Is there any limit to the cool things you can do with Microsoft’s Kinect? Just last month we told you about students in Switzerland that used the device to create a gesture-controlled quadrocopter; now, students in California are looking to employ the Kinect in archaeological digs in Jordan.

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Next time you get the urge to redecorate, hire an algorithm. A new program developed by computer scientists can take a jumble of furniture and arrange it into a variety of realistic configurations using just a few simple rules, like “the TV must be visible from the couch,” “the lamp should be near the desk,” and (important, but oft-overlooked) “doors must be able to open.” You can then choose your favorite arrangement without having to heave the couch across the room more than once. (more…)

We’ve asked augmented reality to help us drive, overcome our phobias, and put names to faces. Now we want cookies. Researchers at the University of Tokyo in Japan have devised a headset that can replace the appearance and smell of a plain cookie with tastier varieties including chocolate, almond, orange, maple, lemon, and cheese.

The group, led by Takuji Narumi, presented its research at the SIGGRAPH conference on computer graphics at the end of last month. “Augmented gustation” is a challenge, the team says, because taste relies on so many of our other senses. We see the embedded chocolate chips. We smell the straight-out-of-the-oven scent.

The “meta cookie” project attempts to use our multiple cookie senses to create a virtual cookie variety pack. Users choose their preferred cookie, and a camera on the headset overlays an image on a plain sugar cookie and sprays the correct associated scent, be it maple or cheese. The closer the cookie gets to the user’s mouth, the more of the scent the headset cranks out. Though the test subject in the video above appears satisfied, TechNewsDaily reports that the trick did not fool everyone. One cookie remained “mostly neutral” tasting though the headset tried to conjure maple and chocolate flavors.

Perhaps researchers will next attempt to copy the cookie’s feel? Texture seems to matter: ask anyone who’s entered the crunchy versus chewy fray.

Related content:
Discoblog: Psychology’s New Phobia-Fighting Tool: An Augmented Reality Cockroach
Discoblog: Your Augmented Reality Life: Coming Soon in 2020
Discoblog: Augmented Reality Tattoos Are Visible Only to a Special Camera
Discoblog: One Small Step Closer to Superhuman Cyborg Vision
Discoblog: Will the Laptops of the Future Be a Pair of Eye Glasses?

Looking for a midnight snack, you open a Tupperware container. Inside you find not your dinner leftovers, but a nasty cockroach. You stick your hand in.

Welcome to augmented reality psychology. The cockroach in the Tupperware is only in your mind–or your virtual reality goggles–and is part of an exposure therapy technique meant to treat those with extreme phobias.

Though traditional exposure therapy might require a person afraid of elevators to ride one repeatedly, or demand that a person afraid of cockroaches meet one face to bug-eyed face, the mere prospect of such experiences is enough to drive some patients out of therapy.

But perhaps, as described in a small study in Behavior Therapy, an augmented reality cockroach can provide all of the benefits without the ick.

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• The bees are dying of some mysterious illness! Oh wait, no they’re not! Instead,they’re being attacked by Rasberry crazy ants. (Yes, we said Rasberry crazy ants.) It’s like Alien v. Predator, except in Houston.

•PopSci, answering life’s existential science questions. Like “Why does Coke taste different out of a glass bottle than a plastic one?”

• True “out of body experiences” one step closer with virtual reality. It’s not quite Total Recall yet, but it’s getting close.

• A new lifelike doll on the market in Spain will breast feed from its “mother.” Cue the raging debate over child psychology.

• I’m sorry I didn’t call you back—a pelican swallowed my cell phone! I swear!

• Google Earth pic captures a “gate to Heaven.” Where’s it located? Brooklyn, ‘natch.

• And finally, we bring you: PandaCam.

Imagine what it would be like if you could instantly feel the heat of the Aruban sun, smell the ocean, and hear the sound of waves on the sand as you sip a Caribbean cocktail—all without leaving your living room. U.K. researchers from the University of York and the University of Warwick are hoping their new virtual reality gadget will allow people to do just that, essentially becoming “virtual tourists.”

While virtual reality has been used in video games, helped soldiers cope with war trauma, and  even allowed a women to commit “virtual murder,” the experience has been limited to two senses (sight and sound). But the new Virtual Cocoon helmet can mimic all five senses, so that people can truly experience the trip.

The Daily Mail illustrated how the machine actually works:

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· A Netherlands court decides Second Life goods have real life value, and sentences teenagers to community service for nabbing another player’s amulet and mask in a virtual reality game. In Japan, a woman faces jail time for murder of virtual ex-husband.

· Meanwhile, back in real-reality, here’s a Golden Orb Weaver (aka a really friggin huge spider) chowing down on a Chestnut-breasted Mannikin. Ew.

· Now cleanse your eyeballs with a photo of a really cute squid (Helicocranchia pfefferi) that appears to be a hybrid of Piglet and Gonzo.

· Scientists develop a teeth-operated piano pedal for paraplegic musicians.

· Work off your carbon footprint by boogying down at Watt: the world’s first sustainable dance club.

· Then grab a bottle of Tap’d NY: “Not From the Top of Some Far Away Mountain.”