Is The ‘Minority Report’ Computer Technology Five Years Away?
Posted by The Movie God | June 2nd, 2010 at 10:53 am
Steven Spielberg’s science fiction thriller Minority Report hasn’t been praised by all who have seen in, but one thing that has always stuck out about the movie was its sweet high-tech computer systems which allowed you to click and drag and navigate using your hands. Since then we’ve seen the birth and evolution of touch-screen technologies, leading to the natural question: “When would we have our very own Minority Report computers?!”
Apparently it’s not as far off as you might think. At the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) convention 2010 this past February, John Underkoffler made a presentation of what he and his team call “g-speak,” which evolves computerized systems to recognize space like they’ve never been able to before. Underkoffler was personally brought in as an advisor on Spielberg’s film, which allowed them to present that insane futuristic interface for the movie, which was set in the year 2054.
Head on over to the other side for more and to see the video.
During the presentation, many different samples of some cool new technologies are shown off, spanning from basic concepts and ideas to some of the more refined programs and abilities. It’s a long video, so buckle down for lots of technology-speak, but watching the whole thing is worth it, especially for the brief demonstrations of the Minority Report technology and where its development stands at the end of the video.
The coolest thing? Underkoffer thinks that this type of technology will basically come standard with all computers in around five years.
Here’s a better description and the video!
Remember the data interface from Minority Report? Well, it’s real, John Underkoffler invented it — as a point-and-touch interface called g-speak — and it’s about to change the way we interact with data.
John Underkoffler led the team that came up with this interface, called the g-speak Spatial Operating Environment. His company, Oblong Industries, was founded to move g-speak into the real world. Oblong is building apps for aerospace, bioinformatics, video editing and more. But the big vision is ubiquity: g-speak on every laptop, every desktop, every microwave oven, TV, dashboard. “It has to be like this,” he says. “We all of us every day feel that. We build starting there. We want to change it all.”
Weird, I was thinking about this very question last night, after seeing a weather report on TV where they were swiping windows around in a reminiscent manner (albeit lacking 3D).
Stu Shiffman
My old friend Don Eastlake and his Goldbrick company was working on this “data glove” type technology about 10 or 15 years ago – glad to see that the concept is making more progress.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press
