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Ask HN: What Happened to SixthSense by Pranav Misty

31 points by redbell 4y ago

Let's face it.. it was a thing, a mind-blowing concept that makes you feel like you are dreaming while watching his presentation. It was truly "ahead of its time" back then.. However, at present time, with the buzz around VR-AR and recently, this "metaverse" thing, I didn't arrive to any mentions of the SixthSense or its creator, so I was wondering for a quite time now whether the idea was acquired by an AR-VR company or Pranav got hired, for this specific project, by a tech company. For those landed here by curiosity, welcome to SixthSense, watch now https://youtu.be/YrtANPtnhyg

aaron695 4y ago
newsoul 4y ago
I think he worked for Samsung : https://www.pranavmistry.com/ https://www.pranavmistry.com/
- redbell 4y ago
  Oh, thank you! So it appears that he worked there for 9 years and was in the hardware field with exposure to VR.. really interesting.
chabad360 4y ago
It's seems you can find the (unfortunately unmaintained) code on GitHub: https://github.com/sixthsense/sixthsense https://github.com/sixthsense/sixthsense and Google code: https://code.google.com/archive/p/sixthsense/ https://code.google.com/archive/p/sixthsense/
ctoth 4y ago
Ha! I e-mailed this guy back in 2009 to talk about the potential of the tech for blind users (sixth sense could be a fifth for the blind) and he never got back to me. Haven't thought about this in years. Thanks OP!
keepquestioning 4y ago
- nooby12345 4y ago
  Disregarding your comment on the creator's ethnicity, what made you think the idea has been kept alive.
- seanp2k2 4y ago
vedran 4y ago
Reminds me of Dynamicland: https://dynamicland.org/ https://dynamicland.org/ from Bret Victor. Which was previously discussed on HN at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26725370 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26725370
- nmaleki 4y ago
  Which reminds me of this Ted talk from 12 years ago, https://youtu.be/b6YTQJVzwlI https://youtu.be/b6YTQJVzwlI Pointing to the future of UI
ajankelo 4y ago
Thanks for sharing this talk. Looks like Pranav is the founder of Two.ai: https://www.two.ai/about https://www.two.ai/about
IshKebab 4y ago
I suspect it was one of those tech demos that actually doesn't really work in reality. Nobody wants a camera & projector attached to their head. Gesture based interfaces are universally terrible, even if they look cool in films. You probably underestimate how much you move your head around while looking at things. Projectors don't work well in daylight. Etc. Etc. Cool tech demo though.
- redbell 4y ago
  Yes, I totally agree, but I was thinking that they would overcome these limitations with the advance of [VR/AR] hardware manufacturing, especially sensors. The problem was, as @PH01 noted, it was [all] fake, so nothing you can do to improve something that does not exist, similar to a startup/indie hacker idea that didn't find its Product/Market fit yet.
PH01 4y ago
The SixthSense talk and the associated hype in 2009 was terrible. It was impossible to convince the majority that the cuts of demos in the TED talk were effectively choreographed set pieces, even though many scenes required tech which didn’t work like that. The whole thing was hyped as “open” and liberating. Nothing was released until the hype died down (2011). What was released was not even close to the talk, it gained no traction and never iterated past v0.1. SixthSense was a prime example of deliberate misinformation coming from academia. MIT Media Lab won a huge number of awards, Mistry was touted as a genius, and then absolutely nothing happened.
- redbell 4y ago
  I thought something similar to this but not exactly like you described it. Initially, I had the impression that this "SixthSense" phenomenon was one of those concepts tagged as "Fake It Until You Make It", but apparently, it was not. Probably, there was no PoC, just some cinematic-video "montage" to create a buzz around it, then soon, it evaporated. IMHO, a close comparison to this in recent years is probably "Theranos" & "Nikola", where they created the buzz, in fact, a lot of hype for something that did not exist in the first place.

31 points by redbell 4y ago

aaron695 4y ago

newsoul 4y ago

I think he worked for Samsung : https://www.pranavmistry.com/ https://www.pranavmistry.com/

redbell 4y ago
Oh, thank you! So it appears that he worked there for 9 years and was in the hardware field with exposure to VR.. really interesting.

chabad360 4y ago

It's seems you can find the (unfortunately unmaintained) code on GitHub: https://github.com/sixthsense/sixthsense https://github.com/sixthsense/sixthsense and Google code: https://code.google.com/archive/p/sixthsense/ https://code.google.com/archive/p/sixthsense/

ctoth 4y ago

Ha! I e-mailed this guy back in 2009 to talk about the potential of the tech for blind users (sixth sense could be a fifth for the blind) and he never got back to me. Haven't thought about this in years. Thanks OP!

keepquestioning 4y ago

nooby12345 4y ago
Disregarding your comment on the creator's ethnicity, what made you think the idea has been kept alive.
seanp2k2 4y ago

vedran 4y ago

Reminds me of Dynamicland: https://dynamicland.org/ https://dynamicland.org/ from Bret Victor. Which was previously discussed on HN at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26725370 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26725370

nmaleki 4y ago
Which reminds me of this Ted talk from 12 years ago, https://youtu.be/b6YTQJVzwlI https://youtu.be/b6YTQJVzwlI Pointing to the future of UI

ajankelo 4y ago

Thanks for sharing this talk. Looks like Pranav is the founder of Two.ai: https://www.two.ai/about https://www.two.ai/about

IshKebab 4y ago

I suspect it was one of those tech demos that actually doesn't really work in reality. Nobody wants a camera & projector attached to their head. Gesture based interfaces are universally terrible, even if they look cool in films. You probably underestimate how much you move your head around while looking at things. Projectors don't work well in daylight. Etc. Etc. Cool tech demo though.

redbell 4y ago
Yes, I totally agree, but I was thinking that they would overcome these limitations with the advance of [VR/AR] hardware manufacturing, especially sensors. The problem was, as @PH01 noted, it was [all] fake, so nothing you can do to improve something that does not exist, similar to a startup/indie hacker idea that didn't find its Product/Market fit yet.

PH01 4y ago

The SixthSense talk and the associated hype in 2009 was terrible. It was impossible to convince the majority that the cuts of demos in the TED talk were effectively choreographed set pieces, even though many scenes required tech which didn’t work like that. The whole thing was hyped as “open” and liberating. Nothing was released until the hype died down (2011). What was released was not even close to the talk, it gained no traction and never iterated past v0.1. SixthSense was a prime example of deliberate misinformation coming from academia. MIT Media Lab won a huge number of awards, Mistry was touted as a genius, and then absolutely nothing happened.

redbell 4y ago
I thought something similar to this but not exactly like you described it. Initially, I had the impression that this "SixthSense" phenomenon was one of those concepts tagged as "Fake It Until You Make It", but apparently, it was not. Probably, there was no PoC, just some cinematic-video "montage" to create a buzz around it, then soon, it evaporated. IMHO, a close comparison to this in recent years is probably "Theranos" & "Nikola", where they created the buzz, in fact, a lot of hype for something that did not exist in the first place.