Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Tom Cruise: prophet?

Just came across this video of some genius at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences who's come up with a computer screen that responds to hand and finger movement. It's like a full-scale version of the new "multi-touch" technology employed in the new iPhone, which made me get hot in an earlier post.

Looks like our interaction with computers is going to go the route of Tom Cruise in Minority Report, with kooky gesturing and dramatic, intense shoving and sorting of intangible objects. They're coining it, eerily enough, "the Minority Report effect."

God help us when we look to Tom Cruise for things we can expect in the future.

4 comments:

Sara J. Allen said...

Whoa. I'm not even a tech person and I just watched that entire video of that.

Maybe it's my distaste for electronics that actually makes that so appealing. Because it's so basic.

Maybe you could go work in his lab and bring him coffee every day. He's the coolest.

Anonymous said...

My Tom Cruise annoyance is apparently stronger than my ability to resist petty bickering... sorry... but if you could avoid crediting Mr. Cruise with anything remotely interesting (save perhaps Magnolia, to be fair) and in instances such as this, say instead "when we look to Phillip K. Dick for the future" I think it will improve my general overall health since I won't be forced to confront the sad realization that Tom Cruise will probably be around for the rest of my life. Oh god... he will, won't he? I need a drink.

thank you.

millionsuns said...

You're right - Cruise wasn't responsible for Minority Report. But a future brought to us by Phillip K. Dick is even more disturbing than one prophecied by Tom Cruise, if you ask me.

But I have to agree with Sara about the coolness of this guy from NYU. I'd be his bitch.

Anonymous said...

Yor're already my bitch in the workplace, don't be spreading yourself thin.