Blog 3 - Eriks Pukite

SixthSense Technology By: Eriks Pukite What truly entertained me the most in class recently, was our topic about pervasive computing (or Ubiquitous computing). Its described as the “human-computer interaction in which information processing has been thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities” (Ubiquitous Computer – Wikipedia). The best example of this is Pranav Mistry's SixthSense technology he has invented. Its a devices basically made up of a processor, a camera and a projector. This device can then turn any object in real life into a virtual workspace along with a gestural interface (TED – SixthSense). Pranav's soul purpose of this technology is to help integrate technology and the real life as smoothly as possible. In hopes, that this would also help society break out of our deep dependency with technological hardware. The act of turning any physical surface into an interactive virtual work space is pretty impressive but wasn't what blew my mind. I know many people who have their computers connected to projectors that basically can create a virtual surface where ever they desire. What really surprised me was SixthSense's ability of having a gestural interface. Pranav's has programmed his device to read certain gestures from users or environments, which then will preform specific tasks/actions depending on the gesture. An outstanding example of this would be how a user can take a picture of anything they want by simply making a frame (with their hands) around the object they would like to capture. The device recognizes this gesture and then takes a photo of what is framed by the user and stores it for later use. Something that reminds me of Pranav's SixthSense technology is Googles new augmented reality glasses they are developing. These glasses are wore by the user and then reads environmental gestures along with what the user is looking at. But instead of then projecting something for the user to see, the glasses simply presents its environment threw the glasses which the user is looking threw. Its hard to think about how far we have come with technology. I wouldn't have never thought we come into a world similar to what Hollywood’s imagined our future world would be like (aka Minority Report). But its hard to tell whether Google's augmented reality glasses will win other peoples hearts or Pranav's SixSense technology will. Either way, were all in for a very interesting future.