Sci-fi movies are constantly making up futuristic technology, but these four movies realistically predicted technology that is now a part of regular life.
A large screen made up of hundreds of smaller lit up screens can be seen with advertisements showing things ranging from Coca Cola to a Japanese woman in the film, “Blade Runner”. In the movie, a single digital billboard could be seen with a single large advertisement on a skyscraper as flying cars drove past. Although “Blade Runner’s” 1982 digital billboards were very low-quality and made up of much smaller screens, take a walk through Times Square in New York City and be amazed by the large high definition LED screen brightness that overwhelms the streets, and the massive and iconic Jumbotron. Now, digital billboards can also be seen driving along highways flipping through different advertisements.
“2001: A Space Odyssey” used video conferencing between computers with the use of the Picturephone. The Picturephone accepts a payment card, and then the user enters the phone number of a different Picturephone. Dr. Heywood Floyd, a scientific specialist, uses the Picturephone on Space Station V to chat with his daughter to wish her a happy birthday.
Although personal computers from 1968 were nearly the size of a room, computers today are installed with small cameras allowing for easy video conferencing — or photo booth fish eye pictures. Major companies use video conferencing to host meetings with employees in different branches across the United States, or even worldwide. Many families also use applications such as Skype, released in 2003, to video chat with family members away from home. Students also use Google Hangouts to work in groups to complete homework together. And maybe in the future, classrooms won’t be necessary anymore — teaching might end up being done only through video chatting.
In the 1989 film “Back to the Future Part II”, Marty shows Elijah how to play an old arcade game — Wild Gunman. When Marty picks up the gun to shoot the small cowboys on the screen, Elijah complains that having to use hands for video games is lame — like a baby’s toy. After 21 years, Elijah’s dream became reality when Microsoft released Kinect for Xbox in 2011. Kinect uses infrared sensors and a microphone to detect the user’s body motions and pick up audio commands, allowing the user to play using only their body motions and voice.
Instead of the bulky 1989 computer screens and towers, the movie also used handheld tablets. Marty was asked by a member of the Hill Valley Preservation Society to help save the historic clock tower by using the tablet to sign a petition. Handheld tablets, such as the iPad released in 2010, can be seen in the hands of a range of people from businessmen typing out professional documents to little children trying to play Candy Crush. The Shawnee Mission School District will also be putting an iPad in the hands of every teacher and 10 elementary schools as well as all middle school students next school year. Elementary students will now have their own tablet to learn.
Star Fleet crew members from the first season of the Star Trek series in 1966 could be seen using PADDs — Personal Access Display Devices — for tasks ranging from communication to displaying schematics. Today, business people use devices known as the PDA — Personal Digital System — as their communications device. PDAs are used for phone calls, e-mails, messaging, internet browsing and games.
Although PDAs are not as common as they were in the early 2000’s, most high school students cannot live without their iPhones or Android phones — checking twitter every ten minutes. These smartphones, however, are much more sophisticated than the 1966 version. Many families today have ditched their land lines to use only their smartphone because these predicted smartphones are very capable of doing this. Smartphones are also used as a form of entertainment for many users through games and other useful applications created for them.
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