http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/Dec 19th 2005 12:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/Dec 19th 2005 12:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/
On the less sublte side, it did definitely appear that the machine doing the zooming was doing more than just zooming: toward the end, after a "go right" voice command (which I had assumed before was Ford/Deckard slang for "pan," but now wonder about) the reflection does move independently of the rest of the image, and indeed something even passes in front of it. This is both impossible to get from an ordinary photo and the product of some special effects work, as the black edges indicative of the optical printing it took to put the sequence together suggest.

Second and less obvious, one of the "photos" held up for the camera (and us) to see starts moving. The dappled sunlight on the porch moves as if the shadow-casting tree was blowing in the breeze. It's only a few frames: i just barely caught it and had to back it up a few times to make sure (like one of those continuity obsessed movie fanatics counting all 17 shots from an un-reloaded revolver in some western).

So if I were to guess, I'd say from the 'playback' of that print, and the machine's apparent spacial capabilities, that the filmmakers had something closer to advanced holography in mind; as if the the prints themselves were 3D or even 4D (time) records of the scene, and deckard's machine allowed him to examine them by moving around within all 3 or 4 dimensions.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/The nitpicking you should be doing is asking - "If Deckard can get a high resolution zoom on his screen... why is the picture he gets printed out really low resolution and blurred?"]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/
Now William Gibson, on the other hand...]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/
"Paycheck" was a total waste and imposter didn't live up well to the premise. "Blade Runner" does indeed set the bar pretty darned high, but many of these others are just junk movies that are more CGI fluff than substance. Somehow, the importance of plot and ideals in science fiction has given way to mindless eye candy... Sad.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/Just a quick statment though, even though they don't attach the patch from the book, interestingly enough Tyrell meantons the "Blush Respone" (and, indeed, one of the tracks on the soundtrack is titled "Blush Response"). I'm not sure if that means this machine is somehow measureing the Blush Response as well (perhaps some thermal scanner that's fed back to the user in a digital data format instead of a visual?), or if perhaps this was an older part of the machine that was cut out because the eye part has become more accurate and it makes it more portable?

In response to the above comment, Total Recall was "decent" but Minority Report was excillent. I wish they would somehow make a movie from "The Man in the High Castle."

As to the Esper, I'm not entirely sure. Both sides make good points, but it would seem that it DID do more than just pan and zoom.

(Oh yeah, and a couple people tried Neuromancer, but none to Gibson's satisfaction. I have to respect Gibson giving up a whole lot of money because he wants his film done right and not completely mashed and garbled. I think the only way that's going to happen is with an independent and not with the major studios and indie films don't have the budget.)]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/
Look for Canoma information at www.canoma.com]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/
--Matt]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/Dec 19th 2005 12:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/Dec 19th 2005 12:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/Dec 19th 2005 12:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/Dec 19th 2005 12:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/movie-gadget-friday-the-voight-kampff-and-esper-machines-from/Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM