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This is amazingly Cool, and definitely with a capital C. Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry from MIT showcase Sixth Sense in this TED talk (video below). Sixth Sense is an augmented reality device that takes information from the net that is contextually relevant to what is currently in front of you, and seamlessly integrates it in to your viewing space.

The device works using a small camera to track movement and a projector to display information on any surface you present (from the wall to your hand).

Imagine picking up a book in the book store and having the Amazon.com or Goodreads.com reader rating projected on its cover (and reviews projected on the blank inner sleeve), a clock projected on to your wrist or a picture taken by making a square around your subject of choice with your hands. All of these are demonstrated in the below video.

And the best bit? Sixth Sense is going open source. I am so going to be one of the first in line for this.

Filed under: IT by Chris

I’ve come across a number of cool sites and projects over the last week, as well as read a number of really thought provoking articles so I figured that I would filter for the best (in my mind) and put them up here.

1. Hexagon.cc

A torrent search engine / tracker site that has a definite social media feel and focus – which is pretty trendy at the moment.

Apparently the site is foundered by, amongst others, one of the admins of the large torrent search engine IsoHunt. Hexagon.cc looks really interesting as it will allow people to start up their own social-sharing networks for torrents and videos. The site is really cleanly designed and seems to be focusing on the convenient sharing of torrent information for legitimate material. Looks really promising!

http://hexagon.cc

2. OS FLV (and FlowPlayer)

The open source, embeddable FLV player.

This player is great for embedding your own video content on your site or blog, without hosting your video material on a third-party website such as YouTube or Vimeo. Whilst I have no problem with either of those services (I use both quite regularly) sometimes it is nice to have your video hosted locally, and have more control over how it is played back (you can have videos start automatically, loop and even customise the ’static image’).

Another player that looks great (maybe even better) is FlowPlayer, but I’ve not played around with it too much yet.

http://www.osflv.com
http://www.flowplayer.org

3. Zero-S Electric Motorcycle

Fully-electric street legal motorcycle.

Fairly-decent max speed (90kph) and mid-range ‘mileage’ (~80km) makes this look like a really promising green motorcycle solution. At that range and top speed it would be a pretty decent bike for intra-city riding, not so good for inter-city, given that most highways in Australia have a limit of about 100-110kph). Give it a few years and I imagine we’ll see bikes with highway compatible top speeds and a longer range. It takes about 4 hours to recharge – what I would like to see is ‘battery exchange programs’ at fuel stations for electric bikes.

http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/zero-s-specs.php

4. Stargate Worlds

Being a big Stargate fan I was stoked to find out recently that their was an MMORPG being made for the Stargate universe! It looks as though it is in beta too, with a tabled release of 2009. I might even consider getting a Windows box up and running to play this game, reviews pending.

http://www.stargateworlds.com/

Aaand some interesting articles (ripped from Twitter)

• Not every cloud has a silver lining: the real attraction behind cloud computing (@doctorow in The Guardian) http://bit.ly/19qSGI
• RT @slashdot: MPAA Pushes Once Again To Close the Analog Hole http://bit.ly/3wTZ6O

Filed under: internet by Chris