By John Lui
09/07/2002
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/notebooks/0,39050495,39062920,00.htm

The new blockbuster from Steven Spielberg, Minority Report, is not just filled with eye-popping special effects and non-stop action, it boasts very cool gear, too.

Set in the year 2054, the movie's creative directors had to create a world in which the tech had to be futuristic and impressive, yet believable. So while you get magnetic levitation cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells, you don't get faster-than-light warp drive, time travel, anti-gravity belts or even thinking, talking computers.

We take a look at the state of present-day tech to see how they might lead us to the tomorrow of Minority Report, and also take a light-hearted view at how you can fake the look for just a few bucks.

One thing we did notice, though: While Gap clothing stores, Pepsi, Revo sunglasses and Bvlgari watches seem to be ubiquitous in 2054, for better or worse, the Internet seems to have disappeared, and computers don't run Microsoft Windows.

Magnetic levitation
Playing around with magnets can pay off in a big way.

In-ear mobile phones
The ultra-cool phone in the movie is actually possible to manufacture today--sort of.

Data gloves
Mr Cruise taps away on a keyboard or mouses around? Naah. Action heroes prefer to use body English to talk to their computers.

Holographic storage
If the efforts of a few dogged firms pay off, some day, we may be using transparent chips of plastic to hold terabytes of data, just like the folks in 2054.

Magnetic levitation

The movie:

	The maglev Lexus of 2054. Picture courtesy of Lexus

The Lexus maglev cars of the movie are way cool--they not only float, they spin and rise vertically. They also park at your window, so you step directly into the living room. No more long walk home from the car park.

The reality:
The simple principle behind it is that when like magnetic poles face each other, they oppose. Make the magnets really, really powerful and one magnet will make another opposing magnet float above it, even if the magnet above is carrying a huge load.

The physics of magnet opposition is being exploited today in Shanghai, China, where city authorities are attempting to build one of the world's first maglev trains. Because the train floats on a cushion of magnetism, there is no friction, leading to great savings in energy.

Faking it:
You can't yet float a car in your garage, but you can make pellet-sized objects rise into the air, thanks to hobbyist superconducting magnets. These kits contain stuff such as rare earth magnets and liquid nitrogen so that mad-scientist types play with the weird science of the very cold and very powerful magnetic fields.

Intro

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Maglev vehicles

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In-ear phones

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Data gloves

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Holo storage

In-ear mobile phones


The movie:

	Siemens wrist phone. Picture courtesy of Siemens.

Various people are seen wearing little chrome earpieces that are actually mobile phones.


The reality:
Various companies such as Siemens have engineering prototypes of really tiny Dick Tracy-style wrist and button-lapel cellphones and have shown them off at trade shows. As they explain to the many wowed spectators, there are design problems inherent in such devices. How are users going to dial a number? Where will a readable display fit on something so tiny? The prototypes don't answer these questions-they simply don't have a display or use a laborious menu scroll to select numbers and letters for input.

	Bang and Olufsen earphones--or mobile phone of 2054? Picture courtesy of Bang and Olufsen.

Faking it:
The movie cell phones look suspiciously like the earphones from posh, pricey designer-electronics firm Bang and Olufsen. If you want the Minority Report look, buy a pair of these US$100 earphones, snip off the wires, stick one earpiece in your ear, and start talking into thin air. Watch the amazed looks on the faces of passers-by as they realize you own a comms device from 2054.

Intro

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Maglev vehicles

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In-ear phones

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Data gloves

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Holo storage

Data gloves


The movie:

	5DT data glove. Picture courtesy of Fifth Dimension Technologies.

Our hero Tom Cruise dons a pair of these and waves his hands about to interface with the computer like a mad conductor at a speed freak symphony, instead of using keyboards and mice. Also, trackballs seem to be in vogue.

The reality:
There are several companies making data gloves. We found one called Fifth Dimension Technologies (5DT) which makes the US$495 wireless 5DT Data Glove 5-W (right handed; lefties pay US$100 more). It contains sensors in the fingers and thumbs so that you can use it a mouse or joystick substitute, and it works with Windows and Linux. We can't vouch for how well it works and sadly, it still can't replace a keyboard.

You can try something like the virtual keyboard from Virtual Devices. It projects an image of a keyboard on a flat surface and you type on this image. It's being sold as a PDA accessory.


Faking it:
Buy a pair of black rubber gloves from the hardware store, brush on cable-like lines on them with florescent paint. Wave your hands in the air and try to look like Tom Cruise nailing down the location of a perp. Make sure you are alone when you do this.

Intro

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Maglev vehicles

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In-ear phones

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Data gloves

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Holo storage

Holographic storage


The movie:

	Laser burning data into a holographic disk.

Cruise and his fellow cops obviously haven't heard of networking. Every time they need to play back a video file, they have to dig up a disk from a drawer. The disk itself looks like a palm-sized plate of perspex. The transparency of the media seems to indicate that it's some kind of light-coded storage. Holographic storage, to be exact.

The reality:
Several firms today are chasing the Holy Grail of holographic storage. At the current explosive rate of data creation, contemporary technologies such as hard disk storage and DVD writables will prove inadequate in a few years. Holographic storage, with its promise of packing incredibly dense amounts of data per unit volume of media, is one candidate as the universal storage format of the year 2054.

Faking it:
Take a computer screen filter and pretend it's one of the cool transparent monitors that everyone uses in 2054. Take a compact disc case and separate the lid from the body. Glue the body to the monitor screen: It's your "media slot". The media? The cool transparent compact disc lid you're holding in your hand, of course.

Intro

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Maglev vehicles

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In-ear phones

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Data gloves

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Holo storage