Third Magazine

What could Pranav Mistry’s “SixthSense” device mean for 3D?

Posted on 08. Nov, 2009 by "Mitch" in Industry

This week at the TedIndia conference, developer Pranav Mistry announced that his “SixthSense” device would be open source. This creates a great opportunity to discuss the possibilities of 3D technology within a projected gestures device. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the “SixthSense” device, I’d suggest reading the wiki about it as well as watching a demo of the device over at TED. Basically it’s a wearable device that projects content onto any surface and you interact at with it as you would any other gesture device (iPhone, Surface). 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.

The SixthSense prototype uses a small and conventional projector to throw an image onto a surface. But in our opinion gestures just beg to be used within a 3D environment. Often times people think of 3D as merely a passive experience to observe something coming at you. However the idea of 3D objects coming from the first person perspective married with gesturing and image recognition technologies could open up entirely new real life interactive social environments. One could see the potential in incorporating a 3D projector into a Bluetooth ear piece or possibly project from a pair of eyeglasses. However, power for projecting is still a major issue.   Using safer forms of laser projecting technologies, we could achieve lens-free 3D effects that come from the first person.  With this, our surroundings could be virtually adapted based on our preferences, experiences, and the “cloud”.

Updated:  video from the TEDIndia conference.