can you believe your sixthsense? Watch out!

Motion Control SixthSense Technology: Why We’re Still Waiting

When Pranav Mistry of MIT’s Media Lab showcased to the world his groundbreaking SixthSense technology, everyone said this was going to be the next big thing. It was the 2009 Invention of the Year and the most exciting part about it, it was going to be open source. With the code available to a whole community of hackers, we would see all sorts of interesting uses for the technology in no time. Three years later, no code, and no talk of SixthSense hitting the market any time soon.

Like so many great inventions, turning an idea into reality, especially into a ubiquitous  reality, takes time and patience. Bringing the impressive fictional technology from Minority Report to our fingertips, Mistry found a way to bridge the gap between intangible digital information and the tangible world.

In case you’ve never heard of SixthSense, it essentially allows you to access information from the Internet and project that information on any surface, including your hand. It reads human gestures and turns any surface into an interactive screen. It senses objects around you, reads your hand gestures and immediately displays relevant information.

So let’s say you’re at the grocery store and want to find out more about a certain brand of cereal, SixthSense will display in real-time any additional information on the product you’re holding. Lost? Take a picture of your surroundings by forming a frame with your hands and locate yourself on Google Maps. Wondering what time it is? Draw a circle on your wrist and a holographic watch will appear with the precise time.

SixthSense turns the Internet into a sixth human sense.

Demo (2009): 

Watch TedIndia Talk (2009): 

The technology has progressed steadily since its inception. Evolving from an awkward helmet with a projector attached to it to a tiny depth-sensing camera, similar to the one used on Xbox’s Kinect, SixthSense has come a long way. But if you, like me, are squirming in the backseat asking “Are we there yet”, no… we still have a ways to go.