Modern science fiction is obsessed with what new technology is just around the corner. The 1950s brought forth the “homes of tomorrow” with robots, flying cars, interactive screens and other amazing innovations. Sadly, it seems like the flying car is always 10 years away, but that hasn’t stopped inventors from creating devices that bear some resemblance to items from science fiction movies, TV shows and comic books. The following are just a few examples:
Wearables
“Dick Tracy” showed us what can be considered the first wearable. Although today’s wearables are a little more advanced than his radio watch, they stem from the same idea as the original. Today’s wearables, like the Samsung Gear S and the Moto 360, have a lot of technology packed into a tiny space, including Bluetooth communication with your phone to send and receive messages from your wrist. They also have sensors that measure all sorts of bio-metrics, which enables you to more closely track your health.
Tablets
What gives you the convenience of a computer with the easy form factor of a newspaper or book? A tablet computer, of course. Some of the first tablet-like devices were seen in 1968’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The astronauts in this movie used the tablets to keep up with the news and their families, which is similar to how we use these devices today. Current devices, like the Galaxy Tab and the iPad, have become synonymous with mobile computing.
Artificial Intelligence
If you asked someone to picture an artificial intelligence just a few years ago, you probably would have gotten a response with something like HAL 9000 or C-3PO. While we’re still fairly far away from something humanoid and mobile like 3PO, software programs like Siri, Google Now and Watson are getting increasingly close to HAL. Although the ability to pull up information quickly with these programs is convenient, anyone with a computer search engine can do that. A more impressive development has been the ability for these programs to more closely understand spoken language and derive context-based subtext. For example, if you ask one of these programs when the next bus is coming, it can use a combination of a search engine to find the information and GPS or location data to give you the times for the stop closest to your current location.
3-D Printing
“To boldly go where no man has gone before” is the famous tagline of “Star Trek,” which has been one of the most influential science fiction series of all time. The TV show brought us phasers, warp drives, teleporters and other seemingly fantastical devices. One thing we now have, which is fairly close to the replicator, is 3-D printing. While we haven’t mastered the movement of subatomic particles into hot food, we can print items in a variety of mediums, including plastics, metals, glass and protein structures that hopefully will be able to grow new organs and simple body parts.
Exosuits
Who is the most famous user of an exosuit? Iron Man, of course. Although the suits of today can’t fly or shoot lasers from their hands like Iron Man’s suit, they can greatly enhance the strength of the wearer. For example, Raytheon’s XOS suit enables the wearer to lift up to 200 punds with little effort. In the more mainstream areas, Japan’s Cyberdyne is starting to distribute its HAL 5 suit, which is a full body exoskeleton that enhances the wearer’s strength and endurance. It is currently helping the elderly retain some of their mobility.
