Inspired by Project Sixth Sense

Simplicity is usually the most wonderful thing that one can encounter. Inventions are no exception to that. Edison's bulb, a simple device captured the imagination of millions at that time and inspired many more. I write this post today after being inspired by a simple invention by Pranav Mistry and team from the MIT's Media lab. The Invention is called project sixth sense, a wearable gestural interface, and has been unvieled and I should say its a game changing device. To cut the suspense, let me explain the device in simple terms.

The device is worn by a person and it projects information from the Internet on any surface that the user is facing. Let me familiarize it, Imagine you are at a super market and you want to buy a packet of biscuit. You have certain constraints about the type of biscuit you buy. You prefer biscuits that are healthier to eat and tasty as well. You pick up a britannia nutrichoice and you come to know from the nutrition information printed on the packet that it is made of mostly wheat and then you see britannia multi grain, its made of wheat and oats and other cereals. You want to decide which is better and the best way to do that is look up the internet.Now, how do you do that? You take your mobilephone and open the web browser and look up for more info on both biscuits. Now, imagine you're wearing the Project sixth sense device. The moment you look at the biscuit packet, the device projects information about the biscuit from the internet on the surface of the biscuit packet.

Stop. Donot freak out, there is more. Now the information projected on the biscuit packet is interactive, which means that, you can touch the projected data and query for more info or say save it in some online application, all this depends on the software application that is on the device. Wait. There is more. The most important feature of this device is that it tracks gestures made by you. Yes! Do you remember Tom Cruise from minority report, as a cop he interacts with data with hands. This is the device people, we have it now. With this device, a gesture with hands would capture a photo. Yes! you heard it right, a square geture with your hands, something like directors do, would capture a snap of the view in between the square formed by your hands.

Need I say more? The first time I was inspired by an invention was today by the project sixth sense device. Can you imagine the possibilites? The estimated mobile phone market is in billions. This device can just wipe out all of this, as with this device all that I need is just a device that would connect me to the internet and to the network. The point and shoot camera market is in billions, but with this device all that I need is a decent lens, I can capture pictures with my bare hands. Despite being a disruptive invention it has potential to create a new market on its own. The most appreciative feature about this device is that it would help us in the fight against global warming. Yes, the device would reduce manufacturing drastically by enabling us to interact with data without devices like mobile phones, computer systems and it would also help us decide better as I cited in my supermarket example above and thus reduce wastage and enable effectient consumption. The possibilites are left to our imagination.

My congratulations to Pranav Mistry and his team at MIT. and btw, The current prototype unveiled costs just $350!!! It was built from devices off the shelf!!! Pranav is planning to release the software as Opensoure!!! And No, Its not yet available in the consumer market ;-)

You can find all the info you need about project sixth sense from the link below. Check out the videos first to enjoy the WOW feeling :-)

http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/#VIDEOS

global warming, arctic ice, polar bears

I haven't written anyhting here for a couple of weeks now. Nothing just came by my mind that was inspiring enough to write about, except for the documented life of the polar bear at the arctic aired by discovery channel this evening. Yeah, we all know how the ice is melting at the polar caps and yeah we've read how the Arcitc will be ice free in summers in a few years from now but then its just another news, not even sensational news. We tisk tisk and move on with our daily lives. Project deliverables, getting married to the right person, doing an MBA blah blah, things that would really affect us, things that we worry about are things that give us an immediate feedback. Artic melt, sea level rise, eco system deterioration, woh thats too complex for a common person like me, these are things that need to be taken care by you know, super man perhaps or by barack obama, not me we say. I can sympathize or may be donate to greenpeace if its not more than 500 bucks per month and yeah only if it has tax exemption. Otherwise, I'd like to move on, thats our attitude. Is it wrong or right?

Don't worry I'm not critizizing here, I too am like that, all that I've written here is what I do. I sympathized today when I saw a polar bear struggle to free itself from the thin ice slush on the sea and then crawl back to firmer ice where it can walk. I sympathized when the narrator announced how the thining ice during summers starves polar bears for 4 months at a stretch because thining ice means dry land in the arctic and nothing lives or grows on dry land. I sympathized that if such thining goes on then two-thirds of polar bears would vanish by 2020. I'm like you I just sympathize and move on. The reason, I don't know. I'm bothered about my family, my MBA next year, the loan that I need to take to complete my MBA. I shouldn't say that I care for a starving polar bear in the distant arctic while I eat here heartily in India, I should say I sympathize, that too momentarily. My emotions vanish the moment the program would end, half an hour later I would smile and watch a movie in HBO.

