I'm going to help you all and tell you the proper term for the lighting technique you're describing:
Fresnel Lighting, or alternatively, a simpler way to say it is usally "Rim Lighting".
Here's an example of it being used in a different application:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~nexx/stuff/smg_unreal2.jpg
So, to reiterate;
this is not SSAO, not normal maps, not anything but a simple fresnel shader.