Pranav Mistry, breaks the barriers of science and creativity with his inventions!

Magic is the science undiscovered. Or is science the magic that is proven to exist?

Not many can conclude this philosophical debate because a few prodigy brains such as Pranav Mistry has pushed us farther in this dilemma. His innovations that seem straight out of the Iron Man’s lab, have blurred the lines of reality and imagination, tapping into the most powerful sense, the Sixth sense of the human brain, quite literally. 

Pranav Mistry, an Indian origin scientist was born on 14 May 1981 in the small village of Palanpur, Gujarat. Though Pranav was an academician at heart, he looked at science through the lens of creativity. His education includes the graduation from Nirma University in Gujarat, Masters in Computer Science from IIT Bombay, and a second Masters in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT. Through his growing years, Pravan was bewitched by the use of science for the betterment of mankind. His innovation and a deep sense of purpose have only affirmed his belief that science can truly help mankind sail this survival ship. No wonder, the thought put in each of his innovation is only beaten in imagination and wonder by his forthcoming innovation. A few of his world-renowned “magic-like” innovations include-

Sixth Sense: Imagine if you could literally wear your world as you go. Sixth Sense makes it happen for you. It’s a device that’s a combination of a projector, camera, sensors, put together with computing abilities. It can be worn as a pendant. With it, people can literally bring their digital world to life on any, yes, any flat surface around them, simply with the help of hand gestures. Imagine checking your emails, answering phone calls, watching live tv, surfing youtube, checking social media, web browsing, online shopping, painting, or even finding locations through maps without any smartphone or computing device.

A few hand gestures and a pop-up screen will appear in front of your eyes that obeys the command of your brains. It’s like your brain is interacting with its own self to manifest thoughts into reality. The coolest part is that the entire system triggers with the gesture of “namaste”, an Indian tradition of folding hands and greeting people. Someone is clearly proud of his roots. Seems like a sci-fi movie, right? Except for Pranav, it’s the first of his many innovations.

A few of his quotes as appeared in this article at The Tech, MIT,

“It came as a crazy idea of thinking of the term head mountain projector! I just started thinking of actually making real head mountain projectors that would truly connect to people’s physical world!

There is a lot of information on the Internet, but humans do not have access to it at all times. SixthSense gives you the ability to receive information about anything and anyone you encounter, anywhere, and at all times. 

I believe that we should use systems to learn about users rather than have users learn about systems.”

Sparsh: Imagine… That seems to be the ideal word to start describing most of his innovations. So imagine that you could transfer any data or media in the world from one device to another simply with a touch. You could click on a photo on your iPad, and use the same fingers to simply touch any other screen, let’s say, your smartphone, and voila! Your photo is copy-pasted without any disparity in resolution. It’s like you simply fly media from one device to another with your magical fingers. 

“SPARSH uses touch-based interactions as a just indication for what to copy, from where and where to pass it. Technically, the actual magic(transfer of media) happens on the cloud.”

Mouseless, an invisible mouse: Of course, a mouse could be an object of distraction for fidgety brains like Pranav’s, who thought to do away with them for good. Who needs a mouse when you have your hands! Imagine the cursor on your smart devices (includes your smart TV as well) follow your command as you express it through your hands. No more physical mouse to aid in your computing. Only your abled hands. The pain of millions of game-lovers who dig their fingers into keyboards and mouse has just been relieved. 

BlinkBOT: They say, our eyes give away our deepest desires, and with BlinkBOT quite literally. It’s a wearable pair of smart glasses which can intellectually connect with a robot who will follow your orders simply by following your blink. You blink once, let’s say, at an idle glass of water on the floor, and blink again looking towards the other end of the room, where you want the glass to be. A robot, without you speaking a word will move the glass across the room. You can blame the world not getting your feelings right, no more! You can see how it exactly works in its demo video here. 

QUiCKiES: No, I am not into weird typography; it’s how Pranav’s this innovation is spelt. Most of the world suffers from the chronic disease of procrastination, and forgetfulness. What comes to rescue is good old stick notes! Tiny colourful pieces of paper bearing perhaps your most important and productive tasks. QUiCKiES are the same old charming physical sticky notes, that’s as intuitive to write upon as any normal piece of paper; except they are programmed to periodically remind you about your “to-do tasks” and commitments that you have noted down via messages, emails, alerts, and notifications. It integrates with your calendar, email, and phone so that you never forget your next appointment!

These are just a few of the many scientific achievements of Pranav Mistry. He has worked for giants like Microsoft and is currently serving as the CEO of Samsung Star Labs, leading its Think Tank team. In fact, the Samsung Gear VR is his brainchild. It’s obvious that such innovations have not just been recognised as path-breaking in the scientific world, but also honoured many times, and deservingly so; most prominent being the “Young Global Leader 2013” by the World Economic Forum. 

Pranav Mistry is a reminder to the world that nothing is impossible. All you need is a powerful belief to think beyond conventions. It’s a matter of pride that Indian scientists are bringing glory not just to our nation, but to the whole of mankind with their work. I recommend watching his Ted Talk, provides us with a sneak peek into how science is transforming our reality, by the minute. He has compelled all of us to think how capable all our minds really are if we put it to good use. 

PS: Influence of the Gujarati accent in his speech at the TED Talk just adds to cultural pride. After all, not all great men were born English.