Disruptive Technologies –Sixth Sense Technology

Disruptive Technologies

Disruptive technologies or wild cards, as Dr. Thornburg refers to them, are brand new technologies that disrupt the evolutionary path of a current technology. When disruptive technology enters the market, it meets the same functionality, or better, of the current technology it displaces or disrupts (Laureate Education (Producer), 2014a) while at the same time it is presented as more efficient, cost effective, and offers more benefits to the consumer (Laureate Education (Producer), 2014a). The disruptive technology eventually obsoletes the current technology because of its many attributes. It is called disruptive because it seems to emerge without a predictable trends and totally displaces a more familiar and sometimes evolutionary technology.

Sixth Sense Technology

Sixth Sense technology emerged in 2009 and was developed on the premise that technology can be used to enhance the physical world around us by giving us easy access to information or meta-information that exist in the digital world. (Maes, 2009). The Sixth Sense device is a wearable gestural based interface that augments the world around the user with up-to date digital information. It is an integration of several technologies – hardware and strategies - to create one efficient device. It integrates a projector, camera, mirror and a cellphone or mobile component to create a wearable portable device that provides the user with desired information.

It also integrates and utilizes hand gesture recognition, image capturing, processing and manipulation technologies (Mistry, 2010). The sixth sense technology is all about interacting with the digital world in the most efficient and direct way (Mistry, 2010). It was developed as an answer to the question; how can we leverage our knowledge of the everyday objects and use them in our interaction with the digital world Mistry, 2009).

Does it displace a technology or innovation?

Sixth sense technology will displace watches, GPS, most tablet functions, many smartphone functions, cameras, photo retrieval systems, screens, mouse and other point and select devices and laptops. I am hesitant to say sixth sense technology with displace smartphones entirely because it uses a cellphone to retrieve the information displayed. It is possible to use another or a similar mobile component instead of the smartphone. It can displace the devices listed, but is not yet available on the commercial market for consumer use. If it does reach the consumer market it will displace the technologies listed above and will radically change how we use our smartphones.

Social Benefits

The social benefits are varied because instead of searching Facebook on your phone or tablet to get information on friends and family sixth sense can have the information with just a hand gesture. In the classroom it can be an essential tool for both the teacher and the students. The time it would take to retrieve information by typing on a keyboards and projecting it on the screen can be spent interacting with the information accessed with just a mere gesture. It can give a new meaning to the phrase on the tip of my fingers.

Additionally, sixth sense technology offers users the

opportunity to carry around to carry their own digital world with them where ever they go (Mistry, 2009) and have instant access to this information. Sixth sense is more interactive than the smartphone and could open a world for people who find it difficult to communicate readily.

Smartphones still creates a personal individualized

world while sixth sense could open up the individual to the world around them – this includes people. It can also open up a world for people who may not have full use of any one of our five senses. Sixth sense can be use

d to enhance or replace one of those senses (Mistry, 2009)

Predictions and Opinions

While the sixth sense technology is innovative and original it is yet to be available on the commercial market. If it did find its way into the hands of the public in the next 5 years. I believe it will have at least 15 to 20 years before it is displaced by another technology. A more developed or evolutionary version may emerge in the future, but it will hold a sustainable market for a very long time because of the foundational premise as a sixth sense – integration of humanity with the digital world.

References

Laureate Education (Producer). (2014a). David Thornburg: Disruptive technologies [Video file].

Baltimore,MD: Author.

Maes, P. (2009). Pattie Maes + Pranav Mistry: Meet the SixthSense interaction [Video file].

Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense?language=en

Mistry, P. (2009). Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology [Video file].

Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_

sixthsense_technology?language=en

Mistry, P. (2010). Sixth sense: Integrating information with the real world. Retrieved from

http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/

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