The Signs Are There, New Sixth-Sense Device

A friend emailed me a demo showing a "sixth-sense" device from Pattie Maes' lab at MIT, built by Pranav Mistry, the genius behind Sixth Sense. It's a wearable device, which is placed around the neck, with a projector that when a product is placed in front of its screen more information is shown through the projector and displayed on the surface of the product.
 
So for instance if you wanted to know the Amazon rating of a book, you would put the book cover in front of the device and it would give you the Amazon rating. Open the book and you can read Amazon user comments and read more about the book. Flip open to a specific page with a picture for instance and, if the picture has any significance, more information will be displayed on the page as well.
 
Place consumer products in front, they use the example of toilet paper, and based on the users settings they could see which product is the best choice for them.
 
This got me thinking. Sure, when this product eventually comes to market it could have been changed in design or functionality making it a bit less of an "I'll think for you" machine. But my first impressions were exactly that. Why would I need all this information about one subject, product or whatever else that's placed in front of me while I have this on?
 
Jim MCGIVERN commented, "I am skeptical of any device...that could potentially influence or interfere with my own thoughts or body movements." Me too and this is not to say that this device could but like Jim said, it does have the potential.
 
Maes describes the sixth-sense device as a "Minority Report" gadget, and it truly does look like it could come out of the movie. I just worry when that movie may become a reality and people who don't know how to use technology properly misuse, abuse and harm others.
 
Another demonstration that they show is with human interactions. When you go up to your best friend, secrets become secrets no more. Anything that can be found on the Internet about this individual will be found and will be displayed on their body. Do we really need to know this much?
 
All inventions in the long run are wonderful, the wheel lead to transportation but then those vehicles lead to pollution. Ok, then how about airplanes? When the Wright brothers invented the airplane it lead to the exploration and travel to lands that were once thought of as out of reach, but then again it also lead to kamikaze suicide bombers.
 
The bottom line is that for every action there is a reaction. It's plan and simple, it's science. Yet it's often the scientists who forget this rule. Thus they create what they believe to be, at that particular moment, something to help mankind but in the end it somehow misshapes it.
 
I'm sure there other inventions that did nothing but good for humanity, like the cure for polio but what else? It is said that it's human nature for us to remember only the negative but I'm not really using that as an excuse. Do you know of any more?
 
Although I do think this invention is revolutionary and a tool that could benefit those who wish to use it, I just also wish people would think about what could happen negatively. We as a people often don't think about the bad, until it happens.
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