Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies 232
MidVicious writes "From futuristic 'Punch Cards' to Voice Recognition HoloDeck Interfaces, human/computer interactions have always mirrored the base concepts of our emerging technologies. An article from a Saarland University CS Seminar highlights Hollywood history with UI, ranging from the moderately feasible (Total Recall's television/scenery display wall) to the often ridiculous (Swordfish's 6-flat screen monitor setup complete with 3-D virus-hacking environment). An interesting read, especially considering some of the technology is on its way to becoming a reality."
Video game as firewall (Score:5, Funny)
It's like, yeah, that's really how I configure iptables or add a server cert to Apache.
Re:Video game as firewall (Score:5, Funny)
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Linux is modular enough that you could do it that way. You can select options based on blocks of various sizes.
Now how long until some one tries it.
Re:Video game as firewall (Score:4, Funny)
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One day I've put 'init=/usr/games/tetris-bsd' to kernel's args line and told my sister that she must win the game in order to boot the system
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We never made the Quake UI. I wish we had.
TLF
Re:Video game as firewall (Score:5, Funny)
(Screenshots for those who don't remember psDooM: http://psdoom.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html [sourceforge.net]
Re:Video game as firewall (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Video game as firewall (Score:5, Funny)
You are now entering port 80.
It is pitch black.
You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
The batteries have gone on your flashlight.
> CHANGE BATTERIES
You have no new batteries.
You were eaten by a grue, port 80 is now open.
Lex says... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Lex says... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Lex says... (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.sgi.com/fun/freeware/3d_navigator.html [sgi.com]
Slow as hell, and not nearly as cool as I thought it'd be though. :(
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I guess an Indy wasn't fast enough to use it properly.
Swordfish (Score:2)
What's wrong with the six panels? I use three 19'' at work (with Matrox hardware and a el-cheapo nvidia card) and is an extremely nice setup to work with various VMWare virtual machines at once.
--
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Re:Swordfish (Score:5, Funny)
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As someone once said -- "The nipple is the only truly intuitive interface".
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Re:Swordfish (Score:5, Funny)
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Alien (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Alien (Score:4, Interesting)
The TNG computers were pretty good. I remember seeing an interview with Michael Okuda talking about the challenges of creating something that people would accept as 23rd century technology, but having to use 20th century technology to do it. I also remember, when TNG was just about to debut, remarking in another forum that the TOS computers looked clunky by then, and that the flight deck of a Shuttle or 767 looked far more futuristic.
While it never made it in to film, the interface in the later Foundation novels wins for me.
...laura
Re:Alien (Score:5, Interesting)
Scotty (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Alien (Score:5, Funny)
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Evil Security Guy backs away slowly.
Lab Coated SysAdmin #1 sees this and scoffs, "What, you expecting it to explode like in the movies? That never happens in real life."
ESG replies, "No one's ever shut down a computer system with a scanner in it before."
Big Blinkenlight mainframe shuts down. LEDs go out slowly, tape drives quit spinning. Everything's quiet.
LCSA#1 says, "See? I told you there was nothing to worry about."
THEN we get the big explosion.
Re:Alien (Score:4, Interesting)
The TNG computers were pretty good.
I never quite got how the turbolifts worked. the crew doesn't seem to prepend commands with "computer...", they just usually say "deck x", "bridge", "pause", "resume". how does it know when it's a command and when it's just crew chatter? or are these keywords reserved for computer communication and their usage in casual chatter is verboten?
Re:Alien (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Alien (Score:5, Insightful)
Not saying that's the rationale for TNG... but I wouldn't mind a future where it was.
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Anyone who's seen TOS knows that (Score:2)
6 monitors (Score:2)
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http://www.amazon.com/Nvidia-Quadro-Pcie-256MB-4P
only shows two connectors on the back. Does it come with some sort of separate connector that connects to the board which has two more ports on it?
