As technology
is advancing, we are waiting every hour to know the facts about the recent
technological developments, the only motive being to make life simpler and at
the same time more fascinating…
Well recently a
new idea in the technological field has really changed the way we interact in
this physical world… The one being the concept of “Gesture recognition” or so called “The Sixth Sense Technology”. Well as the name says GESTURE is
something which we don’t need to learn, rather it comes from our everyday
learning. It’s always easier to communicate to each other through gestures and
this device really provides the same. This enables new interactions between the
real world and the world of data.
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 user’s 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 camera and tracks the locations of the colored
markers at the tip of the user’s fingers using computer-vision techniques. The
movements and arrangements of these fingers 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
fingers, thus Sixth Sense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction.
The Sixth Sense
prototype implements several applications that demonstrate the usefulness,
viability and flexibility of the system. The map application lets the user
navigate a map displayed on a nearby surface using hand gestures, similar to
gestures supported by Multi-Touch based systems, letting the user zoom in, 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. Sixth Sense also recognizes 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.
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 a ‘@’ symbol lets the user check his
mail. The Sixth Sense system also augments physical objects the user is
interacting with by projecting more information about these objects projected
on them. For example, a newspaper can show live video news or dynamic
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.
Even the
software for this is open source. The hardware is not even hard to manufacture
and also it is cost effective. No doubt this technology will not only change
the way we communicate rather will show us a new dimension in how we interact.
