The iBird Flight Simulator was easily the most creative demo at Microsoft's Research Summit yesterday. Also developed in conjunction with NYU (like the UnMouse Pad), it uses a USB controller with dual retractable, pulley-style cords, the iBird tracks your movement in 3D space.. The iBird then relays that information back to the computer and offers visual feedback in the form of a projected 3D world where you become a bird that flaps, leans and speeds up.

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It's the sort of thing you'd expect ordered by Wile E. Coyote from an ACME catalog. But instead, it's a product for the Hurricane Research Centre to prepare for the devastating natural disasters. Six giant gasoline-powered fans drive winds at well over 160kph in a wall of moving air that's large enough to engulf an entire single-story building. Read on for a shot of the quarantined destruction:

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Philippe Kahn and his ambitious Pacific Cup sailing trip from San Francisco to Hawai'i got me all inspired this week to go sailing, but there's one problem: I suck at sailing. In fact, the last time I went sailing was in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, where I almost got smashed on the reef that protects the beach there. So you'll excuse my excitement today over the SimSail, a full sized "land yachting" simulator for two. It's not quite the same thing as sailing on the water, and it's certainly not even remotely close to what Kahn's up to these days, but for me, at least, it's a start.

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For the ultimate game of Duck Hunt, Marksman Training Systems is offering the ST-2 shooting simulator--the first on the market for shotgun and rifle shooting. Co-developed by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, the simulator is so accurate that its used by Russian and Slovakian national clay shooting teams as a way to practice before the Olympics.

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We could only surmise that this "realistic" DaVinci driving simulator from Mirage3D is for teaching this morning. I mean, why else would this thing have a passenger seat? Riding shotgun for a video game? Not when the couch is so comfy, thanks. Then again, this is also the perfect gift for that cousin with a penchant for racing and DUIs, as it lovingly recreates the extreme driving experience with roll bars, uber-realistic, working gauges (controlled by an on-board PC), and Dolby 5.1 surround--all without the danger of having him sloshed on I-90. Oh, and there's a seat belt. That's the DaVinci, alright: safety first, dignity second.

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Remember yesterday's drooltastic Motion Pro II racing simulator? Here's how it works and how much it costs. We talked with Chris Considine—CXC Simulations head honcho—who tells us that yes, people actually buy these things even if they cost more than a car: the Motion Pro II starts at US$25,995, but he said that a client spent US$45,000 on one, after add-ons. See the complete shopping list—and high definition pictures from a real system—after the jump.

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We have seen other cool racing simulators before, but the hand-made, individually-configured, and probably mindblowingly-expensive Motion Pro II by CXC Simulations is by far the most impressive of them all, with three 46-inch 1080p LCD displays, 505-watt 5.1 surround sound system—1,010 watts peak power—synchronized with four vibration transducers, and full motion simulation using electro-mechanical actuators to move your seat. And the tech-porn spec list doesn't stop there.

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Train operators-in-training will no longer have to deal with plain, unrealistic, standard-definition simulations thanks to a new system that uses full HD video. Jointly developed by Fujitsu and video game maker Ongakukan, the world's most advanced train simulator uses variable-speed playback technology and HD video that was shot on actual train lines.

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I just checked out a rad driving simulator at the Delphi booth. It totally made me feel like I was behind the wheel, as you can see in the video. To be fair, they were showing off some pretty interesting tech, such as sensors that could tell if you were looking straight ahead or off to the side so it could warn you that you were getting too close to the car ahead of you, and the graphics were secondary. But I just couldn't get over the graphics.

The ski resort of Les Deux Alps wants to give visitors a chance to experience what it is like to be caught in an avalanche and learn how to survive without all of that messy "white death" business. The "Robocoaster," as it is called, was the brainchild of of local businessman Marc Dode, who lost a friend in an avalanche several years ago. The simulator is encased in a large dome that features two cabins and a large fan to blow cold air.

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