Things in real life from Blade Runner

www.standardtaxi.com





TOYOTA PRIUS & HONDA INSIGHT:







Urban X-Hawk (2010)






BURJ DUBAI &
MADINAT AL HAREER - 1,001 m (3,284 ft) (est.)

You are forgetting Windows Vista. I don't know about the retail version, but I went to a Microsoft demo a year before it shipped and they showed a voice-activated navigation system that was very much like the ESPER on Blade Runner. The MS rep literally called out coordinates and the screen would draw a selection like the Esper and either select an item or zoom in depending on the command.

or http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/

Let us also not forget that Mac OS has had voice commands since before X, all the way back to Mac OS 7 and before, and now has a completely "speakable" OS.

Also, there are Free/Open Source voice control programs available for Linux and other xNIX flavors. I'm thinking of doing a demo with Linux, voice control and TheGIMP (Free/Open Source answer to Photoshop) which would replicate the Esper. It might not have the same animation as the Esper sequences in Blade Runner, but it will basically work the same. Linux also has scanner drivers. I want to do this for SCALE, the Southern California Linux Expo, in 2009. I tried convincing my fellow San Fernando Valley Linux User Group friends to do this for the upcoming SCALE but couldn't convince them.

Voice commands were created and operational in 1977! Xerox was working on this and it first appeared in Battlestar Galactica.

Technically, Windows was created in 1968 as an effect in 2001:ASO as well as the new OLED flat display systems.

One thing that people like to forget about sci fi: the warning that there is always a terrible price to pay for all the shiny new toys.

You are forgetting Windows Vista. I don't know about the retail version, but I went to a Microsoft demo a year before it shipped and they showed a voice-activated navigation system that was very much like the ESPER on Blade Runner. The MS rep literally called out coordinates and the screen would draw a selection like the Esper and either select an item or zoom in depending on the command.

I attended one of these M$ Vista/Server 2K7 things as well, in 2006, and the demonstrator couldn't get it to work correctly...he blamed it on 'not properly set up for his voice yet'...wasn't a good way to show us how great Vista was (supposedly) going to be. I have no idea if it's in the retail, I'm staying away from it for the time being. I guess right now the "Ford Sync" voice stuff is close to something that would be used by the "average" person, but it's still limited to rather mundane commands (phone, music players). I guess the potential is there, though, provided there's really a need or demand for it...kinda like the VidPhon concept. It's a really neat idea, but the general public doesn't really care for it...otherwise the popularity of user-to-user webcams would still be a growing field, rather than a small, limited target audience. (just my opinion, of course)

I almost called BS on that Urban Hawk photo until I realized it wasn't actually flying...

Neat thread, btw.