I know something. I know that whats happening now to the polar bear would happen to us in the years to come. The vanishing polar bears and the tigers are the best that have survived the human on slaught. They're the best hand picked by nature and thats why they've survived. The polar bear can survive without food for four months, imagine humans in such a state. Its high time we realized that like the thining ice underneath the polar bear, the artificial world that we've created may not support us for long.

from the head of a stray cow

I travel to office everyday either by my office bus or by BMTC if I'm late. I travel on the famous Hosur road of Bangalore known for its never ending stretch of tar and asphalt from the heart of Bangalore to Hosur. Its a highway and a city road all in one. Hosur road is infamous for its traffic snarls, potholes and its famous residents, the stray cows.The stray cows have made Hosur road their home, the sad part is that their grazing field is the garbage that is lying around hosur road. The cows sleep either on the medians or on the footpaths watching over speeding buses and motorcycles. Now, one fine day I took the BMTC Volvo to office when at Adugodi junction I happened to see a stray cow, let me call her, careless :-). Careless, the Cow was brown in colour with short horns funnily turned on her head. She was trying to cross the road unmindful of the morning traffic madness all around her. My bus was heading towards Electronics City, the Info Tech park of Bangalore and so I was on the left lane while careless was on the right lane, so I had a nice view of careless from my bus seat.

      Careless was trying to cross the road from the footpath on the right lane to the left lane and it was then that the signal turned green and all hell broke loose, motorists just vroomed in opposite directions in both lanes. Careless suddenly found a wall of traffic on her way and so she hesitated for a moment, then she just swayed away without crossing the road. I was amused by this scene. A human would've waited for the traffic to die down and then would've crossed the road but careless, the cow she is just didn't bother to cross the road at all.

   

I wondered why would careless have wanted to cross the road in the first place. Did she have a purpose? Did she want to cross the road in search of food on the other side of the road? If so, then why didn't she just wait for the traffic to die down and then cross the road. If not, so what makes her stray like this aimlessly. I know cows don't have aims and goals in life and are aimless but it just beats me.I wondered whats just goes on in that head of careless, howmuch ever small a brain it houses. Pretty naive thoughts I should say, but then thats what I thought of then. Is careless then suffering from the short term memory loss like gajini? :-) I guess not.

cartoons

Well folks, time for some cartoons. I'm a big cartoon fan, tom and jerry, bugs bunny, daffy duck, angry sam, you name it I've watched it, an yes a million times over. But, cartoons are a world in them and there is much more than the popular bugs bunny. Dexter's lab, swat kats, powerpuff girls, scooby doo, johnny bravo, Courage, the cowardly dog(what a name ;-)  are hidden treasures and they come only on Cartoon network and I must say they're equally and sometimes more interesting than the big wigs.

       

Take Dexter's lab, my favourite of them all. Dexter, a kid who builds his own lab, a futuristic lab unlike  the physics and chemistry lab we have at school, an out of the world science lab where out of the world inventions are made by Dexter and boy, does he make look so easy. His Sister dee dee(lovely name isn't it? simple and to the point;-), the only one in the house other than Dexter who knows about the lab, loves to eat his head and is the only disorderly primitivness in the otherwise neat and futurstic lab. Oh, I almost forgot to mention about the unsuspecting parents of Dexter.Dexter's dad, a less meaner version of Homer Simpson and Dexter's Mom, gosh she looks funny, walking on her toes with a big bum and baking muffins all the time. All in all, I should say Dexter's lab is a family entertainer :-)

Swat kats are the coolest and slick cartoon cats around. They're the batmans of MegaKat city(oh yeah, a city of walking, talking, human like cats), saving the city from the clutches of a myriad of villans by flying around their awesome twin seater fighter jet. Swat Kats are brains and brawn built together. They've no professors at their hideout camoflauged under the city dumpyard but still build and operate an awesome figher jet.They're no millionare like batman but can still afford to build mind blowing gizmos and fight crime. The red and black suit they wear and the matching colours in their figher jet is super cool. I know swat kats defies all reason and logic, but I can assure you, no one kicks butt like the swat kats do.The most interesting part about swat kats is that, they don't wear shoes, yup, their creators have given them a twin engined fighter jet but no boots to wear. Thats a cartoon for you. Mindblowing fun! 

Then there is Johnny bravo, the cartoon version of Joey from Friends, The Powerpuff girls, the mutated school girls trio who fight mojo the evil monkey and the creepy Courage, the Cowardly dog who saves his mistress from creepy aliens and ghosts even though he is one cowardly bugger, gosh. Each one of these cartoons is a logic defying creation and they just do well, what they do best, kick ass and have fun(except Johnny bravo that is :-)

Please stop, in the name of God!

