Movies are statements on culture. They influence the world around us and, yet, are also influenced by us. For
instance, the early video game industry inspired the movie Tron (1982).But, then, there are movies that presage modern-day technology years ahead of their time. Technology is a part of said culture and has closely meshed with movies to interesting effect indeed.
1) Minority Report (2002): Years before touch screens became available on smartphones and tablets, Tom Cruise controlled computers with only his hands. Oblong technology allows users to literally fling videos, text, and images from one place to another—similar to the Kinect video game device or Apple iPad. Phillip K. Dick, whose similarly titled short story served as the movie’s basis, theorized using physics to predict crimes. The Department of Homeland Security created its Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) along the same lines. The film’s Mag-Lev car system was definitely an influence for China’s Maglev Train in Shanghai.
2) Blade Runner (1982): In Phillip K. Dick’s 1968 novel, which became the 1982 thriller Blade Runner, a fictional Voight-Kampff machine predated present-day biometric technologies. That polygraph-like machine determined whether or not someone was an android using biological data for security purposes. Practical devices such as the iris scanner (1994) and face recognition system (1991) are now commonly used at places like airports.
3) Back to the Future (1985): Although not yet available for mass consumption, versions of the DeLorien car and Marty McFly’s hoverboard are in the works. The DeLorien-esque Transition car with wings is scheduled for first delivery in 2013 and low-volume production in Woburn, Massachusetts. Working models of hoverboards have already been developed, such as that created by Future Horizons in 1997.
4) 1984 (1984): The film version of British writer George Orwell’s novel of the same title, published in 1949, portrays a totalitarian dystopia. Perhaps more so than the book, however, the movie features video conferencing as a (harsh) reality. Big Brother constantly views Oceana’s citizens from ubiquitous TV screens.
Matrix photo courtesy of Shutterstock
5) The Matrix Reloaded (2003): The film’s “universal capture,” among other digital cinema effects, led to the development of facial expression capture technologies. This high-resolution method captures and stores facial details, having a basis in the CGI backgrounds of The Matrix’s bullet-time of virtual cinematography. From expensive Face-Tek Technology and cameras to Android apps like Recognizr and iPhoto’s “Faces” feature, “universal capture” comes alive. Facial recognition is now on Facebook and even Google Images, with talk it will widely enter U.S. retail markets someday. NECs NeoFace in Japan and Almax SpA in Italy already market to retailers.
