Virtual challenges and runs are part of a growing trend in recreational running: doing a race whenever you can, wherever you can, and still feeling as if you're part of the crowd, even if you're running alone.
All of the virtual challenges occur during the sleeping period of the rat, a period during which most of the experimental protocols are performed in laboratories.
In the first, the software teams used their programs to guide a simulated Atlas through several tasks in a Virtual Robotics Challenge held in June 2013.
"This action shows that at least one government is concerned about the way virtual worlds challenge its control of society," Professor Castronova said in an e-mail message Tuesday.
In the weeks leading up to the Virtual Robotics Challenge (VRC), team members camped out in the CSAIL lab in the Stata Center round the clock, subsisting on a rotating selection of Pop-Tarts, fruit, and takeout as they tried to anticipate problems that might come up in the simulation and develop workarounds.
An epic virtual walk/run/bike challenge every summer to a new destination.
After DARPA Robotics Challenge setup the Virtual Robotics Challenge, the two launched a robotic competition with a simulation stage.
Besides hosting an exciting virtual football challenge as part of Sony's ongoing activities in the run up to the FIFA 2010 World Cup, the website will also reach out to members of the public, providing them with an interactive platform to learn more about UNICEF's work in the areas of sports for development, young child survival and development, education, HIV and AIDS as well as child protection.
Challengers include Evi (see "New Virtual Helper Challenges Siri"), which mimics some of Siri's abilities for smartphones running Google's Android software; Cue, an iPhone app that attempts to intelligently organize your day (see "A Personal Assistant Mines Your Life to Help Out"); and Google's own Google Now Android software (see "Google Would Like to Sell You a Tablet").