Prominent Hindu temples in India have an age old tradition of having a temple Elephant which carries around the Idol during important festivals. This has been a practice for centuries now, a practice that needs to be stopped. Time and again I keep seeing video footage about temple elephants running amock during festivities and end up killing people. Nobody cares why they do so, such gentle giants running amock suddenly. Everyone is just bothered about the people killed or injured, no one cares a damn about why the Elephant did that.

There are many reasons. Elephants are wild animals and are meant to be in the jungles. They are social creatures and unlike dogs they cannot just be separated from family just like that and humans cannot expect them to wag a tail in apppreciation. If you watch National geographic or animal planet shows about elephants, you'll be amazed how intelligent and social these elephants are. The festivities in Indian Temples are a nightmare for the Elephants. Swelling crowd and heat around them, long processions with no water and food and with mounted howdahs on their backs, the sound of drums and crackers all around them, simply irritates the animal. And the bloody humans expect the elephant to understand and stay calm. The howdah or the carriage mounted on the animal's back with the Diety on it is usually heavy and the Elephant is usually taken on a slow and long procession around the temple town. Imagine the plight of the creature. I recently read that for the Mysore Dasara fetstival, the elephants are decorated from the previous day evening it seems for the dasara day procession. It is a beast but are we too? Have a heart people. Its your god and not the Elephant's. The funniest part is that, people say that its a honour for such privilege to be bestowed on the Elephant. Gimme a break man, what does an Elephant know about honour.

Religion and the foolishness around it appeal to humans and not to animals like Elephants. They're better off without the bane of religion and its high time that the cruel practice of temple elephants being involved in temple processions be stopped. Like Human rights, animals do have their rights too and its high time we as humans stopped playing god. The irony here is, the god that the Elephant carries on its back with much pain has also been turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the Elephant's plight and prayers.

goedemorgen

goedemorgen, the first dutch word I learnt in my first dutch class yesterday! Yup folks, I joined a dutch for beginner's class yesterday and the first thing I learnt is greetings. goedemorgen, goedemidag, yes sir, I know how to greet good morning and good afternoon in dutch. I also know numbers 0 to 10, nul, een, twee etc in dutch. Learning a foreign language brings its own set of challenges and fun. The way my dutch instructor wished us "doei doei" was so funny and I felt a bit awkward to say it back to him, but then thats how the language is and how much ever funny it may sound, I need to embrace it and have fun while learning.

Its true but hard to believe that there is only one dutch language instructor available for service in the whole of Bangalore. My searches in google for a dutch language institute or instructor lead te always to Mr.Sayed Jafrid. With no choice left I joined his class and Vikas, my fellow RSM MBA admit, the braveheart from Delhi who booked his flight tickets the moment I told him that dutch class is available in Bangalore, has flown down here and has joined class with me.

My first class was all about greetings, numbers and days of the week and we also learnt 20 words for the day, a scheme devised by the instructor to introduce dutch vocabs to us.Today was my second class and we shifted gears to more numbers, irregular verbs and stuff like that. My classes are for 40 hours, spread across weekends.

The pronounciations is the most peculiar aspect of the dutch language. The way 'g' is pronounced in goedmorgen, with emphasis to the 'gha' sound for the mor'g'en part of it is quite different from what english is. And the way 'V' is pronounced as 'f' and 'J' as 'Ya' are all things I need to learn and remember.

I'd be happy if I can find someone here in bangalore who can speak in dutch with me, but I guess thats a wish list. Finding an instructor itself was a big task here. Anyways I plan to learn atleast the basics of dutch so that Ican practice it when I'm in NL next year. Dooi!

New look

Pretty exceited about the new look that my blog sports now. I've been reading logs like, the path untaken and A letter from Netherlands and have noticed how customised they look. Was wondering what it would take to give my blog a customised look as well, with a background, banner etc.
I set upon this over the weekend and browsed a couple of free blog template providers like thecutestblogontheblock, blogspottemplates and pyzam, of these three pyzam has rocking templates which give a digital look to the blog. Surprisingly everything that pyzam offers including templates are free and easy to use. I tried a few and it was perfect, but as life has it, not everything you like can be had. Two problems prevented me from using pyzam templates.

• side wrapper and body wrapper with less width
• less width side wrapper of pyzam rendered the much loved blogumulus widget inactive when set in background transparent mode.

I decided that I can live with narrow body wrapper and side wrapper but not without the blogumulus widget and so I've stopped using the pyzam templates. I've written to pyzam for ways to fix the issue hoping to get an answer.

So, I went back to the http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/ and picked up this template and voila! my blog has a new look.. Love it!