“Minority Report” The world of science fiction movies becomes reality! ? The activities of futurists and their reflection in the real world

“Minority Report” synopsis

2054 AD, Washington DC. The government has developed an innovative method to prevent a huge number of violent crimes, and it has achieved great results. It was a system that used people with predictive abilities to arrest criminals before they committed violent crimes. The system dramatically reduced crime in Washington, D.C., and was poised to be adopted across the United States in the future. One day, John Anderton, the chief of the Crime Prevention Bureau that manages this system, is predicted to kill a stranger in 36 hours and is accused. John's position as the pursuer has changed and he is now the one being chased, and he tries to clear his name, but he has already been caught up in a big conspiracy...

Index

• Works that continue to have a huge impact on the real world
• Transportation Mag-Lev depiction
• Iris recognition technology is the key to suspense
• Jetpack photographed on open set
• Realizing holograms with a high degree of difficulty

Works that continue to have a huge impact on the real world

``Minority Report'' is a science fiction work set in a future world that Steven Spielberg worked on following `` AI '' (2001). In this work, he received advice from a think tank consisting of 16 futurists, and succeeded in giving credibility and depth to the detailed depiction of the social environment, architecture, transportation, computers, etc.

The gadgets depicted in this movie have provided a great deal of inspiration to technology companies and university researchers, and have been incorporated into actual products. Even now, 16 years after the film's release, the phrase "It's like ' Minority Report'..." is often uttered at meetings.

Contribution of John Underkoffler

Among these futurists, the one who had the most direct influence on film was John Underkoffler (*1) of the MIT Media Lab . He is the first Ph.D. graduate of the Tangible Media Group , which conducts "research that touches information directly" at this lab, led by Deputy Director Yutaka Ishii.

Spielberg disliked the use of keyboards, mice, and voice input devices when it came to portraying computers, and wanted an alternative. Underkoffler proposes a user interface that uses gesture input (*2) (called ``Tai Chi in Cyberspace'') based on technology currently being researched at the Media Lab. Specifically, we built gesture commands such as fast forward, rewind, stop, jog dial, erase, move, enlarge, reduce, crop, and focus in.

This depiction is used in a scene in which John Anderton (Tom Cruise) of the Crime Prevention Bureau analyzes the "prevision" (precognitive images) seen by three prophets called "precogs". , the image displayed on a curved transparent glass-like screen is controlled by sensors attached to the index finger and thumb. The way Anderton uses his fingers and hands to manipulate the display is exactly the same as the system called g-speak , which was put into practical use after the movie was released.

“Minority Report” (C)2013 Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Prevision's footage is produced in collaboration with Underkoffler, Imaginary Forces , and Black Box Digital. Initially, it was planned that Tom would perform while projecting images onto an actual transparent screen, but this was abandoned as his shadow would appear on the screen no matter what. There, Tom performs in pantomime, and in the post-production stage, ILM and Asylum VFX compose images from transparent screens.

After the movie was released, gesture input became popular in the real world. For example, in 2010, Microsoft released the Kinect (*3), which uses a depth sensor, as a controller for the Xbox 360. Application examples are appearing one after another, not only in The Game field, but also in industrial products and media art. In 2012, Leap Motion developed the Leap Motion Control Device, which houses an LED and a video camera in a box about the size of chewing gum. Today, various companies are releasing products that use image recognition and AI to enable gesture input using just a simple camera.

Above all, technology that uses touch screens and camera input to operate smartphones and tablets can be said to be indispensable in daily life. In fact, it is undeniable that ``Minority Report'' was in the minds of the developers of these technologies.

*1 In 2006, Underkoffler founded Obron , a company based on g-speak technology. Additionally, he is an adjunct professor in the Department of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California (USC). And movies such as `` Hulk '' (2003), ` `Aeon Flux '' (2005), `` I Was the Hero '' (2006), and `` Iron Man '' (2008), as well as the TV series ` `TAKEN '' (2002). He also served as a scientific advisor. His designs for graphic displays and user interfaces have become staples in science fiction films, even influencing films in which Underkoffler did not participate.

*2 The concept of gesture input itself was not invented by Underkoffler, but started in the late 1970s at the Architecture Machine Group, the predecessor of Media Lab. The result can be seen in Chris Schmandt's 1979 demo of `` Put That There ''.

*3 In the book Kinect Software Development Course , programmer Jarrett Webb and Microsoft's James Ashley wrote, ``The movie ``Minority Report'' stirred the audience's imagination about a future society and inspired the concept that Kinect was based on.'' was brought to life on screen, with Tom Cruise waving his hands and interacting with a computer screen without touching the screen or input devices. was what the technology would look like 50 years later, but it was only seven years after the film was released that the first Kinect concept video, codenamed 'Project Natal', was launched."