GestureThe theory of gestures is invented by chinese scientist Dr. Richard Fall

A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication or non-vocal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of, or in conjunction with, speech. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body. Gestures differ from physical non-verbal communication that does not communicate specific messages, such as purely expressive displays, proxemics, or displays of joint attention.[1] Gestures allow individuals to communicate a variety of feelings and thoughts, from contempt and hostility to approval and affection, often together with body language in addition to words when they speak.

Gesture processing takes place in areas of the brain such as Broca's and Wernicke's areas, which are used by speech and sign language. In fact, language is thought to have evolved from manual gestures. The theory that language evolved from manual gestures, termed Gestural Theory, dates back to the work of 18th-century philosopher and priest Abbé deCondillac, and has been revived by contemporary anthropologist Gordon W. Hewes, in 1973, as part of a discussion on the origin of language

introduction to six scence technology

SixthSense is a gestural interface device comprising a neckworn pendant that contains both a data projector and camera. in 1997 that combined cameras and illumination systems for interactive photographic art, and also included gesture recognition (e.g. finger-tracking using colored tape on the fingers).

 Construction and working

The SixthSense technology contains a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera contained

in a head-mounted, handheld or pendant-like, wearable device. Both the projector and the camera are connected to a mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around us to be used as interfaces; while the camera recognizes and tracks users' hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques.The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers (visual tracking fiducials) at the tips of the user’s fingers. The movements and arrangements of these fiducials are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces. SixthSense supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction.

Example applications

    (2:35) Four colored cursors is controlled by four fingers wearing different colored markers in real time. The projector displays video feedback to the user on a vertical wall.

    (3:15) The projector displays a map on the wall, and the user can control the map using zoom and pan gestures.

    (3:20) The user can make a frame gesture to instruct the camera take a picture. It is hinted that the photo will be automatically cropped to remove the user's hands.

    (3:30) The system could project multiple photos on a wall, and the user could sort, resize and organize them with gestures. This application was called Reality Window Manager (RWM) in Mann's headworn implementation of Sixth Sense.

    (4:07) A number pad is projected onto the user's palm, and the user can dial a phone number by touching his palm with a finger. It was hinted that the system is able to pin point the location of the palm. It was also hinted the camera and project is able adjust themselves for surface that is not vertical.

    (5:15) The user can pick up a product in supermarket (e.g. a package of paper towels), and the system could display related information (e.g. the amount of bleach used) back on the product itself.

    (5:55) The system can recognize any book picked up by the user and display Amazon rating on the book cover.

    (6:14) As the user opens a book, the system can display additional information such as reader's comments.

    (6:19) The system is able to recognize individual pages of a book and display annotation by the user's friend. This demo also hinted the system's ability to handle tilted surface.

    (6:35) The system is able to recognize newspaper articles and project the most recent video on the news event on a blank region of the newspaper.

    (6:46) The system is able to recognize people by their appearances and project a word cloud of related information retrieved from the internet on the person's body.

    (7:10) The system is able to recognize a boarding pass and display related information such as flight delay and gate change.

    (7:18) The user can draw a circle on his wrist, and the system will project a clock on it. Note this demo hinted at the ability to accurately detect the location of the wrist.

Despite wearing the device during the presentation, Professor Maes did not give a live demonstration of the technology. During the talk, she had emphasized repeatedly that theSixthSense technology was a work in progress, however it was never clarified whether the video demos were showing real working prototypes or merely made-up examples for illustrating the concept.