Sixth Sense Technology "where virtual world gets into reality"

It’s the beginning of a new era of technology where engineering will reach new milestones. Just like in the science fiction movies where we can display the computer screen on walls, commands are given by our motion, voice etc. The smart digital environment will interact with us to do various tasks and many more. These all virtual visions will be possible very soon. You just imagine it and this new technology will make it possible. Isn't it cool??? Now any idea what I'm talking about?

Yes, definitely I'm talking about sixth sense technology. Lets thank Mr. Pranav Mistry a brain genius and computer and information science expert whose idea and skills introduced this   technology among us. Pranav Mistry is considered as the person who introduced this technology. Mistry is 28 years old PhD candidate in the Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab.

Sixth sense technology is a perception of augmented reality concept. Like senses enable us to perceive information about the environment in different ways it also aims at perceiving information. Sixth sense is in fact, about comprehending information more than our available senses. And today there is not just this physical world from where we get information but also the digital world which has become a part of our life.

Technically speaking, Sixth sense technology is such a technology that interprets human actions (gestures) and performs according to it. Such action may be due to any kind of bodily movement like hand, face etc. This technology converts human actions into several kinds of algorithms and processes it. This technology is also described as technology bridging virtual world with reality. Simplest form of this technology is smile detector in most of digital camera nowadays.  In TED talks, he has explored this technology along with its horizon of use. He has also described that how this technology can change the way of living of modern world. His TED talk video can be watched here :  

Now let me explain, how this sixth sense technology works.

The Sixth Sense prototype contains a projector. This projector is generally very small. The prototype also includes a mirror and a camera. These both too are very small and portable. All of these three components are assembled together in a pen like device. This device can be put on like garland on our neck.  Both the projector and the camera are connected to a mobile computing device. This computing device is generally kept inside the user’s pocket. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around us to be used as interfaces, while the camera recognizes and tracks users' hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques. 

Beyond this hardware part, the software part also plays a very important role in this technology. As all the data processing and output calculation is done via software, the use of software is greatly appreciable. In this technology, the user who gives command will have put on several color bands on his finger tips. Reading this color bands position, the computing devices determines what symbol does the gesture refers to. The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers or bands at the tips of the user’s fingers. The movements and arrangements of these bands are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces. This Sixth Sense technology prototype supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction at once. This can perform several task at one by single gesture.

As far as today, this technology prototype is successfully tested in various interfaces for several purposes like:

• Showing time

• Checking boarding pass

• Reading books

• Clicking photos

         And many more…………..

Some examples shown in his TED talks are:

•  You pick up a book and hold it in front of you. You see, projected onto its cover, reader ratings and reviews.

• When you want to check the time, you draw a circle on your left wrist; the projector displays a clock right on your arm.

•  You hold up your boarding pass; the words DELAYED 20 MINUTES or ON TIME are beamed onto it.

•  You hold up your left hand, fingers pointing to the right. The system recognizes that you want to make a call, and projects a dialing pad onto your fingers. You tap the virtual keypad with your right hand to dial the call.

• You hold your fingers out at arm’s length forming a square, the way a cliché Hollywood director does to frame a scene. The system snaps a photo of what’s enclosed by your fingers. Later, you can sort, resize and fiddle with these photos by projecting them onto any wall and dragging their images with your fingertips, à la Microsoft Surface.

•  You run into a guy at a party. The system projects his name and Facebook keywords onto his T-shirt, so you can remember who he was and start a conversation.

Isn't this technology really cool??

So how do you think about my blog reading this? Please comment it below, no matter you liked it or disliked it. Thanks for reading.
For more details about Sixth sense technology, click here

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SixthSense

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/at-ted-virtual-worlds-collide-with-reality/

http://www.engineersgarage.com/articles/sixth-sense-technology

http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html