6th sense technology

1. INTRODUCTION

               We’ve evolved over millions of years to sense the world around us. When we encounter something, someone or some place, we use our five natural senses which include eye, ear, nose, tongue mind and body to perceive information about it; that information helps us make decisions and chose the right actions to take. But arguably the most useful information that can help us make the right decision is not naturally perceivable with our five senses, namely the data, information and knowledge that mankind has accumulated about everything and which is increasingly all available online. Although the miniaturization of computing devices allows us to carry computers in our pockets, keeping us continually connected to the digital world, there is no link between our digital devices and our interactions with the physical world. Information is 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 to interact with this information via natural hand gestures. ‘SixthSense’ frees information from its confines by seamlessly integrating it with reality, and thus making the entire world your computer. “Sixth Sense Technology”, it is the newest jargon that has proclaimed its presence in the technical arena. This technology has emerged, which has its relation to the power of these six senses. Our ordinary computers will soon be able to sense the different feelings accumulated in the surroundings and it is all a gift of the ”Sixth Sense Technology” newly introduced. SixthSense is a wearable “gesture based” device that augments the physical world with digital information and let’s people use natural hand gestures to interact with that information. It was developed by Pranav Mistry, a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab. A grad student with the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT, he caused a storm with his creation of SixthSense. He says that the movies “Robocop” and “Minority Report” gave him the inspiration to create his view of a world not dominated by computers, digital information and human robots, but one where computers and other digital devices enhance people’s enjoyment of the physical world. Right now, we use our “devices” (computers, mobile phones, tablets, etc.) to go into the internet and get information that we want. With SixthSense we will use a device no bigger than current cell phones and probably eventually as small as a button on our shirts to bring the internet to us in order to interact with our world!

SixthSense will allow us to interact with our world like never before. We can get

Information on anything we want from anywhere within a few moments! We will not only be able to interact with things on a whole new level but also with people!

One great part of the device is its ability to scan objects or even people and project out information regarding what you are looking at.

2.Sixth Sense Technology

2.1 What is SixthSense?

                   Sixth Sense in scientific (or non-scientific) terms is defined as Extra Sensory Perception or in short ESP. It involves the reception of information not gained through any of the five senses. Nor is it taken from any experiences from the past or known. Sixth Sense aims to more seamlessly integrate online information and tech into everyday life. By making available information needed for decision-making beyond what we have access to with our five senses, it effectively gives users a sixth sense.

2.2 SixthSense Prototype

                       

                     

 Earlier                                                                       Recent

Earlier Prototype

                             Maes’ MIT group, which includes seven graduate students, were thinking about how a person could be more integrated into the world around them and access information without having to do something like take out a phone. They initially produced a wristband that would read a Radio Frequency Identification tag to know, for example, which book a user is holding in a store. They also had a ring that used infrared to communicate by beacon to supermarket smart shelves to give you information about products. As we grab a package of macaroni, the ring would glow red or green to tell us if the product was organic or free of peanut traces, whatever criteria we program into the system. They wanted to make information more useful to people in real time with minimal effort in a way that doesn’t require any behavior changes. The wristband was getting close, but we still had to take out our cell phone to look at the information. That’s when they struck on the idea of accessing information from the internet and projecting it. So someone wearing the wristband could pick up a paperback in the bookstore and immediately call up reviews about the book, projecting them onto a surface in the store or doing a keyword search through the book by accessing digitized pages on Amazon or Google books. They started with a larger projector that was mounted on a helmet. But that proved cumbersome if someone was projecting data onto a wall then turned to speak to friend, the data would project on the friend’s face.

Recent Prototype

    

                        Now they have switched to a smaller projector and created the pendant prototype to be worn around the neck. The SixthSense prototype is composed 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. We can very well consider the Sixth Sense Technology as a blend of the computer and the cell phone. It works as the device associated to it is hanged around the neck of a person and thus the projection starts by means of the micro projector attached to the device. Therefore, in course, you turn out to be a moving computer in yourself and the fingers act like a mouse and a keyboard. The prototype was built from an ordinary webcam and a battery-powered 3M projector, with an attached mirror all connected to an internet-enabled mobile phone. The setup, which costs less than $350, allows the user to project information from the phone onto any surface walls, the body of another person or even your hand. Mistry wore the device on a lanyard around his neck, and colored Magic Marker caps on four fingers (red, blue, green and yellow) helped the camera distinguish the four fingers and recognize his hand gestures with software that Mistry created. 

3. WORKING OF SIXTH SENSE TECHNOLOGY

3.1 Components:

      

    The hardware components are coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device.

Ø  Camera

Ø  Projector

Ø  Mirror

Ø  Mobile Component

Ø  Color Markers

Camera:

          A webcam captures and recognizes an object in view and tracks the user’s hand gestures using computer-vision based techniques. It sends the data to the smart phone. The camera, in a sense, acts as a digital eye, seeing what the user sees. It also tracks the movements of the thumbs and index fingers of both of the user's hands. The camera recognizes objects around you instantly, with the microprojector overlaying the information on any surface, including the object itself or your hand.

Projector:

, a projector opens up interaction and sharing. The project itself contains a battery inside, with 3 hours of battery life. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around us to be used as interfaces. We want this thing to merge with the physical world in a real physical sense. You are touching that object and projecting info onto that object. The information will look like it is part of the object. A tiny LED projector displays data sent from the smart phone on any surface in view–object, wall, or person.

Mirror:

   The usage of the mirror is significant as the projector dangles pointing downwards from the neck. The usage of a mirror is important as the projector dangles pointing downwards from the neck. The mirror reflects the image on to a desire surface. Thus finally the digital image is freed from its confines and placed in the physical world.