Electronics Spectra - SMS Lucknow

SMS Institute of Technology, L ucknow
Sixth sense technology
Department of Electronics & Co mmunication
Arvind, Param Hans & Ritesh
EC -III year
INTRODDUCTION
MANY of us might have heard
about the sixth sense in Hollywood
movies, but ever thought that
you will be able to use it as a technology?
If you are from those who just
believe that there are only five senses
then I must say you are wrong. Because,
those five senses are provided
by nature. Now technology is going
to provide you an additional s ense
named as sixth sense. It’s an exciting
new research from MIT students
which have been experimented successfully,
and soon we will find it in
the market as a wearable gestural interface.
Ever since computers began to be
a part of mankind, their evolution has
been taking place at break nec k
speed. And now we are about to
witness the power of computing and
on demand information just like the
Sci-fi thrillers of Hollywood have portrayed
for many years. Sixth S ense
Technology is one such recent invention
which aims to blend in the boundaries
between the virtual and the real
world. The mastermind behind t his
futuristic technology is Pranav Mistry,
a designer whiz kid.
WHAT IS SIXTH SENSE
TECHNOLOGY?
Pranav Mistry, a student at th e
Media Lab of Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT), has developed
a gestural interface device which enables
enrichment of the physical world
with knowledge that is digital and allows
a person to use natural motions
to act together with this information
so received. This device, tent atively
named as the Sixth Sense, is a wearable
machine that assists unexplored
interactions between the real and the
virtual sphere of data. It consists of
certain commonly available com ponents,
which are intrinsic to its functioning.
These include a camer a, a
portable battery-powered projection
system coupled with a mirror a nd a
cell phone. All these componen ts
communicate to the cell phone, which
acts as the communication
and computation
device. The entire hardware
apparatus is encompassed
in a pendantshaped
mobile wearable
device. Basically the camera
recognises individuals,
images, pictures, gestures
one makes with
their hands and the projector
assists in projecting
any information on whatever
type of surface is
present in front of the
person. The usage of the
mirror is significant as the
projector angles pointing
downwards from the neck. To br ing
out variations on a much higher plane,
in the demo video which was broadcasted
to showcase the prototype to
the world, Mistry uses coloured caps
on his fingers so that it becomes simpler
for the software to diffe rentiate
between the fingers, demanding various
applications. The software program
analyses the video data caught
by the camera and also tracks down
the locations of the coloured markers
by utilising single computer vision techniques.
One can have any number of
hand gestures and movements as long
as they are all reasonably ide ntified
and differentiated for the sys tem to
interpret it, preferably through unique
and varied fiducials. This is possible only
because the ‘Sixth Sense’ device supports
multi-touch and multi-user interaction.
DEVELOPMENTAL
STAGES
The idea behind this technolog y
is to simplify day-to-day tasks and integrate
them with the virtual world.
This technology was born with the
simple modification of a ball mouse into
a motion sensing device. The a xial
rollers found in the ball mouse were
used to replicate the gestures made
with hand on the computer. The
much-loved sticky notes were a lso
implemented with this, one exception
being that our scribble work on them
would be directly synchronized with
the computer or a scheduling device
which can also be organized ef fortlessly.
With the virtual interaction in place,
the next obvious step was to bring in
instant information to the user. Sixth
sense technology is set to red efine
the way information can be searched
for. The information could be accessed
by merely placing the object of interest
on the interactive plane w ithout
even having to GOOGLE it! So t o
check your flight schedule, all that you
have to do is place your ticket on the
interactive surface and watch in awe
as you are flooded with the details.
DEVICE SET UP
The Sixth sense device is a complete
surprise package when it comes
to its functionality and hardware. Just
as the device simplifies human craving
for information, it simplifies the way
you interact with it. You don’ t have
to be a rocket scientist to be absolutely
at ease operating it. T he device
has a portable camera, projector
and few color markers stuck onto the
fingers for gesture tracking.
The big plus of this device is that
you need not to carry a monitor display
with you wherever you go.
Rather you can magically turn any surface
of your choice into a vir tual
screen and start interacting with the
7 Electronics Spectra, 2010