HCI in Sci-Fi movies
1 Apr 2010 - 4:00am
16 replies
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thomasglaeser
2010
I´m going to write an article about the influence of interfaces and interactions from hollywood movies for interaction designers. I found a really nice paper about it: www.butz.org/publications/papers/hci-scifi.pdf
And I like the work of Marc Coleran (http://blog.coleran.com) who is a visual designer for interface design in motion pictures. Companies like OOOii (http://www.ooo-ii.com/2009/04/02/star-trek-360-environment) did a great job for Star Trek and the guys from Digital Domain (http://www.digitaldomain.com) doing really inspiring work for future interactive projects.
Does anyone have some good sources about the topic. Websites, blogs, papers, books?
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Of course, Star Trek is one of best source for that. (Yes, I'm a trekkie)
1.PADD: It's really iPad from Star Trek.
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/PADD
2.LCARS: Touch based user interface from star trek.
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/LCARS
And you may be interested in another TV series "Space:1999". In the show, they use mobile device which can control every thing in moon station.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_1999
Regards,
An interesting topic. I don't have any links that provide anything above Mark Coleran's work, but I have always been impressed by the GUI work in Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey. Great UIs in that movie, like the vital signs monitoring, etc - all done in 1968.
Even in Metropolis (1927) they are doing video calls ;)
See below...
Thomas,
Chris Noessel and I are finishing our book on the subject, Make It So, this summer. You can find notes from our SXSW presentations here:
http://www.nathan.com/thoughts/MakeItSo.pdfhttp://www.nathan.com/thoughts/MakeItSoSexy.pdf
In addition there's a recording of a VERY fast ride through both in CCA's Graduate Lecture Series last year posted here on iTunesU: http://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/cca.edu.1129352171.01295144695.2741293887?i=1917424109
Nathan
On Apr 1, 2010, at 5:44 AM, thomasglaeser wrote:
Nathan Shedroff's forthcoming book, "Make It So" will be a great resource for K-12 design educators as well. The International Design Education Alliance for Schools (IDEAS) is kicking off "2020 Vision: the Decade of Design Education for Schools 2010-2020" with a forum at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, April 13, 2010. Participants include a presentation by Bill Moggridge, newly appointed Executive Director of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and a round table by the National Design Policy Initiative.
Participants will be looking at: Design Education Policy (What standards, regulations, certificates, etc. need to be in place to allow schools to include design education as part of regular instruction?) Teacher Preparation (What resources and training will teachers need to include design education as part of regular instruction in schools?) Student Support (What incentives will students need to engage design education in their lives?)
Everyone is welcome to register and attend. http://andDESIGNmagazine.blogspot.com
Martin Rayala, Ph.D. 215-964-2027
From: ixdaor@host.ixda.org [ixdaor@host.ixda.org] On Behalf Of Nathan [nathan@nathan.com] Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 10:54 PM To: Rayala, Martin Subject: Re: [IxDA] HCI in Sci-Fi movies
Thomas,
Chris Noessel and I are finishing our book on the subject, /Make It So,/ this summer. You can find notes from our SXSW presentations here: http://www.nathan.com/thoughts/MakeItSo.pdf [1] http://www.nathan.com/thoughts/MakeItSoSexy.pdf [2] In addition there's a recording of a VERY fast ride through both in CCA's Graduate Lecture Series last year posted here on iTunesU: http://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/cca.edu.1129352171.01295144695.2741293887?i=1917424109 [3]
Nathan On Apr 1, 2010, at 5:44 AM, thomasglaeser wrote: >I´m going to write an article about the influence of interfaces and >interactions from hollywood movies for interaction designers. I found a >really nice paper about it: >www.butz.org/publications/papers/hci-scifi.pdf [4]And I like the work of >Marc Coleran (http://blog.coleran.com [5]) who is a visual designer for >interface design in motion pictures. Companies like OOOii >(http://www.ooo-ii.com/2009/04/02/star-trek-360-environment [6]) did a great >job for Star Trek and the guys from Digital Domain >(http://www.digitaldomain.com [7]) doing really inspiring work for future >interactive projects.Does anyone have some good sources about the topic. >Websites, blogs, papers, books?(
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Hi Thomas, you might want to take a look at http://www.mprove.de/script/06/foxp2/hollywood.html
And also to Stephen Intille's exhaustive collection at http://www.mprove.de/script/04/chi/conceptclips.html
My personal belief is that as soon as a new interface concepts are shown in popular movies the audience expects these kind of features in the next generation of equipment they purchase. On the same accord, engineers say, "that's not that hard to implement! I can do Minority Report (for instance) with stuff from Fry's". And both parties are right. To that extend movies have a huge underestimated impact on technological innovation.
Happy Easter! Matthias
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-- User Experience and Interaction Design http://www.mprove.de :: http://raumschiffer.de
Dear Matthias,
I already found that Website. It has a really nice overview.
Regarding your theory about the impact of Hollywood movies you are right, but I think that everyday gadgets and future interaction concepts also influence Hollywood. So it´s an endless rotating spinner top with institutions like the MIT and Sci-Fi authors...
Thomas, of course there is no point in naming the chicken and the egg in the relation between "Hollywood" and innovative IxDesign. Just the reach and impact of designers is much larger if they consult with film producers rather than with an engineering team. A film might be watched by millions in a few weeks --- a product by thousands or 100.000s if the marketing is clever and effective. And there is another important difference. A product must be functional, useful, and usable; at least to the extent to stimulate the fantasies of the users as the iPad currently does. A Hollywood device is just a concept with polished UI, more or less feasible and realistic, but a mockup after all.
