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.