Saturday, November 21, 2009

Video of the Week: Pranav Mistry's Trilling SixthSense Technology

The Minority Report comes to life! Spectacular and smashingly exciting - imagine dialing a phone using your palm, or checking out the time in a clock you've just drawn on your wrist!At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data -- including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper "laptop." In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he'll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all. (Video duration 13:51)

Pranav Mistry is a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT's Media Lab. Before his studies at MIT, he worked with Microsoft as a UX researcher; he's a graduate of IIT. Mistry is passionate about integrating the digital informational experience with our real-world interactions.

Some previous projects from Mistry's work at MIT includes intelligent sticky notes, Quickies, that can be searched and can send reminders; a pen that draws in 3D; and TaPuMa, a tangible public map that can act as Google of physical world. His research interests also include Gestural and Tangible Interaction, Ubiquitous Computing, AI, Machine Vision, Collective Intelligence and Robotics.

From ted.com. The interactive transcript of talk is here.

Updated: 11/23: See Fareed Zakaria’s clip on TED, SixthSense, and India as Innovation Nation.