Project Sixth Sense

Watch the video before you commence reading this entry:

As I started watching this video, I had the following notion “what is this kid from some village in Gujarat with a stereotypical accent up to”? As the video progressed, this notion changed and I developed a deep sense of respect for him and his innovation.

He has made a commendable journey from a small town in Gujarat to the prestigious MIT via IIT. This kid is Pranav Mistry from Palanpur Gujarat and I truly appreciate his genius attempt at making this. He calls this project Sixth Sense and you can read a lot more on this on his website.

Some of these gestures can be handy while some of them do have their share of user-embedded challenges. A quick detour, user-embedded challenges are those that have questions around usability. Typically, you would want to ask, “Will a user be able to adopt this new way of using technology”?

The most imperative user embedded challenge is of having to carry a camera around your neck. Not everyone is going to be convinced and comfortable.

As a semi-professional photographer (semi-professional since the day I bought my Nikon D90) and being bashful of pointing my camera to everyday street objects, this will expedient my embarrassment by allowing me to speedily position my fingers and take a click. Like the audience, I too was swept by the idea and gave it an applause. However, what troubles me is will I have the quality as near as my DSLR? Will I be able to give the picture the right perspective? This style will best suit amateur of amateurs and my grandmother who will largely point straight and shoot.

At large airports in non-English speaking foreign worlds it will be convenient to place the boarding card on a screen that will direct you to the boarding gate. But where will a stapler and scissor (if you manage to carry them through the security check), sunglasses and keys take you? I am guessing the bottle of Tabasco sauce and the coffee mug will take you to some eatery around the corner but where am I to get a bottle of Tabasco sauce and a mug of coffee? Who carries a bottle of sauce or a mug when travelling?

When I am running low on reading material, I will often prepare a list after browsing through book rating and review websites. Then, invariably I will forget to carry the list or if I am carrying the list, my local bookstore will not have a copy. This leaves me alone to make the buy decision. The thought of having this concept show me the book reviews as I browse the store is intriguing. This can be easily extended to movies at theatres or to as you walk through a library or store.

I am not being critical of the concept; I really admire Pranav’s vision and his motive. It is a rave of an idea and it deserves all the duly awarded accolades. The concept is there, he was able to put together a prototype and demonstrate it, but it is not really out there. I hear he is running behind schedule but it is just a matter of time. For all you know, the delay could be attributed to the fact that he is working to overcoming some of the embedment challenges.

What is your judgment on Pranav’s Sixth Sense project?

PS: A viewer on You Tube had an interesting comment to make. The movie Sixth Sense and the Gestural concept Sixth Sense were both very creative and were both conceived by Indians – Night Shyamalan and Pranav Mistry. This is something to cheer about.