Demo of a New "Sixth Sense" Technology 187
TEDChris writes "Here's an intriguing attempt at a versatile new tech device that tries to augment the wearer's five senses. It comes out of Patty Maes's group at the MIT Media Lab. By combining a computerized personal projector with a camera and linking both to the Net, a host of surprising new applications becomes possible. This 8-minute demo created a lot of buzz at TED last month and was posted online today. Would love to know what the Slashdot community makes of it."
Re:I already have more than five senses (Score:3, Insightful)
Overlay on my glass instead... (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope I can get the information overlay'ed on my glass instead of projecting out. First it should get better contrast, second I don't need to display what I am looking to the public.
Put the calibration aside, I would need to start wearing glass...Or should we get the video overlay signal injected into the brain?
Re:I already have more than five senses (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I already have more than five senses (Score:3, Insightful)
Did you watch the video? There is definitely something to see here.
I expected to have a foodarackacycle and a rosie robot by now, at least a flying car. But this will do for now.
Re:I have a sixth sense. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How the Hell is this a sense, or even useful? (Score:5, Insightful)
A lot of technology is the combination of existing pieces. What makes it useful is how the pieces are combined. Are search engines useful for that matter - they're essentially queries running on databases right?
Besides, it's a demo of a work in progress. You could have come up with this - but did you? Did you even think about it and envision it as completely as it was presented in the video, let alone implement it?
This is a work of genius. Please do not belittle it.
Solution in search of a problem (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Overlay on my glass instead... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, that was my reaction. It's one thing if all the information being displayed would be a standard default, but as soon as you customize what data to show you, you're already displaying private information about yourself whenever using this. It'd be much better if it was displayed in a format that was private, that only you could see.
Beyond that, if it's something mounted in your glasses, it seems like it opens the potential (perhaps) to track eye movement and therefore guess at what you're looking at. That might open the door to have it make more intelligent guesses as to what kind of information you're looking for, instead of just displaying information about whatever happens to be in front of you.
But I gather from the video that this was all just supposed to be a starting point or proof of concept rather than an actual product. Maybe given an investment, building it into glasses would be more feasible.
Re:I already have more than five senses (Score:5, Insightful)
I would say we have only 4 senses
And I would say you're too smart for your own good. A sense is an aspect of the physical world you can detect, it's *not* the type of physical phenomena being utilized in the sense. Otherwise, all senses are just chemical (or electro-chemical, if you want).
The sense of up and down is distinct from the sense of rough or smooth, even though both use pressure, just like a radio antenna and a roll of photographic film are distinct even though they both measure electromagnetism.
Someone Please Tell Me (Score:3, Insightful)
Just what really revolutionary devices have been developed and put into common use by MIT Media Lab? I see a lot of hype from them, and it's getting less and less realistic and more obviously pie-in-the-sky. Science in the popular media only requires this condition and that's where Media Lab seems to live now. Real applications require more. What concretely have they done, previously and lately?
If they're stuck in theory mode, so be it. But then they should present their theories as such, not as super duper gaming gizmos on the verge of revolutionizing everyday life.
I'm still waiting for my jeans with the embedded keyboard they "demo'd" a decade or more ago.
We only have five senses? (Score:3, Insightful)
Hmm ...
Taste, smell, vision, hearing, touch, balance, temperature, spatial.
I suspect I'm leaving several more out, but which ones am I supposed to ditch?