From: Jim Witte (jswitte_at_bloomington.in.us)
Date: Tue Apr 20 2004 - 15:54:26 PDT
Interesting article here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/03/
15/BUGO35EG1T83.DTL
TREK TECH
40 years since the Enterprise's inception, some of its science fiction
gadgets are part of everyday life
Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, March 15, 2004
In the 23rd century universe of "Star Trek,'' people talked to each
other using wireless personal communicators, had easy access to a vast
database of information and spent hours gazing at a big wall-mounted
video screen.
On 21st century Earth, that future is already here.
People talk to each other on wireless communicators called cell phones.
They have instant access to infinite amounts of information on the
Internet. And they can spend hours staring at a big wall-mounted plasma
or liquid- crystal display TV watching reruns of "Star Trek." That is,
if they can afford one.
Indeed, 40 years after "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry outlined
his vision for the groundbreaking science-fiction TV series, some of
the once- futuristic personal technology depicted in the voyages of the
starship Enterprise have become a reality.
Moreover, "Star Trek" has influenced a generation of engineers and
scientists, inspiring them to engage in the future they saw on TV and
to "make it so."
"When I designed the UI (user interface) for the Palm OS back in '93,
my first sketches were influenced by the UI of the Enterprise bridge
panels,'' said Rob Haitani, product design architect for Palm-One Inc.,
the Milpitas firm that makes the popular handheld personal computers.
"Years later, when we designed the first Treo (a combo phone and
wireless PDA), it had a form factor similar to the communicators in the
original series. It had a speakerphone mode so you could stand there
and talk into it like Capt. Kirk.''
The show that made Capt. James T. Kirk, Lt. Cmdr. Spock and Dr. Leonard
"Bones'' McCoy into pop-culture icons premiered on NBC on Sept. 8,
1966.
However, the genesis of the show dates to March 11, 1964, when
Roddenberry wrote a 16-page draft pilot for a show he told network
executives would be a "Wagon train to the stars,'' a nod to the many
Westerns that populated TV schedules at the time. Later that year,
shooting began on the first "Star Trek" pilot episode, "The Cage.''
In interviews and memoirs written before he died in 1991, Roddenberry
said NBC executives rejected the pilot as "too cerebral'' but were
impressed enough to green-light a second pilot.
Despite its intensely loyal following, "Star Trek" was canceled by NBC,
and the last first-run episode aired in June 1969, a little more than a
month before the Apollo 11 crew landed on the moon.
In syndication, "Star Trek" was propelled to a higher level of
popularity, and even cult status. It became one of the most lucrative
franchises in the annals of entertainment industry history, with an
animated series, ten theatrical movies and four spin-off TV series --
including the present "Enterprise'' on UPN.
Kirk to Enterprise
Whether it was because they were inspired by the show or because "Star
Trek" writers often based science fiction on science fact, today's
popular personal technology gadgets resemble or have similar functions
to the show's nonworking props.
The prime example is the communicators, the portable palm-size
transceivers with a flip-up cover-grid antenna that, according to "Star
Trek" "technical'' data, had been used "since at least the 2240s.''
When they were on missions off the starship, seeking out new life and
new civilizations, each crew member used the communicators to keep in
voice contact with their shipmates.
The communicators also transmitted a special identification signal to
allow the ship to gain a transporter lock on crew members, essential
for beaming them back to the ship.
Similarly, today's cell phones -- many with the flip-up cover -- do
more than just transmit voice signals. Newer models have global
positioning system satellite technology to let emergency workers lock
on to a caller's location. And some include GPS maps, helping owners to
navigate unfamiliar streets.
Some cell phones also respond to simple voice commands, although it's
still far from the level of sophistication depicted on the starship.
One other similarity: As with cell phones, Star Fleet communicators
didn't always work. Thanks to "ion storms" or other "subspace"
interference, "Star Trek" crew members had their own "dead zones" to
deal with.
Also, new hands-free devices worn on the ear to connect wirelessly with
cell phones loosely resemble the "ear receiver'' used by the
Enterprise's communications officer, Lt. Uhura.
Time warp
To appreciate how far ahead of its time "Star Trek" was, consider that
in 1964:
-- The main consumer communications device was a telephone tethered to
the wall by a cord that could not be unplugged except by a trained
technician from Ma Bell. Modular jacks and cordless phones were years
from being average household items, so the idea of a personal wireless
communications device was as alien as a Keeper on Talos IV.
-- Computers were large contraptions used by big corporations or the
government, not in the home.
