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LONG BEACH, California (AFP) — US university researchers have created a portable "sixth sense" device powered by commercial products that can seamlessly channel Internet information into daily routines.
The device created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists can turn any surface into a touch-screen for computing, controlled by simple hand gestures.
The gadget can even take photographs if a user frames a scene with his or her hands, or project a watch face with the proper time on a wrist if the user makes a circle there with a finger.
The MIT wizards cobbled a Web camera, a battery-powered projector and a mobile telephone into a gizmo that can be worn like jewelry. Signals from the camera and projector are relayed to smart phones with Internet connections.
"Other than letting some of you live out your fantasy of looking as cool as Tom Cruise in 'Minority Report' it can really let you connect as a sixth sense device with whatever is in front of you," said MIT researcher Patty Maes.
Maes used a Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference stage in Southern California on Wednesday to unveil the futuristic gadget made from store-bought components costing about 300 dollars (US).
The device can recognize items on store shelves, retrieving and projecting information about products or even providing quick signals to let users know which choices suit their tastes.
The gadget can look at an airplane ticket and let the user know whether the flight is on time, or recognize books in a book store and then project reviews or author information from the Internet onto blank pages.
The gizmo can recognize articles in newspapers, retrieve the latest related stories or video from the Internet and play them on pages.
"You can use any surface, including your hand if nothing else is available, and interact with the data," Maes said.
"It is very much a work in progress. Maybe in ten years we will be here with the ultimate sixth-sense brain implant."
MIT researchers have finally invented a wearable computer that doesn't make you look like a complete dork.
The secret? Getting rid of the screen and keyboard, according to Agence France-Presse.
Instead, what the MIT team calls the "sixth sense" device, or rather series of devices, projects what you need to see or use onto any flat surface, which you can then use as a screen or keyboard.
The system's made up of $350 worth of off-the-shelf parts: a Webcam, a Web-connected smartphone and a mini-projector, all hooked up to each other. They're worn around your neck or, if you're willing to look a bit dumb, on your head.
Want to take a picture of what you're looking at? Make a square with your fingers -- the Webcam will snap a photo.
Need to see the time? Make a circle with your fingers, and the projector will beam a clock face down on it.
"Other than letting some of you live out your fantasy of looking as cool as Tom Cruise in 'Minority Report,'" developer Pattie Maes told an audience at the TED conference in Long Beach, Calif., on Wednesday, "it can really let you connect as a sixth sense device with whatever is in front of you."
The system can also project a keyboard for you to type on, spot items on store shelves and compare their online prices or give you the day's newspapers to be read on a blank flat space in front of you.
"It is very much a work in progress," said Maes. "Maybe in ten years we will be here with the ultimate sixth-sense brain implant."