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3-D interface in X-Men (Score:2)
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I don't think the X-Men display features any color, so this is pr
Re:3-D interface in X-Men (Score:5, Interesting)
I would almost feel sorry for anyone who went through the trouble of building one, without running fiber optics up each pin. The color part should be easy compared to the hydraulics part.
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Mouse? (Score:4, Insightful)
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I guess.
TLF
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Heinlein's Universe and Methuselah's Children exposes the problems more clearly.
The starships are sub-light.
The controls and displays must remain operational for decades -- centuries, more likely.
You cannot assume an infinite supply of spare parts or crewmen skilled in making the necessary repairs.
Nor can you risk so commonplace an accident as the slip of the hand that hits the wrong button. The most
Re:Mouse? (Score:5, Interesting)
See, the thing about menu driven interfaces is they are serious compromises. They trade cost (many buttons and the space they take up) for layers on a single interface (a screen.) When operating critical machinery, you can't be navigating menus. For instance, if cap'n starboy says "shields up", you can't say, "sorry, I didn't get them up in time because I was in the turbolift interface." You need to press a button that puts the shields up, and *right now.* Likewise for any number of critical functions.
I can give you a practical modern example. I own a Denon 7.1 channel surround system. It's really pretty decent quality, and it is the main system for our theater. If you want to do anything besides change sources or volume, you'll be navigating menus. Sometimes... lots of menus. It's a pain in the butt, and it is slow. This thing cost me about two grand.
In my library, I have a Marantz 2325 [classic-audio.com], circa 1975 or so. This has every control and status display on a button, knob, or dial. There are only two multi-purpose things on it. Consequently, it is a lot easier to run - everything is always in the same place, and the things you use often you learn where are almost immediately - and it is a whole lot faster to operate. Want to turn up the bass? Reach for the bass control. Want just bass on the left speaker? Inner concentric ring of the bass control. And so on, for almost every function on the unit. It's not perfect - FM muting level is on the rear, and the Dolby levels take over the FM signal strength meter when you want to look at them, but man is it a lot easier and more comfortable to operate than the Denon. But accounting for inflation, the retail on this was about five grand. Those buttons and knobs are very costly. It isn't just advances in electronics that make that relative price drop!
The Denon actually has a lot more functionality. But getting at it is tough. Practically speaking, that actually means that mostly, I don't get at it at all.
Coming back to a computer interface for a spacecraft or a watercraft or any war machine, I can see them going back to buttons regardless of the ability to fold functionality into a graphic interface, because with a button, a well trained person goes right to the function and time may be of the essence in any one of a number of situations, including some that may not have been foreseen by the system designers. Buttons cost more in terms of real estate, but then again, they can give you more in terms of outright survival.
Buttons are faster than speech, too, even if there is no latency. Takes about 40 ms to hit a button. You can't talk that fast. It's just that simple. Now, if they ever manage to make a mind to machine interface, we'll be on new ground, but until then... buttons ftw. :-)
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Knobs aren't that expensive. As a wild guess, I'd say that each button is going to add maybe $.05 to the production cost, and each knob around $.10. Designing things and setting up a production system is the expensive part. Once you have one, it's not much of a problem. As an example, consider that the price of mixers (au
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Cameras went through the same evolution. In the eighties, it was hip to put LCD displays on the body and run all functions through simple up/down buttons. Minolta even went as far as to implement this for their zoom lenses, where you had to use a zoom-in/zoom-out button to run the zoom.
Somehow, it dawned on camara makers that this was not a good idea. The last generation of film SLR bodies went back to dedicated buttons and knobs, witness such cameras as the Minolta Dynax/Maxxum 7 and 9, and the Nikon F5.
