Monday, March 29, 2010

SixthSense

" SixthSense is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information."

- Pranav Mistry, Inventor.


Human beings rely on five senses to live life and survive. To be able to feel textures, taste sweetness, smell freshness, hear laughter and see the beauty that surrounds us are things MasterCard advertisements would describe as priceless. Money can't buy love or happiness but it can buy convenience.

Such convenience comes in the form of technology - a product of our creation and innovation. We have made things cheaper, faster, bigger, and better. Such innovation has changed the way people now live their lives and communicate with each other. Technology has made the world a boarder-less community; transcending distance, time and boundaries. It has brought the world together on the world-wide-web and allowed people from all walks of life to interact and communicate with each other. To share more and learn more.

However, with the sweet there is always the sour. Like many doubled edged swords, Technology also has its ill effects. As connected as it makes people, it also isolates many. We now interact more with our computers, programs, hand-held gadgets, and the internet than we do each other. We SMS instead of call. We e-mail instead of snail-mail. We Skype instead of meeting face-to-face. We blog and make our lives public instead of keeping our personal thoughts private. We now do many things differently that take us away from each other. More walls are created than transcended and people are more disconnected than ever. Alot of Technology has taken us away from the physical world and dulled our senses than once helped man survive.

To solve this dilemma of integrating technology and humanizing it more - Pranav Mistry of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has created the SixthSense. Say goodbye to all the hardware we so desperately depend on to communicate and entertain ourselves - soon, all you will need is a mini projector and color markers (in techie jargon - visual tracking fiducials) to access the digital world, while still being engaged with your environment. No longer will you need to be confined to your desktop or constantly remember not to lose your phone or laptop to stay connected. With the SixthSense, a gap is bridged and the world at your finger-tips - quite literally.

Such Technology is revolutionary. The digital age is headed towards an era of virtual reality. Innovation and invention will soon be not only for the purposes of convenience but also to engage or enhance one's senses, with a SixthSense. Think Minority Report/The Matrix/007 - movie magic will soon become a reality.

10 comments:

  1. Our voice has now moved down to our fingers. We no longer need to vocalise our thoughts but it come through our hands through the devices we use on a daily basis, so what happens to those without fingers.. someway also, technology adapts to allow them to do the same.. it had already been projected that we'd have screenless "screens", 5D in world gaming and the probable next level up from here on would be teleportation. Not so much of time travel but single and mass teleportation.

    That being said, I'm sure the world is anxious for this 6th sense product to get commercialised, improved and available for all commonman. Thanks for sharing. Love u much.

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  2. The possibilities are mind blowing. Enhancing and engaging our sense - technology allows many to experience things they wouldn't otherwise. Can't wait to get my hands on a SixthSense.

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  3. Cool stuff. Totally agree that technology is a double-edged sword. These days everyone just hides behind our PCs and laptops and not communicating like proper human beings should. This could be the start of more mind blowing technology.

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  4. And the start of the robotic age as we equip ourselves with tools to interact and function with the digital world - in the realm of virtual reality.

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  5. This is the start of another age for the next generation. Personally, as advanced and mind blowing technology can be - there really is nothing like the real thing. Good old tangible warmth and sincerity.

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  6. Agreed. Our affinity for all things old can be seen in fashion and the different trends and designs around the world. Many things of the past have gone down in history as classics and have influenced the present in many ways.

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  7. This guy's so solid. Bringin it back to tangibles. What good is technology if it alienates us from our terra firma?

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  8. Precisely. Less is more. However, the risk of introducing such technology is in computer waste. Imagine trying to dispose all the PCs and Laptops and whatever gadgets eventually get replaced. They're all non-recyclable.

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  9. SixthSense makes the iPhone look weak.Hmph.

    Technology really has brought us a long way in terms of convenience. It has it's ill-effects but I feel the good that technology has brought us outweighs the bad that may come from such advancement. We as the consumer must adapt to such new technology and allow ourselves to fully utilize it.

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  10. Heh. It does doesn't it. It makes the iPhone/iPad/iAnything look weak. It's innovation like no other.

    Fully utilizing it is definitely the way to go - however, being conscious of the cons is also necessary to keep the humanity in things as it is easy to get carried away with novelty - before we know it, it would have already consumed us for the worst.

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