“I see dead people …..”

New technology currently being researched by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group is set to revolutionize the way we work with information and connect with one another.

“Sixth Sense”, as it is called, is the brainchild of Pranav Mistry, a Research Assistant and PhD candidate at the MIT Media Lab. The device 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.

Sixth Sense “projects information onto surfaces, walls, and physical objects around us, and lets us interact with the projected information through natural hand gestures, arm movements, or our interaction with the object itself.”

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This demo by Pattie Maes, a leading researcher at the MIT Media Lab’s new Fluid Interfaces Group, shows the huge potential of this futuristic device which provides you with “relevant information about whatever is in front of you”.

Imaging walking into a supermarket, picking up a product, and getting complete information about that product, picking up a book in a bookstore and getting additional information about the book: readers/critic comments, etc. or (my personal favourite) picking up a newspaper, and seeing video adaptations of the headlines you are reading.

The possibilities of the Sixth Sense are endless….. but the most valuable no doubt;

“seamless access to relevant information we come across.”

Best of all, the device is expected to cost just about the same as your average mobile phone- pegged at $350, well within reach of the average person. There is a lot of excitement at the moment surrounding the sixth sense, but not everyone shares this excitement;

“I just don’t like the way she fantasizes this technology. This is nothing new compared to what Johnny Lee has done a few years ago and his Wii projects that have been widely spread over the web. Don’t try too hard to cash out. I don’t think wearing a projector is a cool idea. Besides, the problem with a projector? The short life span of the light bulb.”

“I know what toilet paper to buy before I shop. Amazon gave “Freakonomics” an excellent rating . I thooght the book was a waste of time. If I want to know about someone I’ll ask them. My flight’s going to be 20 minutes late ? So what I still have to get through security. “Oh this little thing on my chest officer .. ..why it’s a wall projector…. er .. no sir I’m not on medication. I know many people will like and BUY this “thingy” but I wont…… This is the kind of “synthetic” menhancement (or womenhancement) that makes people less human .. but THEY don’t know it……”

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Well…… what do you have to say?

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