Mouse Unnecessary (Score:2, Insightful)
about the 'often ridiculous' (Score:3, Informative)
And as far as the 3D goes:
"HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. -- August 9, 2004
Sharp Systems of America, a division of Sharp Electronics Corporation, today introduced the Sharp LL-151-3D display, Sharp's first stand-alone display that features Sharp's 3D LCD Technology. This exciting 15-inch 3D LCD monitor delivers eye-popping 3D images to the naked eye, and can be easily switched between 2D and 3D viewing for standard applications such as spreadsheets, word processing or email. "
Note the date. It's not even Sci-fi anymore.
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3D displays (Score:2)
Go to a website like Stereo3D [stereo3d.com]. There are numerous way to enjoy stereo 3D with computers : from ultra cheap hacks, to expensive high tech. From immersive interface to systems enjoyable by a large audience.
It's just that, those display fit very special niches (hardcore players of 3d-hamster-maze like games similar to descent, education, scientific/medical simulation, military training, etc.) and are not very usefull for desktops (their effect ranging from useless gimmicks (Vista-style
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I haven't been able to come up with a full desktop interface yet, but I've got some ideas for a 3D filemanager [homeunix.org] that I think could be useful for certain kinds of users.
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Heck, I'm pretty sure I was running Win98SE back when I had 3 monitors running.
Also, I found it humourous that the blurb complained about 6 monitors, directly over a picture of
Great proofreading there guys. Can't wait for you to be a
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If it is ridiculous, it does not have to do with the number of monitors.
I haven't seen it myself, but if it's anything like what I saw on that page, the configuration is silly since the monitors are haphazardly strewn about, and are currently running an animation calibrated to the physical position of the monitors. A more traditional (and generally workable one) is to arrange them in either a line
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Thus, if a person would want to look cool (to less critical people than pragmatic slashdotters
The autho
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Or as Ted Stryker said in Airplane II...
We can't live in the past any more, or the present. This is the future.
For shame! (Score:3, Insightful)
Great speech from a guy who can't count past 6!
My favorite (Score:4, Funny)
Minority Report (Score:2, Interesting)
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Then set one up. All you need is a projector that does skew correction (most do) and some transparent material with a partial matte surface. Hit the material from a sharp angle, and the screen will light up and remain transparent, while the through-light goes up and sinks into a black topper, or reflects off the back into another black topper. Shouldn't be much of a challenge at all. Or you can cheap out and use a regula
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Apple's working on it. One of their latest iMac concepts included a screen that was completely clear when off and semi-translucent when in use. There was a Slashdot post about it, IIRC.
Right, here we go: http://ibloggedthis.com/2006/08/09/a-concept-of-a- future-imac-pictures-transparent-screen-and-keyboa rd/ [ibloggedthis.com]
Enjoy.
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I wonder how far away form GPP interfaces we are? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I wonder how far away form GPP interfaces we ar (Score:2)
Sigh (Score:3, Insightful)
That's the God DAMN POINT, fool.
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On the other hand the enrichment plants in Blue Ridge were run much like that during WW2 pre-industrial controls. They literally had people monitoring gages and adjusting dials to keep the process in spec... crazy stuff.
biometric interfaces in SciFi (Score:3, Informative)
Metropolis (Score:2)
Give credit were credit is due (Score:3, Insightful)
Star Trek comm badge logic (Score:4, Interesting)
(1) Enterprise bridge crew is watching an away team's planet survey on the main viewscreen. Captain Piccard decides to ask Commander Riker (who is on the away team) a question.
(2) Scene cuts to the planet. You see Riker with his away team. Suddenly you hear Piccard's voice on Riker's comm badge "Piccard to Riker: Report!"
Now tell me this... In this scenario, Piccard supposedly hails Riker and even though there is no "routing" done with the message beforehand, Piccard's entire vocal request automatically goes to Riker and ONLY Riker, though everyone on the away team has a comm badge. In fact, you hear the initial request for Riker on his own badge. Did the comm badge psychically know to message Riker solely at the instant Piccard clicked his comm badge to transmit?
Re:Star Trek comm badge logic (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Star Trek comm badge logic (Score:5, Insightful)
As sad as this is... Ive actually thought about that too. What follows is my attempt to justify the technology and what must be going on, with what you would see on the screen.
