Pranav Mistry’s SixthSense: Translating the Gesture of Writing into Symbolic Communication

I continue to write notes on paper with a black felt tip pen, though I’ll probably never read them. I long ago lost the ability to read my own handwriting. I continue to write this way largely out of habit. I like to think that the gesture of writing helps me remember something of what is written. After watching this demonstration of SixthSense, especially the scene in which Post-It notes are transcribed into words on the computer, I think what I do could be more than futile gestures.

I’ve been imagining a functional computer display, including the keyboard, as large as a wall where I could stand and work. I’d rebuild my workspace for a wall like that..

At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data — including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper “laptop.” In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he’ll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all.

Pranav Mistry is the inventor of SixthSense, a wearable device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data.