BTW_ Have you read already? An interview with Neil Huxley, Art director of Avatar.
greetings, Matthias
At 6:57 Uhr -0500 03.04.2010, thomasglaeser wrote: >Dear Matthias, > >I already found that Website. It has a really nice overview. > >Regarding your theory about the impact of Hollywood movies you are right, but I think that everyday gadgets and future interaction concepts also influence Hollywood. So it´s an endless rotating spinner top with institutions like the MIT and Sci-Fi authors... > >(
While we've found that "what works for the audience often works for the user," there are several notable differences that have an impact on technologies and interfaces shown in films making their way to real systems. Voice recognition, in general, and Minority Report, in particular, are good examples of this. It's unlikely that either technology will be terribly popular--at least in the workplace--as both possess "deal killer" issues that aren't shown in film but exist in use. Users will want these until they actually use them.
Nathan
On Apr 2, 2010, at 9:02 AM, Matthias Mueller-Prove wrote:
While what you are saying is certainly true, I'm more than sure that all of these technologies will one day find their place and even become mainstream in some applications. For instance, already now, I know several bloggers who regularly compose their articles using Windows 7's voice recognition or Dragon NaturallySpeaking (even if both are far from perfect) as it allows them to rest away from the computer, better concentrate on their thoughts etc. That's just an example and I'm sure that there are many applications where voice recognition and even Minority Report-style UI can be useful and useable.
No doubt that voice recognition will be used but not in offices and likely not in public settings--which is a lot of most people's experience. Working at home by yourself or if you happen to have a private office with a door that closes makes voice recognition work well but if these conditions don't exist, they won't be acceptable for other uses.
Gestures on the scale of Minority Report is different entirely. The issue here is that people's arms get tired quickly. For very short uses or for purely physical experiences (like exercise), they may work well--and even be fun--but for business uses they won't work. Even for interactions like finding and moving files, copying, opening docs, etc. these gestures will tire users too much. Gestures on the scale of the iPhone or MS Surfaces, however, may be much more appropriate.
N
On Apr 2, 2010, at 4:03 PM, seifip wrote:
I recently co-presented a panel at SXSW called Beyond Scifi: Design For Surfaces and Big Screens. We started with Scifi examples of these types of interfaces as they have had such an influence on what clients and users expect.
I think tech from movies is a mixed bag. Sometimes it inspires great idea, but often it sets up misguided expectations. As a product designer you can waste a lot of time recreating movie tech because they really captured the public's imagination, but it reallly doesn't translate. Things you see in movies are often used because they're good story-telling devices or cinematic, but not applicable for mainstream computer use (though sometimes end up being used for a more specific or niche context). Think of the real breakthroughs and trends in tech, other than the cellphone, many aren't that glamorous - the mouse, google, social networks.
Here is another article I found recently: http://uxmagazine.com/design/what-movie-uis-say-about-the-future
looking forward to Nathan's book!
"Think of the real breakthroughs and trends in tech, other than the cellphone, many aren't that glamorous - the mouse, google, social networks."
Obviously stated by a young pup (from this writer's perspective). Well, uh, woah, for a second.
When I was a fairly young boy, our imaginations were often more or less all we had to pass the time of day. There was no mouse, no Google, no social networks. Man was still waiting to step on the moon, the Japanese made nice little transistor radios, and Perestroika wasn't even a blink in its father's eye. Fascination with science fiction would mold the lives of a many a person, from the rhetorical then and there, to the literal here and now.
So it's with a sort of fondness that I look back on those days playing amidst the dunes of our own backyards, when friends and I would gather little scraps of plastic model pieces, remnants of a lost battleship or two, or perhaps a flying fortress, and wave our magic wands, changing them into the spaceships and spaceports that populated our dreams and fantasies. Then we gradually grew out of this phase, the decades rapidly passing, and technology took those forward leaps.
The mouse, Google, social networks? Sometimes, just sometimes, that stuff that dreams are made of, pans out. Looking back though in this age of enlightened instantaneous gratification, I can't help but find myself yearning for a horse and buggy more and more.
Fifty years from now is a long ways off...
R.I.P., Arthur C. Clarke.
The presentation looks good. I do have four really good PDF files now. I think I should start analysing them.
The Weblink to uxmagazin is also a great source.
Thank you Colombene.
Jan - I think we are talking about different things. There are larger themes & visions for our society inspired by science fiction vs. the specific executions of props & features in sci-fi movies. Discussing the viability of the Minority Report gestural interface is very different from examining the moral implications brought about by other futuristic developments in that movie in regards to justice, privacy, control, etc. In speaking of historic sci-fi and tech, the vision of Jules Verne was indeed probably more influential on the moon landing than any subsequent individual engineer. But in bringing the vision to reality, I bet the engineers had to change the mechanisms in his stories due to the requirements of physics, math, atmospheric effects on humans, etc. Those details weren't crucial to the vision or his general audience, but they're interesting to those who actually make these artifacts in real life.
My point was the high resolution required in making movie props paired with their role in cinematic storytelling often make them intriguing but inapplicable to our day-to-day lives - at least not in the ways we expect. And the ideas that have had a greater effect on our industry aren't always as visually captivating nor have they been depicted in sci-fi.