Saturday, December 5, 2009

SixthSense: The Next Evolutionary Leap in Personal Computing & (Hopefully) Edtech?

I should be studying, but I made the "miskate" of checking my Twitter streams first this morning. When looking at my #edtech search, I came across a tweet that actually sent me to the second of the two videos below, which then sent me on a rabbit trail I'm excited to have gone down.

I had not heard of SixthSense technology before today. It's a project being worked on by MIT Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces Group, led by Pattie Maes and her student Pranav Mistry. Assuming continued successful development, this technology has potential for causing a huge paradigm shift in personal "computing", and it SHOULD be hugely impactful in the world of education. (I say SHOULD because of the unfortunate slowness of adopting new technologies especially in the K-12 world). I predict this for two reasons:
  1. The technology behind the device costs around $300, well in reach of the masses in developed nations.
  2. Mistry plans to open source the technology.
Is your curiosity meter revved up yet? What is this SixthSense thing that has me blogging instead of studying this morning? I invite you to watch the two videos below - combined they are about 20 minutes in length and they will convince you I think. Only have time for one? The first one gives a great overview of the technology. But the second one is also cool because it talks about the development - I like the "story behind the stuff". By the way, you can follow @SixthSenseTech on Twitter if your interest is piqued.

I also invite you to leave a comment on how you think this might impact society and culture in general, and education in particular.

I leave you to the videos, while I go study so I can finish my master's degree and hopefully live to see this technology integrated into K-12 one day. :-)