When done right, a science fiction or fantasy film will leave audiences with a prescient glimpse into our actual gadget future. Remember the heady pre-iPhone, pre-
Pureness days of 2002 when you first saw
Minority Report? Staring silently, mouth agape, jonesing for a chance to partake in a
multi-touch,
transparent display future using nothing but
gestures? Well now that
Iron Man 2 has been released, we've got another chance to look into the high-tech crystal ball, this time envisioned by a team of artists at Perception who did the design, animation, and visual effects work that turned Tony Stark's
transparent LG smartphone (pictured above), touch-screen coffee table, and holographic lab environment into an on-screen reality. The group was compelled by director Jon Favreau and the team at Marvel Studios to keep the UI elements "legible and logical, while still appearing to be several generations beyond the typical user experience." Perception tells us that some of its inspiration was directly attributed to Engadget as it researched near-term technologies for the film's future reality. No doubt, we do see influence from
Emblaze's First Else navigation elements and limited color palette as well as Microsoft's
InkSeine research at the heart of the doomed Courier UI. And if we're not mistaken, Stark's
big ass computing table is almost certainly inspired by Microsoft Surface. Now get past the break and check out Perception's contribution to
Iron Man 2, the
future of Google search alone is not to be missed.
posted May 7th 2010 5:27AM
One thing for sure, touch is the next UI. Will we see another rant from a CEO about a competing product that is not touch optimized?
One thing though. Tony Stark uses Dell XPS, but Falcon uses a Mac Pro. :P Yeah, take that Iron Man...
@pika2000 Lol.
@pika2000 yeah thats cuz tony stark knows whats up when getting a computer :p
@pika2000 Because Tony Stark does real work, what with being a gadget development genius.
@pika2000 Actually, in Ironman he was at least using 2x apple cinema displays on one of his desks in the lab. Yea, I know...
@Bahumbug Yeah, Falcon has 2 Cinema displays too, oh and and also the latest iMac in addition to the Mac Pro. ;)
@Honis Real work? Falcon actually run all those hardware using Linux from his USB key, and does real work using command lines. :)
@Atkins Actually, the iron man concept computer is now being developed or I say, being touted by Sony (which is great). http://j.mp/atractable-super-computer
I like the 5 monitor setup of the baddy guy. That was soo 2010! :)
@futurerheza No. your pad will only run what Apple wants you to run.
@futurerheza
iPad, Gadgets?!?
All I see is Scarlett Johansson.
@JiGSaW525
I want one.
That phone interface looks pretty slick. But that ms.dos looking like mr. starks is showing its easy to hack into the security system is so 90's....
"the future of Google search alone is not to be missed"
Isn't it kind of like where Google may be going with Goggles?
@Dark Archon PSN Archonik XBL Dar
If all those personal details with photos about someone were to come up on search, it is more like the future of facebook search...
oh wait, thats today's facebook search...
@futurerheza Yes it will once Iron Man 2 is available on iTunes. :D
Does anyone know what the music is on the montage vid? Very laid back, I love it.
@flathunt
Faze by Rob The Viking
Album: Lyrics Of Fury Vol. 3
Used Shazam on my iPhone to get that info ;)
@MarsOnTheRocks Marvellous - Thanks.
Vapourware.
@Atkins Thank you Captain Obvious!
JK! :)
microsoft's surface hasn't got anything on these things.
now that i've seen what LG can do in films, i'll wait patiently for them to do that in real life now.
And yet today's tech just displays blue Lego bricks if you try to view the future's.... Our tech is jealous
Am I the only one getting really really pissed off by Microsoft? Now every blockbuster sci-fi movie features a Surface here or there, only big M never sells it to we consumers... Oh, and Second Light. And Manual Deskterity (Is it called so?).
Gonna see Iron Man 2 tomorrow, thus skipping the video clips here. No spoiling. Hope finding some surprise (the good kind) in cinema! :)
@Chassit
check out this article and make your own http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/maximum_pc_builds_a_multitouch_surface_computer?page=0%2C0
I'm very inclined to try this my self
@Chassit
Have you ever seen a sci-fi movie where the general consumer was using a surface like device?
Apparently you need to be either a mega rich gadget guru like Tony Stark, or the key player at the top of a mega expensive government precrime organization to play with the good toys. Even Tom Cruises' co-workers never use the gesture interface, they just get transparent screens at best.
What they don't show you in Minority Report is that the other 2000 peon employees in the cubicles of the Precrime division use normal keyboard and mouse Dell Worksations; and thanks to recent budget expansions all the CRT monitors have been upgraded to 19" widescreens!!!
Can anyone explain to me why people believe text would be easier to read if it was partly transparent an had useless UI elements flying around behind it? Would the screen I'm looking at now be so much better if I could ALSO see the wires and other crap behind it as see through screens seem to be all the rage?
For an example, anyone who has desktop widgets or the like, set the transparency to about 20% and see how useful they are.
Can we stop trying to take our tech cues from movies? They are usually put together to LOOK great with not much thought into practicality. This move to make our interactions with elements on the screen LESS efficient and more physically taxing (waving your arms around Minority Report style is not conducive to a relaxing hour browsing your favourite tech blogs) has no grounding in actual UI theory.
