'SixthSense' Video

[PerDev]

This looks interesting..
http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/#VIDEOS

'SixthSense' is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us

use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.

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 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.

The SixthSense 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 (visual tracking fiducials) at the tip of the user’s fingers using simple computer-vision techniques. The

movements and arrangements of these fiducials 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

fiducials, thus SixthSense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction.

The SixthSense 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.

SixthSense also recognizes user’s freehand gestures (postures). For example, the SixthSense 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. SixthSense 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 an ‘@’ symbol lets the user check his mail. The

SixthSense 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.