Boxes And Arrows : The Design Behind the Design

Article Idea:

Pranav Mistry’s : The Thrilling Potential of SixthSense Technology – Future of Interface

suggested by Ganesan Pitchaya on 2010/02/08

UX’s,

I recently bumped across Pranav Mistry’s Sixth Sense Technology which is going to change the whole dynamics of how the digital world and the real world operates.

In Every technology update is usual. But SixthSense Technology could really revolutionize the entire computer and interactive industry. The Whole User Experience Design Pattern what we follow might change and the future of Interface will come to your finger tips. Forget computers, Cameras, Cell phones— future interfaces and the future web will be interactive projections. It could also mean the ultimate “convergence” of devices

Again Change is Good.

Though it is in beta stage, it’s an interesting technology.

It’s a virtual world that integrates amazingly in the real world and I can’t imagine the revolution this will bring in the world we live today.

A promising technology, SixthSense is a gestural interface device that augments the physical world with digital information and we can use natural hand gestures to interact with that information

It is very inspiring and it’s enlightening to see how the brain is put to question and visualize.

Pranav Mistry is a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT’s Media Lab. Pranav is passionate about integrating the digital informational experience with our real world interactions. He holds a Master in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT and Master of Design from IIT Bombay. Pranav received his Bachelor degree in Computer Engineering. Before joining MIT, He also worked with Microsoft as a UX researcher.

“I notice that it’s hard to for these kind of things to market in some sense. . . because I don’t want this to comply with some of kind of corporate policy,” he told PTI in Mysore on Friday on the sidelines of TED conference being held in India for the first time.

“Rather than waiting for that time to come, I want people to make their own system. Why not?”

Pranav Mistry

“People will be able to make their own hardware. I will give them instructions how to make it. And also provide them key software…give them basic key software layers. . . they will be able to build their own applications. They will be able to modify base level and do anything”.

“I am working on that to make it open source”, he said, adding, it would take 2-3 months for that to happen as “I have to do a lot of things before making it open source.”

On the estimated cost of the device, he said: “Cost will be mainly hardware because software. . . I am going to give it free. Hardware cost will be around $300 at minimum. This will go down for sure.”

SixthSense, which redefines how we uses objects and gestures to interact with the digital world, was cobbled together with components that are off-the-shelf.

SixthSense was voted the Invention of the Year by Popular Science magazine in the United States, and Mistry won one of Technology Review’s TR35 Young Inventor Awards in August this year.

Mistry developed the SixthSense device to satisfy his impulse to paint the physical world with digital information.

Using a camera that understands human gestures, the SixthSense has extraordinary capabilities, Mistry said.
The technology is integrating the digital and physical worlds, rather than forcing one to switch back and forth between the two.

Pranav Mistry’s : SixthSense Technology

SixthSense comprises a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera. The hardware components are coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device. Both the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket.

Giving examples about its use, he said SixthSense lets the user draw icons or symbols in the air using the movement of the index finger and recognizes those symbols as interaction instructions.

Likewise drawing an @ symbol lets the user check his mail.

1. Camera: A webcam captures an object in view and tracks the user’s hand gestures. It sends the data to the smart phone.

2. Colored Markers: Marking the user’s fingers with red, yellow, green, and blue tape helps the webcam recognize gestures. Mistry is working on gesture-recognition algorithms that could eliminate the need for the markers.

3. Projector: A tiny LED projector displays data sent from the smart phone on any surface in view–object, wall, or person. Mistry hopes to start using laser projectors to increase the brightness.

4. Smart Phone: A Web-enabled smart phone in the user’s pocket processes the video data, using vision algorithms to identify the object. Other software searches the Web and interprets the hand gestures

“The digital world has power because it has dynamic information, but it’s important that we stay human, instead of being another machine sitting in front of a machine,” said Mistry

Some previous projects from Mistry’s work at MIT include intelligent sticky notes, Quickies, that can be searched and can send reminders; a pen that draws in 3D; andTaPuMa, a tangible public map that can act as Google of physical world.

His research interests also include Gestural and Tangible Interaction, Ubiquitous Computing, AI, Machine Vision, Collective Intelligence and Robotics

To understand what I’m saying, YOU MUST ABSOLUTELY watch

Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology | Video on TED.com

http://www.futureofeducation.com/video/sixth-sense-techno…

It’s a 15 minute video approximately, which you just can’t miss. I highly recommend every visitor of IT’S U to watch it and spread it with word of mouth or mouse.