So we watched Minority Report
A 2002 film staring couch jumping Tom Cruise!
Here’s some interesting technology we’ve seen in the movie.
1. ‘Hands On’ Technology
Here is Tom screening through the ‘visions’ of the pre-cogs, he’s able to fast forward, cut zoom in, playback, rearrange and I’m sure do alot more with this piece of technology.
Well abit of googling brought some very interesting news, what was actually thought of being something of a very far future 8 years ago has actually become a reality of today.
It is called the ‘g-speak’ system. In this video below, John Underkoffler [ the science and technology advisor for the film] demonstrates the use of the system.
2. E-News paper
A newspaper with articles in video format, like a news channel on what seems like a piece of paper. It also updates with the latest news or in Cruises’s case, breaking news of his arrest warrant.
It would be pretty cool, to just have to buy 1 newspaper for the rest of your life [ though that might put publication companies out of business]. In the years after the movie, we’ve been treated to services very similar to that showed in the movie. Yes it is no video on the newspaper, but we’ve got tablets like the iPad, coupled with services like twitter or rss feeds or live video and text updates for news sites, it’s as good[or even better] than the E-Newspaper in the movie.
3. Iris Recognition
A real hassle for Tom throughout the movie was getting past the iris scanners throughout the city, he got pass it by getting his eyes changed somewhere midway of the movie. The technology isn’t used widely in the commercial market, nor do they look as nice as those in the movies, but iris scanners have been employed all over the world for quite some time now. Used for security and identification purposes by governments and their military.
The movie’s version was just cosmetically better looking.
“the iris scanner model 2100-wikipedia images”
4. Pre-Cogs
The number 1 or most advanced piece of technology, would have to be the pre-cogs. Although I’m not sure they can actually be classified as technology. The entire system of using the pre-cogs to view into the future itself has to be the most advance piece of technology in the film, taking into account that it’s only used in Washington D.C in the film’s universe.
An excerpt from a short article found on the Engadget.com -
“The Guardian is now reporting that a team of neuroscientists have brought pre-crime technology to a new, even creepier level, developing a brain scan that can purportedly read people’s intentions before they act on them” -”http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/09/neuroscientists-read-peoples-intentions-with-brain-scan/“
Though it’s still a long time form active service it just goes to show how technology is advancing.
Alot of the technology from a film set 50years in the future is already coming to pass. It really goes to show how rapidly our technological advancement is growing. I personally wonder if there will come a point where we’ve reached the pinnacle of technology, and if there would ever come a point where by there’s nothing new to invent. From the looks of it, that time seems impossible. But one thing’s for sure, I wouldn’t want to live a world with pre-cogs.
