Bangkenvi

Throughout the whole NCT course, I have been exposed to many new communication technologies – either through presentations from my classmates or my lecturer and 2 of the guest speakers. This blog post will reflect on some of the things that I have learnt from everyone! :D

The guest speaker that came in yesterday during lecture talked about the various social networking sites and how marketing in social media has become a necessity. One of the takeaways was how consumers have change. They do not want to be controlled and wished to be given a chance to have the freedom to think and select. Thus what you said on Social Media is very vital – different people have different needs on social media, and we need to respect that.

Back to the class presentations held every week, I enjoyed what my classmates has taught me and my favourite presentation was the topic on how Google is making us stupid (or not). Loved how the presentation from Eileen was fitted in nicely with a video on multi tasking. Counting the number of words and hearing it at the same time is not as easy it seemed. This single exercise taught me that as generation passed, people are becoming more and more programmed to mutli task. Google is helping us to remember WHERE to look for certain information and not WHAT information we are looking for. Whether this is a good or bad thing, it remains to be seen.

Of course, the presentation on Facebook security features amazed me as being an avid facebook user since I was like secondary 2 or 3, I have never know you can do so much on Facebook. The timeline profile function on facebook is incredibly realistic and certain security features such as Social Authentication and album settings are really effective to block out certain people in your life. Now I know how to hide my party photos away from my family and relatives!

I also learnt how the music industry is changing – from world peace to sexual messages, the rise of partying culture and music, and most importantly, the fact that in the future - CDs will not exist and YouTube will become a place for talents to perform. It is shocking how the music industry has changed, and also how it change perception of people. No more CDs sales, no more concerts in the future – how are artists going to adapt and change?

Technology used in Minority Report:

The film featured numerous future technological tools. During the screening of the film, the most noticeable new technological gadgets I saw were:

• Multi touch screens
• Retina Scanners
• Crime prediction software
• E papers
• New type of ‘shooter gun ‘
• Precogs – humans with precognitive abilities
• Facial recognition advertising billboards
• Electronic paper

These are the only few technological gadgets I saw in the film, though there are many other features, these few are the ones that amazed me the most.

Why was it amazing for me? Most of the inventions that I saw in the film have already been realised or is going to be realize by inventors! It is even more credible since Steven Spielberg started to consult experts and researched on what could be the ‘future reality ‘of 2054 before he produced the film. And he was more or less ‘spot on’.

It’s remarkable how some of the technologies that he has predicted did manage to appear in our market now – in the year 2011, 9 years after the movie.

The setting of the whole movie was even incredible. It will be so awesome if the roads that we see in the city are like this in the future! Inter locking and cars will have to be driven upside down, side to side, etc. It’s going to be awesome but unfortunately, it is one of the least realistic features in the movie. However, I feel that the law enforcers would love to ‘fly’ like the ones in the movie. Having a propeller powered by an engine will certainly help make crime fighting so much easier! This plus the ‘gun’ that they hold will make policemen a force to be reckon with.

I shall not talk much about the movie but the ending in which Burgess killed himself is very different from the whole plot before that; I would have expected a less ‘happier ‘ending as it fitted the movie well. I want pre crime to continue forever! :D

Back to the technology, the multi touch screens similar to Anderton’s are already realised now! Well the obvious inventions can be the apple products; the XBOX kinect also has such features! The retina scanner is under production from a company based in Manhattan, it will be so awesome if our eyes can be our identifiers in the future. This plus finger prints will make security features so much safer and interactive!

And of course the precogs and the whole pre crime software is super cool but sadly, it is hard for them to be invented as knowing the future seems to be an impossibility in whatever circumstances.  HOWEVER, I am shock to find out that such software is actually in development in the USA! Just last year! It aims to collect a range of variables and work out who has the highest chance of committing a crime! Sound pretty cool to me!

The facial recognition billboards are also in development by Japanese company NEC – the billboards can recognise passer-bys by facial recognition, call them out by names and deliver specific advertisements. This will be good news to marketers – soon they will be able to effectively reach specific groups of target audience that they want. Making their message more clear and concise.

Lastly is the E papers, what more can we say, the introduction of the IPAD has lead to people reading newspapers on it, real concrete print newspapers have already become a thing of the past. And even companies like Xerox are trying to create an even better experience with E papers.

The amount of technologies in the film is much more than the ones I listed. It is incredible how such technology can bring changes to our lives. Recent inventions have reminded us that we are not too far away from achieving what we see in the movie. :D