Technology Predicted in Movies and Television

Did you watch fantasy and sci-fi movies as a kid and wish you could have the gizmos and gadgets they had? The world of technology boomed after the 1950's and hasn't stopped since. This week, we'll take a look at some technology from movies and television that “came true” and are currently being used in today's world.

Dick Tracy's Watch – The iWatch

Dick Tracy was a comic book from the 1930's. The detective used his intelligence, strength, and gadgets to fight crime and defeat villains like Flattop. Tracy would use his “2 way wrist radio” watch to communicate with with police and other heroes. Fast forward to 2015, where various companies, including Apple, have released watches that can be used as both a computer and a telphone.

Picard's Tablet – the iPad

Star Trek spawned a worldwide fandom of science fiction fans that gather at conventions and learn the fictional languages used in the books, television series and movies. Star Trek was also responsible for predicitig a variety of objects we use today, most notably, the tablet. In Star Trek, a tablet-like device was used in place of a book, to listen to music, and to look at different parts of the galaxy. Sound familiar?

Various Shows & Movies - Robotics

Countless movies and television shows featured robots in a variety of occupations. In The Jetsons, we saw a robot as both a maid and family friend. Then in Terminator, we saw the polar opposite, where computers and electronics come to life and destroy the world's infrastructure while androids police humans. Today we have advanced by leaps and bounds in robotics in both science and medicine, but artificial intelligence is becoming more of a reality. Honda created ASIMO, a robot that can communicate with humans and perform simple tasks. Some fear ASIMO is the beginning of a dark future like Terminator.

Minority Report – Gesture Based Unser Interface

Whether or not you thought Minority Report was a good movie, it was visually fascinating and the technology used in the film, like facial recognition advertising and gesture based user interface (the projected computer screen Tom Cruise manipulated with his hands) are now a reality. An MIT grad who was used as a consultant on the film actually made the same software used in the movie.

The list of technology that is now a reality is much longer than this post, but it would take more than one post to list them all. We will see what the future holds when it comes to making movie magic a reality.