Lets say that Picard(on the bridge) taps his badge to ask for Riker(not on the bridge). This is how that might work;
1)Picard taps the badge to initiate the comm link.
2)Picard begins the link by stating who he is, and who he is attempting to contact.
3)With just a few second delay, the computer could derive from the audio who the intended recipient is.
4)Having cached the entire audio to determine who is the recipient, the ships comm system then forward this cached audi(mith a few second delay) to the recipient.
5)When the recipient hears the request come through on their badge, the link is already established, and there is no more need for a delay.
6)conversation proceeds as normal.
And no fair to the guy who said "you need to get laid". To that I say... "You need to stop getting laid, we have enough friggin people here!"
Nextel should have this. (Score:2)
Yes, that's the obvious solution. And if Nextel doesn't have it working within four years, somebody is goofing off.
Wildfire, the voice controlled phone system which Microsoft bought and killed, was making real progress in that direction.
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the transmission method of a com badge.
Directing it to an individual, that only that individual can hear it would be good for an away team in a dangerous situation.
but how they dial the individuals com badge number can be a simple thing, as an away team with com badge access can be limited in size where it can easily be a combination of taps and number of fingers, etc...
I mean damn, don't keyboards just keep getting smaller and smaller?
Maybe if there were some large mechani
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And in the original ST, they always began with "Computer
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Where do they get Compatible Cables? (Score:4, Insightful)
I mean, I cannot find a proper cable and even then I need to dig out 3 gender changers and a break-out box. These guys can I/F with some computer port from a different civilization using the same RS-232 port and a TTL voltage. Amazing! If only we the same interoperability here on planet Earth.
Bad example (Score:2, Insightful)
Duh ! That was the point of the movie !
The forgot (Score:3, Interesting)
Uplink Hackers Elite (Score:3, Informative)
Main Site:
http://www.introversion.co.uk/uplink/ [introversion.co.uk]
Review at Home of the Underdogs:
http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=3044 [the-underdogs.info]
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Metropolis 'interface' (Score:5, Insightful)
So tempting... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm also big into making films. Much as I want to join the chorus and laugh at the totally unrealistic interfaces, I do realize something: most people don't know and don't care. To them, this is how they see computers. When I type up some bizarre iptables ruleset it's about as clear to them as Swahili is to a goat in Uganda. For the director it's a matter of balancing the telling of the story with realism. This is *tough* to do.
BTW, someone once said that it's better to blame stupidity/laziness/ignorance than malice. I realized this all too clearly when I had to shoot 4 actors. One was *extremely* difficult to light because of his skin tones to the point that I ended up cutting him out of the shot entirely. My ignorance probably contributes to the idea that directors/producers don't highlight certain actors. It's not malice, just that I'm not experienced enough to do it properly. Certainly not an excuse for professionals though... The same thing with computers.. Film guys are not necessarily computer guys (though there's a lot of overlap).
I -am- a Ugandan goat... (Score:2)
TV show Bones (Score:2)
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Ghost in the Shell? (Score:2, Interesting)
Two observations... (Score:2, Insightful)
screwing security (Score:2)
Of course, one could speculate that chopping of the hand and *immediately* putting the hand on there would fool the system, but then again, you caould as well argument that it's possible to kill someone, put his mouth over the mouthpiece and perform a Heimlich-maneuver; since there is always some air left, it could be
The funny thing is... (Score:2)
You all do it; when someone asks you if you know what time it is, and you say yes, you're probably lying. You don't know--your watch does.
Some things to add... (Score:2)
In general animes are often full of technology, maybe there are some more interesting pieces to find.
Eureka (TV) (Score:3, Funny)
It was extremely funny as a reference to Wargames. I find Eureka to be very entertaining. YMMV.
[I am a fan of ReGenesis and Dexter also -TV is not a total wasteland]
Minority Report (Score:2, Insightful)