The Minority Report a Perspective of Emerging Technology Predictions

THE MINORITY REPORT – A PERSPECTIVE OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGY PREDICTIONS

The Minority Report– A Perspective Of

Emerging Technology Predictions

Margaret Welch Fall, ED 407

Athens State University

The Minority Report– A Perspective Of

Emerging Technology Predictions

In 2002, when the science fiction film Minority Reporthit the big scene it featured numerous fictional future technologies and gadgets that seemed pretty unrealistic.

Before the film's production began the director, Steven Spielberg, invited fifteen top experts in the field of technology to a brainstorming session to discuss technologies thatmight be developed by 2054 - which is the setting of the film. The technologies that were featuredin the movie have proven prescient, based on world developments since that time.

Spielberg described his ideas for the film's technology, “I wanted all the toys to come true someday. I want there to be a transportation system that doesn't emit toxins into the atmosphere. And the newspaper that updates itself”(Wikipedia).

The technologies and gadgets seemed fantastic, but they were mind-bogglingly cool – and it turns out we did not have to wait until 2054.In the 14 short years since the release of Minority Report, many of the spectacular advances we saw in the film are actually either in use now or are almost ready for the marketplace. We havean array of the cutting-edge technologies that were featured in the film that have beenintegratedinto our daily lives. In 2003, “The iPod was less than a year old and the iPhone and iPad weren't even gleams in Steve Jobs’ glinting eyes” (The Guardian).

Here we’ll take a look at the technologies from the movie and where we are today:

Pre-crime, or Crime Prediction Software,(predicting that a particular person will commit a crime);Faced with a growing crime rate and a shrinking budget, in 2005 the Memphis Police Department (MPD) developed a prognostic policing method "using analytics to fight crime before it happens." Just asin the film, the program was announced for a trial run for three days, and the results were astounding. “The first time MPD experimented with the new approach, it preemptively intercepted crime hot spots and "made some 70 arrests in just the first two hours — a number usually made on an average weekend — and went on to make a total of 1,200.” After seeing the program's success, the MPD teamed with IBM to create Blue C.R.U.S.H (Crime Reduction Utilizing Statistical History), (Esquire). Since installing Blue C.R.U.S.H., the city has seen a 31% drop in serious crime (Wikipedia).When traditional police work cannotkeep pace with modern crimes any longer;it is time for innovative solutions. "Precogs are pattern-recognition filters - that's all." —John Anderton, theMinority Report.

Iris Recognition, (picking you out from a crowd on the basis of the unique pattern of your iris);the irises of the eyes have a unique pattern, like fingerprints do. This technology is already used to identify us (standing still in front of a camera) by border control agencies in several countries. In the film, irises were being read while the people were on the move, presenting the extra challenge of movement and resolution. But with cameras and computers improving all the time, don't bet against this not being ready before 2054.

Facial Recognition is being used in Gladvertising;Big Brother is watching us in high definition now — our backs profiles, tattoos, scars, families, and friends.Do you remember when the idea of having your phone tapped seemed invasive?

Personalized Advertising, also known as “personalized retargeting” or “remarketing”; where what you see is targeted specifically to you - in Minority Report, iris recognition drove the personalized ads that are now bombarding us everywhere.

In the film, most of the advertising to consumers occurs when they are out of their homes. The advertisements interact in various ways; an Aquafina ad splashes water on its customers, Guinness recommends its products to recover from "a hard day at work", a cereal box has a video advertisement, and when Anderton is fleeing the Pre-Crime Force, an American Express advertisement observes, "It looks like you need an escape, and Blue can take you there." A Lexus ad says, "A road diverges in the desert; Lexus - the road you're on, John Anderton, is the one less traveled” (Wikipedia).The advertisements not only recognize us, but they recognize our state of mind.

This is going on now with digital set-top boxes and the Internet.DoubleClick, the huge advertising company owned by Google, it will track any sites you visit that use its advertisements, and can tailor what ads you see to a conglomeration of your interests (The Guardian). Internetcookies allow companies to track our Internet behavior so that ads suit our interests.

E-paper orelectronic paper, is for newspapers with moving images that people can read on trains. Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle are delivering the news to us, but real "electronic paper", that is bendy, able to retain an image, electronically rewriteable, should be right around the corner. A Korean company,LG, has demonstrated a 19” flexible e-paper, according to Esquire On-line. I was not able to find sales figures, however.

Computer-guided Cars, (which follow preset patterns); Google is testing the driverless car on highways and city streets today. Several states have already passed legislation to permit the hands-free vehicles.

Spider Robots, (for tracking people);Insect robots similar to the film's spider robots are being developed by theUS military. “These insects will be capable of reconnaissance missions in dangerous areas not fit for Soldiers, such as "occupied houses". In the film, spider robotsserved the same purpose (Wikipedia).

Jet Packs; these do exist and were used at Super Bowl I in 1967 and in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The policemen in the Minority Report wore the jetpacks, although there is “currently no way to mitigate their dangers to the operator and [they] have extremely limited range”(Esquire).

Police Restraint Technologies – including the sick stick (makes you sick on contact) and "the collar" (which effectively paralyses you once fitted); Researchers at Pennsylvania State University have developed a “sick stick” that emits ultra-bright light pulses that induces "temporary blindness, disorientation, nausea and blindness"(The Guardian). Intelligent Optical Security has built and sold a similar device to the US's Homeland Security organization.“There's no sign of restraint collars yet, although watching England play football has been known to have the same effect(The Guardian).

Gesture-based computing and multi-touch interfaces; When John Anderton gracefully moved hishands and manipulated digital images on a 3-D-hologram computer interface, it was hard to believe such technology would ever exist.Today this is child's play. “Apple with the iPhone, offering "pinch" and "pull" and "swipe" for pictures and text since 2007, and of course by Microsoft, both with its new Kinect games system and its table-sized, touch-screen Surface, which lets you move things around with your hands” (The Guardian).“Today, this same technology has expanded from the game world to the office and emergency rooms. Modern surgeons trust the hands-free technology to expedite life-and-death decisions, just like Anderton did” (Esquire).

3D video, (virtual reality); Have you seen Avatar, Up, Sky's new 3D TV service, or the new Nintendo 3DS? 3D videos are here!

Voice-Automated Homes; this voice-responsive home technologyallows us to activate locks, lights, air conditioning, and electronics with the power of your voice. “John Anderton told his home to play video on the "wall screen" so that he could get stoned on futuristic air duster and wallow in self-pity to saccharine family flicks” (Esquire).

Technology is improving every day and the reality is that many of the technologies in the Minority Reportare actually either in use now or are almost ready for the marketplace. As we have embraced the technologies featured in the Minority Report, we may have compromised our privacy. Is it a fair trade?

Reference List

Spielberg, S., Molen, G. R., Curtis, B., Parkes, W. F., Bont, J. ., Frank, S., Cohen, J., ...Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. (2003). Minority report.

(n.d.).Retrieved from