must be big enough to have pulled neighboring objects into the planet itself or to have slung them around the planet and off into outer space. Astronomers of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) created this three-part scientific definition of a planet in August 2006 to determine Pluto's status. Based on that definition, IAU ruled that Pluto did not qualify. The solar system now includes eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

pod (in zoology) The name given to a group of toothed whales that travel together, most of them throughout their life, as a group.

predator (adjective: predatory) A creature that preys on other animals for most or all of its food.

psychiatrist A medical doctor who spends many years learning to study and treat diseases of the human mind. Treatments may consist of talking therapies, prescription drugs or both. This medical field is known as psychiatry.

scenario An imagined situation of how events or conditions might play out.

sea An ocean (or region that is part of an ocean). Unlike lakes and streams, seawater - or ocean water - is salty.

sensor A device that picks up information on physical or chemical conditions - such as temperature, barometric pressure, salinity, humidity, pH, light intensity or radiation - and stores or broadcasts that information. Scientists and engineers often rely on sensors to inform them of conditions that may change over time or that exist far from where a researcher can measure them directly. (in biology) The structure that an organism uses to sense attributes of its environment, such as heat, winds, chemicals, moisture, trauma or an attack by predators.

sharks A family of primitive fishes that rely on skeletons formed of cartilage, not bone. Like skates and rays, they belong to a group known as elasmobranchs. Then tend to grow and mature slowly and have few young. Some lay eggs, others give birth to live young.

stress (in psychology) A mental, physical, emotional, or behavioral reaction to an event or circumstance, or stressor, that disturbs a person or animal's usual state of being or places increased demands on a person or animal; psychological stress can be either positive or negative.

technology The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry - or the devices, processes and systems that result from those efforts.

therapy (adj. therapeutic) Treatment intended to relieve or heal a disorder.

virtual Being almost like something. An object or concept that is virtually real would be almost true or real - but not quite. The term often is used to refer to something that has been modeled - by or accomplished by - a computer using numbers, not by using real-world parts. So a virtual motor would be one that could be seen on a computer screen and tested by computer programming (but it wouldn't be a three-dimensional device made from metal).

virtual reality A three-dimensional simulation of the real world that seems very realistic and allows people to interact with it. To do so, people usually wear a special helmet or glasses with sensors.

wave A disturbance or variation that travels through space and matter in a regular, oscillating fashion.

Lindsey Konkel likes to write stories about the environment and health for Science News for Students . She has degrees in biology and journalism. She has three cats, Misty, Trumpet and Charlotte, and one dog, Lucky.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cool Jobs: Doing real science in virtual worlds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Strap on a virtual reality headset and you'll enter a different world. Without leaving your house, you can fly a spaceship through a make-believe galaxy. You can play pool with friends. Or you can perform surgery on an alien. Virtual reality, or VR, uses special technology to trick the brain into thinking these experiences are real.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What if you could bring your Lego toys to life without actually assembling the blocks? What if you could, without opening the box know exactly how the 3d model will be? How about your favorite book coming to life with its characters moving and talking? Augmented Reality can bring a lot of regular boring stuff to life.

What is Augmented Reality?
Augment means to add. Augmented Reality is a concept which adds a few things to our real world to make it better and interesting. The extra stuff added to the real world is the information from the internet and a lot 3d animations.
How does it work?
Usually, a software fuses the real world with the extra information on the net to make it bigger and better. is a very popular augmented reality browser for mobiles. So if you a computer/smartphone, a camera, internet, and software to put it all together, you are all set to experience the thrilling world of augmented reality.

Is Augmented reality different from virtual reality?
Virtual Reality is much different from Augmented Reality. Virtual Reality simulates the world all around you. It fools your brain into thinking you are somewhere else. Augmented Reality makes the currently world better through the use of several different things.
What all can you do with augmented reality?
You can use your dad's Ipad to read some of your favorite books with an added "interactive" mode to them. The story will play with a background music appropriate to the story. All characters will interact with you too. A lot of smart people are creating "holograms" that you can put down and treat like a sandbox in your own home. Imagine using holograms to create mountains, rivers, volcano's or even cities. Great option for a sand free playtime!

The most boring thing at school is reading maps. But it wouldn't be so dull if the maps interact with you. Augmented reality can make map reading an adventure. Here is how:

Is augmented reality going to change our lives?
It will change our lives for better in many ways. We have Google Glasses that can display information about anything as you walk past it. The technology can make education and learning more effective and attractive. We saw above how an interactive map is more interesting to study than a regular map. Travel and sightseeing will become a wonderful experience. Imagine you are at Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world. Just point your smartphone at the monument and all you want to know will display on your phone. Online shopping will become a better experience than shopping at a real store. You will be able try on clothes and accessories virtually. Now isn't that completely hassle free! These are just several things that you can use Augmented Reality. It sure makes the future look a lot more fun and exciting.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What if you could bring your Lego toys to life without actually assembling the blocks? What if you could, without opening the box know exactly how the 3d model will be? How about your favorite book coming to life with its characters moving and talking?