The Future is Now

As much of a technology whore that I am, very few things make me sit up and beg for more. Sure, I get all giddy about the Palm Pre - but that's because a) I'm a Palm junkie, and b) I'm anti-Apple, so I'd very much like this to be the true challenger to the iPhone. I own a Sony Reader, but it's a convenience thing. They interest me, perhaps even excite me - but I don't look at it and go "holy shit, that's awesome!"

I may have found the tech that does that to me.

As a point of reference, I'm sure you've all seen the movie Minority Report with Tom "Krazy-Ass" Cruise. I'm specifically referring to the scenes where he's using his hands to manipulate icons on a virtual computer screen. There was a similar tech in the syndicated tv show "Earth: Final Conflict" (geeks, represent!) It's a technology we all dream about seeing "one day", but honestly don't believe we're there yet.

Well...if we're not there, we're frighteningly close.

The following video is a demo of tech created at MIT and still being developed. They're calling it a Sixth Sense technology - tech that uses a projector and a camera to pick up information about items around you, process that information, and then project data back for you to view/manipulate.

It's virtual, in reality.

I admit, talking about is very ho-hum-yawn. But you absolutely MUST see it in action to fully appreciate it. There's a scene in the demo video where the guy wants to know what time it is, so he uses his finger to draw a circle on his wrist - and the device projects a clockface onto his wrist, with the current time! He picks up a book in a brick-and-mortar bookstore, and the device reads the cover, goes out to Amazon, grabs the user ratings for the book and starts displaying it - right onto the book itself, for you to see.

It's an incredible concept, if this ever comes to market and is scaled down to a device that's a little less awkward-looking. If it could be packaged in something the size of a bluetooth headset for your ear...

Really, the future would BE now.

Watch the video. Skip ahead to about minute 3:10, when the cool demo's start if you don't want to hear the explanations on how it works.