Matsuda’s stunning video clip was created as part of his Masters’ program at the Bartlett School of Architecture, and envisions a future in which augmented reality has embedded itself into our everyday lives, transforming the way we interact with our living and working spaces. A wondrous world of heads-up displays show contextual information for everything from dishwasher status, to tea kettle temperature updates, to an inventory of the items in your fridge. Oh yeah, and lots and lots of ads.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I, for one do not want my kitchen walls covered with banner ads – even if they are targeted to my midnight cravings for Krispy Kremes and Grape Tang (unless Kozmo was still in business and could deliver those items in 30 minutes or less.)

Ah, the future’s so bright, you’ve gotta hope the AdBlock Plus guys are working on an augmented reality version of their app.

[via bldgblog via The Awesomer]

The Wikireader’s interface, as you can see, was made to be as simple as possible. There’s a search button, which I assume brings up the on-screen keyboard when pressed; there’s also a history button which gives you a list of entries you’ve browsed, and a random button, for nerds who can’t think of anything better to do with their time. I’m sure my right index finger and the random button will be friends in no time at all.

The simple interface,  predictive text input plus the fact that it doesn’t need an Internet connection makes this a must-have gadget for me. I think the device could use a bigger screen, but yeah I’m sold. WANT. Openmoko also claims that the device can last a year on just 2 AAA batteries. Actually that’s not hard to believe, considering it’ll only display text in black & white.

You can get a Wikireader for $100 (USD) at the product’s website; a memory card containing with “over 3 million” English Wikipedia entries is included with each purchase. There are two planned update schemes: you can either download updates for free, or for an annual fee of $29, have the updates delivered to you in the form of microSD cards. While the Wikireader does have a Wikipedia entry, you’ll learn more if you check out it’s website instead.

[via gadgetizer]

As you can see, SixthSense is made up of a camera that tracks the color-marked fingers, and a projector to display whatever relevant information the system digs up. What’s not in the picture is of course the computer itself, in this case a “mobile computing device” installed with software that analyzes the gestures and the objects captured by the camera, so that it can respond and provide the appropriate information. What sort of information? Let’s start with a little trick: if Mistry traces a small circle on his wrist using his index finger, SixthSense will project a watch onto his wrist:

There are many other gestures that the system recognizes – drawing a magnifying glass projects a map application, while drawing the ‘@’ symbol lets the user check his/her email. SixthSense can also interact with everyday objects, like in the image below where it reveals that the flight which the user has a ticket to is delayed.

And here we see SixthSense providing Amazon’s rating for a book on the book’s cover itself:

SixthSense can also pull up video from the internet:

That right there is so awesome. SO AWESOME. As you can see, SixthSense is like a portable, more intuitive, multi-touch version of Google. As Pranav Mistry says on his website: “SixthSense frees information from its confines by seamlessly integrating it with reality, and thus making the entire world your computer.”

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

And the best part? All this automagical stuff we’ve seen was achieved on a prototype that costs only $350 USD to build. There are netbooks that are more expensive than this system. If SixthSense becomes mass-produced or integrated into computing devices, I’d imagine prices will only go south of that figure. SixthSense really has the potential to make digital information as accessible as possible, the same way that cellular phones made communication instant and affordable.

[via Pop Sci]