Tuesday TubeWatch: Minority Report to Sixth Sense to PHUD – Interface Advancement and Integration

In Minority Report, Tom Cruise’s character was able to interact with a very cool looking computer desktop that he could manipulate with special gloves just by waving his hands around.

Tom Cruise in Minority Report with a super-cool computer interface

Everyone wanted it. Then Microsoft created a table that was remarkably similar. You could move and resize digital pictures directly on the tabletop with just your fingers! The future was here!

But was it really a leap forward? I mean, it was cool and all, but was it a better way than the traditional mouse and keyboard? And could it be made cheaply enough to be affordable for the masses? And was it really useful for anyone but graphic designers? Was it going to make an impact on my daily life?

A while ago, my wife and I were discussing technology that would be useful in our lives, and I decided I wanted a Heads-Up Display (HUD) to help me remember people’s names. I’m horrible at remembering the names of people I meet. The great thing about a HUD (displayed in your glasses, for example — or you could wear Iron Man’s helmet) is that you could get so much more information than just a name. You could see where you met the person, what you last talked about, how many kids they have — really anything you recorded the last time you met them, and it could all be triggered by face recognition software. Pretty cool idea, huh?!

There are other uses, of course, for a Personal HUD (PHUD — I think I just coined that (wouldn’t it be great if it was invented by a guy named “Elmer”?)) but avoiding social awkwardness is why I want it.

Keep that in mind, and watch this video from the TED conference on a project called Sixth Sense:

Obviously this is some majorly cool technology. To be able to interact like that anywhere and it only costs $350 in prototype stage is incredible. You can dial your phone without touching your phone! You can get product reviews right in the store when you’re deciding to buy! Take pictures without touching your camera! Escape from the tyranny of the watch manufacturers!

Okay, I was getting a bit facetious there at the end, but really I think this is a very cool leap forward in technology. It’s the portability and practicality it offers that is the real selling point. That’s why it’s better than Microsoft’s table, or Minority Report’s computer. It’s not meant to be a replacement for your laptop or desktop. You’re not going to be writing documents or doing serious graphic work on this, for example. It’s meant to integrate with your daily life, available anytime, anywhere.

From an article on BBC News:

“If I’m doing something like CAD, I’m not going to choose the SixthSense interface,” says Liyan Chang, an MIT undergraduate working on the project.

“But in certain instances, it can do something that a desktop or laptop can’t do, which is quickly put information right where I want it to be, right on a wall or a newspaper in front of me.”

And if SixthSense catches on, what will we all make of the sight of dozens of people checking their e-mails on the walls of airports and train stations?

Dr. Pattie Maes laughs: “Well, I think it might actually be more socially acceptable than those Bluetooth earpieces people use these days. At least with our system you can actually see that people are interacting with information, instead of watching someone that looks like they’re just talking to themselves on a street.”

That last bit brings me back to the PHUD. I don’t really want people seeing the content of my email, for example. Let’s combine the coolness of Sixth Sense with the PHUD, and have the information display (perhaps optionally) on the inside of my glasses. To me, it would look like it’s just hanging out there in space, and to everyone else, it would just look like I’m a crazy person with colored fingertips waving my arms around, but my private information would be accessible privately while I’m in public. Then when I want to share, I could project on the wall. That would be cool.

And let’s get back to the real problem I need to solve: remembering names. In my original idea, the PHUD would just know the information about the person that I saved myself. The Sixth Sense team took it a step further. Did you hear what she said? You could get all sorts of information on a person from the internet and display it as “tags” for the person. If they have a website, or a Facebook or MySpace profile, it wouldn’t be hard at all to gather quite a bit of information very easily.

Reduce everyone to a few tags

This bit is controversial, as she says. There are definitely privacy concerns here. But the potential is so great. Is it a line you’re willing to cross?

What kinds of ideas do you have for practical ways to use this technology? Would you really use it? Does this sound like a good idea, or dangerous one? Or is it just a passing fad?

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