So this is a bit of tech from around 2 years ago, by a guy called Pranav Mistry, doing a talk on his (at the time) new technology SixthSense - a neat little device that projects the virtual world into the world around us…
Check it out below:
What I want to know is whether you think this is cool, scary or both?
cool
Yo. This looks good and all… but it wont be used until it is economically viable. A lot of this technology has been around for 20+ years but hasn’t yet been sold on a large scale.
That is a link to a concept for a tablet computer that apple came up with back in the 1990′s.
That is a link for a 1987 concept for Apples ‘knowledge navigator’. Another tablet computer.
The ipad didn’t come out until 2009 (or was it early 2010?)
Apple (or microsoft) most likely would have been able create a tablet computer, touch screen in the 1990′s but it wouldn’t have been economically viable. Nobody would want it and it would have seemed like a gimmick or fad.
Now everyone is trying to sell tablet computers… I still think they are gimmicks which could possibly die out but we will see.
By the same token compare ’6th sense’ to this video…
‘Digital desk’ provides some functionality that is part of ’6th sense’.
Also have a look at this…
That is ’3D portal’ created in 2001. Again showcasing some of the ‘revolutionary’ technology which is a part of 6th sense. None of these technologies have been introduced since they do not provide a benefit to consumers which outweigh their costs.
There is yet another video I searched for but could not find (will show you if/when I find it). This video was from the early 80′s and showed the same sort of motion sensor technology that is used by the Kinect (xbox gimmick that has people dancing in front of their tv).
While it is exciting to see technology like ’6th sense’ it remains to be seen whether or not anything comes of it. Ironically, making his software open source may have guaranteed the failure of his technology. We will see.
Regards
-Simon
Thanks Simon, it’s funny that that sort of technology has been around for so long – it’s evidence of our desire to incorporate the digital world into the real world I suppose.
I think for a while yet it’s doomed to fail, potentially because of privacy issues, and our capacity for information – but I also think that it’s inevitable that this “sixth sense” idea will become part of everyday life. If you think about it, with our constant exposure to technologies like smartphones, that act as a ‘memory bank’ or medium to access the ‘memory bank’ that is the internet – we already sort of have a “sixth sense” – it’s just not as easily accessible as the five “natural” ones, yet.
I’m glad he made his technology open source, because although it does seem to have its perks, it still looked to cumbersome to use. Maybe we will all just have microchips in our heads someday that we use to access the internet!
I’d sure hate to be hacked though. It would bring a whole new meaning to getting a viral infection.