|Contact:|| Rosemary W. Stevens
Ace Public Relations
For Immediate Release:
BOSTON, MA - (March 25, 2009) -- Dr. Pattie Maes, Director of the Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab and Pranav Mistry, a graduate student within the same group, have developed 'Sixth Sense', a wearable device that presents the user with a revolutionary way to interact with the world. Sixth Sense enables the wearer to summon data or virtual gadgets, such as a watch or mobile phone, interact with these virtual objects and dispose of them at will. The device, which premiered at the TED conference last month (to a standing ovation), will be demonstrated at ACM's Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) conference on Tuesday, April 7th at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
“We had a desire to see if we could have seamless access to data or information that may exist to help us make decisions. Sixth Sense provides access to relevant information about the things in our environment and enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data,” notes Dr. Maes.
“Although the miniaturization of computing devices allows us to carry computers in our pockets, there had been no link between the digital devices we carry and our interactions with the physical world. We developed Sixth Sense to seamlessly integrate information into reality. It serves to bridge the gap by bringing digital information out into the tangible world, and allows us to interact with this information by using natural hand gestures,” explains Mistry.
The annual conference on Computer-Human Interaction (www.chi2009.org) is the premier worldwide forum for exchanging information on all aspects of how people interact with computers. CHI 2009 runs from April 4-9, at the Hynes Convention Center. It offers two days of pre-conference workshops and four days of dynamic sessions that explore the future of computer-human interaction with researchers, practitioners, educators and students.
More than 2000 professionals from over 40 countries are expected at this year's conference, which marks 27 years of research, innovation and development of the Computer-Human Interaction community. CHI 2009 is sponsored by the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction (SIGCHI). Organizations contributing to the financial support of the conference include Autodesk, Inc.; Google, Inc.; Microsoft Corp.; and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery (www.acm.org), is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field’s challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession’s collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.
MIT graduate student Pranav Mistry demonstrates 'Sixth Sense', a wearable computing device that provides a revolutionary way to interact with the world. Mistry demonstrates dialing a mobile phone using a keypad projected onto his hand.
MIT graduate student Pranav Mistry demonstrates 'Sixth Sense', a wearable computing device that provides a revolutionary way to interact with the world. Component parts of the Sixth Sense device are labeled.
MIT graduate student Pranav Mistry demonstrates 'Sixth Sense', a wearable computing device that provides a revolutionary way to interact with the world. Mistry demonstrates manipulating a projected image using gestures.