Minority Report gestural interface

Comments on the Minority Report gestural interface scene

Rumors and received wisdom about this scene from Minority Report abound and I would welcome subsequent comments that correct any inaccuracies or misapprehensions in evidence here. I had always heard that the gestures Tom Cruise uses in this scene were "real" -- that is to say, Oblong Industries' chief scientist, John Underkoffler was a technical advisor on the film, at a moment when his company was in the process of developing just such an interface, which would be known as G-Speak. So, Cruise's movements were not simply choreographed for visual effect, they were codified by Underkoffler and his team in anticipation of a real system that would operate according to a gestural logic that was not yet technically feasible. The G-speak system that was subsequently created, in fact, bears significant similarities to that seen in Minority Report, though it is obviously a bit less theatrical and dramatic in everyday execution.

Part of what interests me here is the two-way relationship between science and fiction. This was well-documented by Constance Penley in her book NASA/Trek with regard to the impact of sci-fi movies and TV shows on the real-world operation of NASA scientists in the early days of space exploration. But I think this also bears consideration as an example of the ways in which movies about futuristic technologies often create impossibly high expectations, next to which real technologies seem pale and disappointing to consumers. Are movies that do this (see for example, the ultra-immersive portrayals of Virtual Reality in films such as Strange Days or The Matrix) at some level reasserting the hegemony of movies over the threats of emerging entertainment technologies?