A true geek, Bond has always been ahead of his time. So much so that certain gadgets imagined for films then became real products.
In the 1970s, the East German Secret Service attempted to reproduce certain Bond gadgets, to no avail. Americans have succeeded in making mini diving tanks. Admittedly not as compact as that of “Operation Thunder”, but which offers about twenty minutes of autonomy underwater: more than enough to defuse an atomic bomb and save the world.
However, in the last “James Bond”, Daniel Craig was deprived of these famous gadgets by the writers. It’s even the subject of jokes between 007 and Q in “Skyfall”. The reason is simple: in the age of smartphones, GPS and smartwatches, these gadgets have been deemed obsolete. Because what was a promise of the future until the 1990s is now trivialized. The “pager” that allows Bond to be reached at all times is the ancestor of the Pager, which is now stored in the Museum of High-Tech Objects. And it’s hard to innovate when the fingerprint scanner is standard on the latest smartphones.
Not only James Bond film series, Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Back to the Future, Hawaii Five ), and many other films share the same popularity of bringing film gadgets into reality.
In this article, we are going to give you five of the most popular film gadgets that became reality and can actually be purchased in the market today.
- Lightsaber from “Star Wars film” series
Since “Star Wars” was released in 1977, both children and adults wanted to get their hands on a lightsaber, also known as a lightsaber. The “elegant weapon for a more civilized age” is one of the most famous accessories in the history of cinema and pop culture, and now, apparently, Disney created a “real” one.
Disney Parks posted a very short clip of what appears to be a working lightsaber on Tuesday, May 4, which is known as Star Wars Day thanks to the movie: “May the 4th be with you.”
- Flying skateboard (Hoverboard) from the movie “Back to the Future II”
What do a mall explosion, a priest, a burning house, and Mike Tyson have in common? A hoverboard. Although this term is not new – it first appeared in the cinema in 1989 when Marty McFly, the protagonist of Back to the Future, went 30 years back in time and did pirouettes with one – in 2015 it has become popular. While McFly’s literally floated, the hoverboard is basically a segway with no handlebars. It does not levitate, but as a result of the photos and videos that were posted on social networks, it seemed so funny that it became one of the most desired toys, by children and adults. The hoverboard (or flying scooter) is the story of a product that has gone viral.
It was in 2013, on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, where hoverboards began to become a reality. The inventor of the Hovertrax, Shane Chen, was seeking funding to carry out his creation. He got it. But it wasn’t until the summer of the following year that the toy became a hit. Soon after, in May, Jamie Foxx arrived for an interview with Jimmy Fallon riding one. The arrest of rapper Wiz Khalifa at the Los Angeles airport for not wanting to get off his hoverboard fueled the phenomenon, and Hunter Kovald’s video on YouTube fully confirmed the existence of hoverboard.
- Jetpack from James Bond 4 “Thunderball”
In “Thunderball, the 4th James Bond film, the Jetpack allows James Bond to fly autonomously. Realization of Icarus’ dream, this invention was revealed to the general public on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, in 1984. To date, few are those who have used a real Jetpack, mainly for reasons of price (around 1 million dollars thirty years ago), and safety issues. Americans have therefore developed the Jetlev, an aquatic variant and (almost) accessible (from 20,000 dollars); and really fun.
- Projection keyboard from Star Trek: The Next Generation
A projection keyboard is a form of computer input device whereby the image of a virtual keyboard is projected onto a surface: when a user touches the surface covered by an image of a key, the device records the corresponding keystroke. Modern projection keyboards connect to Bluetooth devices, including many of the latest smartphone, tablet, and mini-PC devices with Android, iOS, or Windows operating system.
Although it first appeared in the 1994 film “Star Trek: The Next Generation” an optical virtual keyboard was invented and patented by IBM engineers in 1992. It optically detects and analyses human hand and finger motions and interprets them as operations on a physically non-existent input device like a surface with painted or projected keys. In that way, it can emulate unlimited types of manually operated input devices (such as a mouse, keyboard, and other devices).
Today, projection, remote, or mechanical keyboards are very popular not only for their user-friendly but because of their clicking sound that attracts many users.
- Ideum Table from “Hawaii Five-O”
As if smartphones and tablets weren’t enough for this tech world, we’re moving towards even bigger touchscreens. Last year in September, MultiTouch from Finland showed a MultiTaction display. Why was it so unique? Because it was an 84-inch ultra-high-definition table screen. The demo took place during MultiTouch’s annual developer conference. Although pre-ordering for the device started just a few weeks after the show, the device has yet to move into the production phase that was planned for later this year. However, Ideum of New Mexico has released news for the 4K version of its 55-, 65- and 100-inch multi-touch interactive walls and tables that will begin shipping later this month.
The Ideum table was popularized by the television series Hawaii Five-o and since then, it became one of the most interesting gadgets featured in the film.
Ideum models that will be able to benefit from the quadruple resolution upgrade include; Ideum’s 55-inch Pro and Platform models, the 55-inch and 65-inch Presenter touch walls, the 55-inch and 65-inch versions of the Drafting models that have recently been launched alongside the 100-inch Pano. Ideum’s Jim Spadaccini said; “We are already completing our first order for an 8K 100-inch table.”
