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What will be the future of human beings?

The traditional five senses are sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste,1. Sight

2. Hearing3. Taste4. Smell5. Touch

When we encounter something, someone or some place, we use our five naturalsenses to perceive information about it; that information helps us make decisions andchose the right actions to take. But arguably the most useful information that can helpus make the right decision is not naturally perceivable with our five senses, namely

the data, information and knowledge that mankind has accumulated about everythingand which is increasingly all available online.

The sixth sense in the animal kingdom is a sense which tells animals about thedangers they may face.We humans have another way of realizing dangers, through technology.Whenever an earthquake or a natural calamity is going to strike us, we get to

know about it through technology, while animals know it through their sixthsense.

The question was, could we develop a sixth sense?A sense that will enable us to know all the info directly.

Although the miniaturization of computing devices allows us to carry computers inour pockets, keeping us continually connected to the digital world, there is no link

between our digital devices and our interactions with the physical world. Informationis confined traditionally on paper or digitally on a screen. SixthSense bridges this gap,

bringing intangible, digital information out into the tangible world, and allowing us tointeract with this information via natural hand gestures. SixthSense frees informationfrom its confines by seamlessly integrating it with reality, and thus making the entireworld your computer.

The technology in itself is nothing more than the combination of some stunningtechnologies, but the idea of combining those technologies is really great. The

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technology is mainly based on hand gesture recognition, image capturing, processing,and manipulation, etc. .

The camera is used to recognize and track users hand gestures and physicalobjects using computer-vision based techniques, while the projector is used to

project visual information on walls or on any physical thing around us. Otherhardware includes mirror and colored caps to be used for fingers. The hardwarecomponents are coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device. Both the

projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in theusers pocket. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, wallsand physical objects around us to be used as interfaces; while the camerarecognizes and tracks user's hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques. The software program processes the video stream datacaptured by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers (visualtracking fiducials) at the tip of the users fingers using simple computer-vision

techniques. The movements and arrangements of these fiducials are interpretedinto gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected applicationinterfaces. The maximum number of tracked fingers is only constrained by thenumber of unique fiducials, thus SixthSense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction.

USESThe SixthSense prototype implements several applications that demonstrate theusefulness, viability and flexibility of the system. The map application lets the

user navigate a map displayed on a nearby surface using hand gestures, similarto gestures supported by Multi-Touch based systems, letting the user zoom in,zoom out or pan using intuitive hand movements. The drawing application letsthe user draw on any surface by tracking the fingertip movements of the usersindex finger. SixthSense also recognizes users 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.The user can stop by any surface or wall and flick through the photos he/she hastaken. Sixth Sense also lets the user draw icons or symbols in the air using themovement of the index finger and recognizes those symbols as interactioninstructions. For example, drawing a magnifying glass symbol takes the user tothe map application or drawing an @ symbol lets the user check his mail. TheSixth Sense system also augments physical objects the user is interacting with

by projecting more information about these objects projected on them. Forexample, a newspaper can show live video news or dynamic information

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can be provided on a regular piece of paper. The gesture of drawing a circle onthe users wrist projects an analog watch.

The current prototype system costs approximate $350 to build.

Lets see the advantage of this:

The good part is, the software for this device is open source. You can just aboutbuy a camera, a projector, a mobile and put the Sixth Sense software in it,which you get free of cost. If you want to make a unique Sixth Sense, just callup Prnav and ask him to make it, and he will make it for you free of cost.

Portable Computer + Internet + Mobile Phone + Camera + Projector +

Instant Access to Info = 350 $ or nearly Rs. 16,000.

Nowadays an iPhone itself will cost much more than that. This device wasmade keeping cost efficiency in mind.

But how will the Sixth Sense affect you ? Will you buy it if you see it in yournearest Departmental Store ?