SIXTH SENSE,

SIXTH SENSE

            ‘SIXTH SENSE’ 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.

We have evolved over millions of years to sense the world around us.When we encounter something,someone or some place,we use our five natural senses to perceive information about it;that information helps us to make decisions and choose the right actions to take.The information,data  and knowledge that mankind has accumulated about anything and is increasingly and are available online.Although the miniaturization of computing devices allows us to carry computers in our pockets,keeping us continually connected to the digital world,there is no link between our digital devices and our interactions with the physicall world.Information is confined traditionally on paper or digitally on a screen.sixth sense bridges this gap,bringing intangible,digital information out into the tangible world,and allowing us to interact with this information via natural hand gestures.

The Sixth sense prototype is comprised of 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 users 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 user’s hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques.The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camer and tracks the location of the colored markets (visual tracking fiduc ials)at the tip of the user’s fingers using simple computer-vision techniques.

The movements and arrangements of these fiducials are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces.The maximum number of tracked fingers is only constrained by the number of unique fiduals,thus Sixth sense also supports multi touch and multi-user interaction.

The Sixth Sense prototype implements several applications that demonstrate the usefulness,viability of the system. 

The map application lets the user navigate a map displayed on a nearby surface using hand gestures,similar to supported by multi-touch based systems,letting the user zoom out or pan using intuitive hand movements.

The drawing application lets the user draw on any surface by tracking the fingertip movements of the user’s index finger.

The drawing application lets the user draw on any surface by tracking the fingertip movements of the user’s index finger.

Sixth Sense also recognize user’s freehand gestures(postures).for example,the sixth sense system implements a gestural camera that takes photos of the scene the user is looking at by detecting the  ‘framing’ gesture just by using the hands alone.

The user can stop by any surface or wall and flick through the photos he/she has taken.Sixth Sense also lets the user draw icons or symbols in the air using the movement of the index finger and recognizes those symbols as interaction instructions. For example, drawing a magnifying glass symbol takes the user to the map application or drawing an ‘@’ symbol which lets the user check his mail.

The sixthe sense system also augments the physical objects in which the user is interacting by projecting more information can be provided on a regular piece of paper.

The gesture of drawing a circle on the user’s wrist projects an analog watch

If the user is on the way to an airport and if he picks up the boarding pass he can know the flight delays,change of gates etc.

If the user interacts with a person he can see a word cloud of tags,words associated with the person      he can see a word cloud of tags,words associated with the person,personal web pages whether  the student is interested in camera,music ets.

This device is invented by an Indian MR>PRANAV MISTRY who is a research assistant and ph.d scholars in MIT media lab.

The current prototype system costs approximately $350 to build.