D&M Innoventions series are each week-end on Disney and more and the goal is to introduce some amazing technologies. If you like Epcot, Tomorrowland and the spirit of the Future, then this article is for you!
I've always thought that a lot of geniuses will come from India and the video embedded today brings a perfect proof. Don't go away as not only you will discover the future and a amazing technology but also a real genius: Pranav Mistry.
Pranav Mistry is born in 1981 in Palanpur, India. He is a young research assistant and a PhD candidate at Massachusets Institute of Technology Media Lab and most of all the inventor of "SixthSense". A lot of modern inventions came from the MIT, and this one is fantastic. Pranav Mistry is passionate about integrating the world of information with our real world interactions. Among some of his previous work, Pranav has made intelligent sticky notes that can be searched, located and can send reminders and messages; a pen that can draw in 3D; and a public map that can act as Google of physical world. His latest invention, Sixth Sense, has been awarded 2009 Invention Award by Popular Science. Pranav Mistry also won Young Innovator Award TR35 by Technology Review and has been called "one of the two or three, best inventors in the world right now".
So, what did he invented? Pranav will explain it to you better than i can do on the video below but, basically, here it is: Right now, you're reading this article on my site, i.e you are on internet. Which means that YOU are coming to the virtual world. Well, Pranav Mistry invented a way to have the "virtual world" coming into our "physical world", i.e exactly the contrary. And, as he did it using things which are already existing we won't have to wait twenty years before it arrives in our reality, it can be done right NOW! And here is the best: all what you will see on this video from a TED conference - if you take the time to look at it, which i hope - can be done for a cost amazingly cheap, not more than $500, i think.
It's not every day that we discover a true genius, and Pranav Mistry is one of them. And the beauty of it is that everything looks so simple...
Below, the 13 min TED video and good news for my non-english readers as you can choose to watch it with subtitles and have the choice of 14 different languages!
And it seems that Pranav opened the way for others researchers as you will see with the next video showing the Skinput system created by Chris Harrison of Carnegie Mellon University and Dan Morris and Desney Tan of the Microsoft's research lab in Redmond. The system is a marriage of two technologies: the ability to detect the ultralow-frequency sound produced by tapping the skin with a finger, and the microchip-sized "pico" projectors now found in some cellphones.
And all this for doing what, you ask? Well, to put it simply, in a near future instead to dial a phone number on your mobile phone you'll be able to do it directly on your hand - and, yes, without holding any mobile phone! Even better, the system will allow to choose options just by tapping your forearm as this one could become part of a skin-based interface that effectively turns your body into a touchscreen!
Have a look below at this other video to be amazed once again!
Video: copyright TED, Skinput
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