Prior to writing this post, I watched the following two videos on a SixthSense Technology demo that enables seamless interaction between the real world and the world of data. While watching these videos my jaw was literally dropping continuously when they demonstrated specific tools their technology provides. Simply by performing logical and natural gestures, one can manipulate any physical interface around them using a camera/projector/mirror system.
The possibilities and realities of this technology are never ending and quickly expanding and i find myself surprisingly terrified. If you would like to watch someone take a picture with only their fingers, get book ratings simply by holding the book up, and get a video report while holding up an every day newspaper, then check out these videos:
When watching these videos I was undoubtedly impressed but also overwhelmed. Here is a creation that will be sold to people for only $350.00-- not much different from the price of an iPhone. So this technology is not something distant and far away, it is something that will be pervasive in my own life and possibly change the future career I have or re-structure the very nature of the work I will be doing. Discoveries this grandiose do not go unnoticed.
In the video, the lead creator Pranav Mistry states that this SixthSense technology "will help us stay human and be more connected with our physical world". He claims this because being outside and interacting with physical interfaces to attain information is preferable to sitting in front of lifeless machines all day [lap top, cell phones, kindles, etc]. And in this regard I think this is true to a certain degree. However, when people did not have so much accessible information literally at their fingertips, they would be able to focus on their surroundings or escape the technology for a little while when they were out and about. I think that these breaks from the digital world are incredibly important and decreasing exponentially.
Our world is becoming increasingly digital and it is not something that will slow down or plateau, it will keep advancing with incredible force and I suppose I do not like the feeling of always being behind. It is impossible to stay on top and proficient in all of the technologies available. I absolutely believe we are tuning out our physical world and I do not even like to think about what life will be like 50 years from now. Sure, we will have information available in any place and in any way we want it someday, but is that worth losing our sense of reality? I guess it doesn't matter what the answer to that question is, because we will find out regardless, and maybe that is what I dislike the most. Unless I decide to live under a rock, I will be forced to learn and adapt to these new technologies.
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