Sixth Sense Technology

SixthSense (also known as WUW: Wear Ur World) is yet another amazing technology that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information. The idea has been conceived by Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT Media Lab and has already won an astonishing amount of awards as well as amazing attention through press coverage. In simple words, the Sixth Sense is a mini-projector coupled with a camera and a cellphone, which acts as the computer and your connection to the Cloud - all the information stored on the web.



Information is often confined to paper or computer screens. SixthSense (also known as WUW: Wear Ur World) frees data from these confines and releases it into the world, seamlessly integrating information and reality. With the miniaturization of computing devices we are always connected to the digital world, but there is no link between our interactions with these digital devices and our interactions with the physical world. SixthSense bridges this gap by augmenting the physical world with digital information. It brings intangible information into the tangible world. Using a projector and camera worn as a pendant around the neck, SixthSense sees what you see and visually augments surfaces or objects with which you interact. It projects information onto any surface or object, and allows users to interact with the information through natural hand gestures, arm movements, or with the object itself. SixthSense makes the entire world your computer.



Cudos to Josh Chan for sharing this with me!

Shii - The Wii for Women

This hilarious sketch from the Belgian comedy show M!LF (Man! Liberation Front) has had more than 4.5 million views on YouTube and became a huge viral internet success. The Shii is an interactive game console witch features games like Steamy Iron II, Kitchen Queens, Shave Invaders, Extreme Knitting IV and Suckend Life...



Thanks to Anna for sharing this masterpiece with me :-)

Yellow Bird

Yellow Bird is a really far-fetched name for such an awesome technology, but you'll certainly get it once you see their knowhow. Meanwhile, just imaging Google Street View in video - that's what yellowBird^® is!



Yellow birds don't have wings but they fly to make you experience a 3D reality

See also:

• Company's Website
• TechCrunch: If You Could See Google Street View In Video, It Would Look Like YellowBird

Touchable Holography

Great research presented a couple of days ago at SIGGRAPH'2009. Two researchers from the University of Tokyo created a tactile device capable of producing stress fields in 3D space. Combined with 3D stereoscopic displays, this device provides high-fidelity tactile feedback for the interaction with 3D visual objects.



See also:

• Authors' description of the idea
• SIGGRAPH'09: Non-contact Method for Producing Tactile Sensation Using Airborne Ultrasound
• Компьюлента: Продемонстрирована осязаемая голограмма

Layar - World's First Mobile Augmented Reality Browser

Simply AMAZING idea! Layar allows you to see what is around you by displaying realtime digital information on top of reality through the camera of your of your mobile phone.



See also:

• Layar's website
• CNN: New phone apps seek to 'augment' reality

Film Colorization

I've always thought of film colorization as a visual effect that would be too costly to do on movies besides proving the point it is possible. I changed my mind recently when I saw the two probably most famous soviet black-and-white movies colorized.

The first one is "Seventeen Moments of Spring" (by Tatyana Lioznova, 1973)



and the second one is "Only Old Men Are Going to Battle" (by Leonid Bykov, 1973)



This last one shows a bit of the original movie at the beginning to give you a feel of the effect.

See also:

• Wikipedia's article on Film colorization
  
• HowStuffWorks: How do they color old black-and-white movies?