TED Talk: Sixth Sense

The video posted above is from a TED presentation in February 2009, demonstrating a project from the MIT Media Lab called Sixth Sense. The project is a wearable device that consists of a camera, a mini-projector, a cell phone and colored finger caps. The device uses the camera for things like gesture recognition (through the colored finger caps), bar code scanning, and taking pictures. The projector can project on any surface you stand in front of, like a wall, your hand, a product, a plane ticket, or your wrist.

If you go through the examples in the video, you'll probably say "well, my iPHone can do all of that already" and you'd be pretty much right, except for maybe the gesture recognition. But the amazing part of this device, for me, is the absolutely seamless nature of it. Taking a picture is as simple as holding your hands up to form a picture frame. Making a phone call can be done without even taking your phone out of your pocket. It's the blurring of this line that amazes me with this device.