It can turn your newspaper into live video, project a fully functional phone into your palm and a watch on to your wrist, help you get complete details of an acquaintance that you just met at a party, or even let you know if the product you are looking at in a supermarket is eco-friendly or not. And it isn't called “Sixth Sense” without a reason.

What we are talking about is the wearable computing device which goes by that name and happens to be perhaps the most revolutionary device ever developed in the field of wearable electronics. The product is a result of radical research by MIT Media Lab student Pranav Mistry and his tutor Pattie Maes. It is intended, as Maes states, to create a new "digital sixth sense" for humans and converts any surface to an interactive display screen.

The prototype of this device is essentially the intelligent combination of an ordinary webcam, a projector and a mirror, which are hooked to a web-enabled mobile phone - which keeps the cost of the device at just around $350. The device is worn around the neck and recognizes the wearer’s hand gestures to decipher his needs. So you can capture a photo, store it into your mobile phone and resize it as it is projected on to a wall, all with nothing else but your bare hands. Or get your boarding pass and check the flight status even as you are driving to the airport. The Sixth Sense accomplishes all this with panache, and some more.

Check out Pattie Maes' demo at a recent TED talk (after the jump) to get an idea of just how awesome this device is.