@Tes That because it's not designed for casual browsing. It's designed for rapidly working through visual information and in the context of the film seemed to be a lot more efficient than anything we have now.
I believe it was inspired by a military research project that was aiming to do similar for reconnaisance photo's, you can easily imagine the same sort of interface being used on a photo desk at reuters/newspapers/news websites or being used by a director on a live tv show.
Having interfaces tailored to a specific task is surely in "actual UI theory"
@SecretSquirrel
What part of it was more efficient? The artificial speed or the fact that he seemingly can swipe reams of data to one side and randomly stop on the exact photo/file he was looking for all without being able to see where it was due to the speed of the interface?
The reality of searching through lots of complex data is it has more to do with search algorithms that are tailored to that data than the interface you will use to select it once it's found. What is more efficient, searching for a photo via a single query and having a few results returned or having every photo in front of you and having to manually swipe through them? One LOOKS cool but is tedious and arduous and you're liable to swipe past the one you want at that speed.
@Tes
In my dreams -- the whole transparency thing is totally cool. In reality -- I totally agree with you. I can imagine specific applications, like HUD, etc... but not what I want on my laptop.
@Tes You have a point, but...I'd still be rocking that LG see-through phone =)
@Tes
I bet Tony Stark doesn't text.
Ever.
transparent screens are good when you are interacting within the world you are in now. notice how he uses the transparent LG to view something on the large screen.
the obvious military applicatons for heads-up-displays and those giant glass transparent war maps you see in aircraft carrier sets aside, it has its applications. the movie takes it too far - well - movies in general cos it looks awesome. in reality we'd get tired of those things for pure computer-centric viewing eg watching movies, browsing web pages... but for other things like taking a picture, google overlaying navigation information as you drive, a shopfront giving you an inventory of everything in the shop even though it's 2am and you just happen to be peering inside from the outside window............... can take concepts such as "window shopping" to a whole other level :)
the future is bright. semi-transparent even lol.
@Tes For regular use I agree but there are other uses where it's totally fine.
Eg. a scenario where you have people on both sides and you want to show something, you often see this in military maps/strategy movies.
Augmented reality. Instead of displaying what the camera is taking in just have the screen being transparent and only display the overlays.
Monitoring screen where you might have windows/widgets overlapping. You're only going to stare at this screen for a second and be able to see everything without having to bring one forward etc. is nice.
What I do wonder is if future technology will have power benefits, eg. taking in light from behind to make the image brighter...if it sounds ridiculous it probably is :p I'm no future screen technology expert.
Btw you don't exactly see wires in a transparent screen, just look at that Asus prototype laptop.
@Schmich
A map would be pretty useless if I'm showing/viewing a mirror image of what should be there...no? And like this lap top and everyone I've ever seen, eventually you'll plug something in...like a power cord, or a dock, or a mouse or some peripheral...right now my laptop has power,. mouse and LAN cables in it.
@Tes Exactly! Is it really practical to have a computer where you have stand to use it and even if you were able to sit... Imagine having to reach out to touch a computer screen for hours on end. You'd probably get tennis elbow.
@Tes
Absolutely agree with you on this. For general computing and access, all that transparent layers is a visual nightmore. Looks great but pretty pointless in real life.
Stark's phone however, could potentially be useful. I think Nokia is working towards something similar. It wouldn't be for reading but more of a data device, augmented reality, reality overlays. So reality becomes part of the UX of the device and other users on their devices can leave information and messages in virtual space at the real life location. This is potentially in our near future. Would still be a shitty consumption device though unless the material can change opacity.
@Tes looking great often does equate to practicality in terms of a user experience
@Tes Okay, how about the best of both worlds? The ability to turn it on and off?
@Tes It's worth noting that Jeff Han at Perceptive Pixel has been selling large size multi-touch screens you use while standing up for many years to everyone from the DOD to CNN.
@Tes
Thanks for your post, you said it far better than I could have.
Also there's a term for the touch screen fatigue: gorilla arm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesture_recognition#.22Gorilla_arm.22
@Tes my bet is that they put it in because it helps with filming. if the actor is using a non-transparant screen, you have to shoot more over the actor's shoulder. when the screen is transparant, you can shoot the actor's face and what they're doing at the same time. but other than that i would agree.
@Tes
You speak the truth. A good example of your point is the Xperia Pureness. Mighty sexy, not practical at all.
@mmafighter077: I see this argument all the time and wonder... just how lazy are you?
Especially considering that plenty of people stand and move their arms all day long. You know. People who actually do real work?
@JiGSaW525 definitly !!! Iron Man 2 is great =)
Pit
@futurerheza
My Incredible does.
I love Iron Man
Saw Iron Man 2 a week ago and yeah the technology was pretty eye-popping. I'm not exactly sure if any of these things will become available in the average household for some time, but they're cool nonetheless.
(For those wondering, yes Iron Man 2 is pretty good. Could have been better, but for still great for what it is. And yes dorks, there is a TON of Avengers hints.)
@MrHashbrown They didn't just give "hints" of Avengers, they pretty much shoved it down your throat. It's so obvious. :D
@MrHashbrown haha well i didnt want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet. but yeah they did go a little crazy with the Avengers stuff. i think it kind of had a bad effect on the rest of the movie though. made it seem overstuffed.