-- Television broadcasters and makers of TVs were still in the early
stages of the transition from black-and-white to color, and many
households had only one TV. A typical "big screen'' TV of that era
measured 23 inches diagonally and was housed in a wooden box.
-- Audio entertainment was stored on vinyl records or spools of
magnetic reel-to-reel tape.
-- Although a Sony engineer proposed the idea of a videocassette
recorder that year, it would be a dozen years before the company
introduced the first Betamax home video recorder in the United States.
On "Star Trek," however, computers were ubiquitous, running everything
from life-support systems to long-range sensors. The voice-activated
computer gave any crew member instant access to a database containing
the recorded histories of Earthlings, Vulcans, Romulans and other known
life forms.
"The flashing lights and teletype sounds when they were computing were
silly, but the concept that computers would be ubiquitous in life as
tools seemed inevitable to me, but was not a widely held belief in the
1970s,'' said "Star Trek" fan Steve Perlman, a Silicon Valley
entrepreneur and founder of WebTV.
Today, the Internet links personal computers in homes, schools and
businesses. And computer technology is incorporated into every modern
convenience, from automobiles to watches.
"Star Trek" writers "didn't succeed in predicting the Web, and they
didn't predict the networking of computers,'' said David Allen
Batchelor, an astrophysicist in the Science Communications Technology
Branch at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
But "Star Trek" "had a huge multimedia library, accessible like the Web
is now,'' Batchelor said. A lifelong "Star Trek" fan, Batchelor wrote a
paper called "The Science of Star Trek,'' posted on the NASA Goddard
site, that examines "Star Trek" technology that is already available,
possible, unlikely or impossible.
There are no smart androids, such as "Norman'' in the episode "I,
Mudd.'' But Batchelor noted there is a form of artificial intelligence
not seen when that episode aired in 1967 that is taken for granted
today -- phone answering systems.
"This is rather primitive usually, but there are some good systems,
like the one that I use to call the Washington Post and suspend
delivery at my home while I'm away,'' Batchelor said. "It's pleasant to
use and performs its task automatically.''
Onscreen
"Star Trek" crews never wasted their star dates watching TV, but they
were surrounded by electronic video screens called viewers, either on
tabletops or affixed to workstations. The main viewer on the bridge was
a wall- size screen.
In the first pilot, Mr. Spock used a viewer in a meeting room to
display what resembled a primitive PowerPoint presentation to the
ship's executive officers.
In the past two years, makers of consumer electronics and computers
have been pushing similar-looking devices: large-screen flat-panel
plasma and LCD TV monitors that can be hung on a wall.
Warp factor MP3
On "Star Trek," the crew recorded audio and video messages on square,
palm-size cartridges that were played back with a computer. Today,
small, square flash-memory cards are used to store digital photos, MP3s
and short videos. Disk drives, CDs and DVDs also store multimedia
files.
"In the '60s, it was inconceivable that you would have a miniature disk
drive, let alone nonviolable semiconductor memory in a plastic
square,'' said Perlman in an e-mail.
In a 2002 book, "Star Trek: I'm Working on That,'' actor William
Shatner, who played Capt. Kirk, examined technologies and inventors
inspired by the show. He also commented on the stunning pace of
technological advancement during the "Star Trek" era.
"We're like the driver behind the wheel of a car that's suddenly
accelerated from zero to 150 miles an hour in the space of a few
seconds. Not only that, but we're not sure how to operate the damn
thing,'' Shatner wrote.
"I suspect that one of the purposes of science fiction is to let us
play out our nightmares and our dreams in the theater of the future
before we turn them into reality.''
----------------------------------------------------
Techies who are Trekkies
Steve Perlman, WebTV founder
Episodes like “The Menagerie” contemplated technology that could create
an artificial reality. This was hugely inpiring to me, and it’s one of
the things that drove me into exploring computer graphics, motion
capture, audio perception. And a lot of this work made its way into the
color Mac. I was a big fan. .
Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder
I went to Star Trek conventions. During my Apple design days I’d come
home to my apartment, from work at nearby HP, to watch Star Trek
(reruns) and then head back to HP to work late ….
Rob Haitani, PalmOne designer
I have to say I was most inspired by the vision of racial equality.
Remember in those days, Japanese people were portrayed on TV as
buck-toothed clowns with thick glasses. But on Star Trek, there were
Asian and African American bridge officers, and starships with Japanese
names.
Chronicle staff writer Matthew Yi contributed to this story.E-mail
Benny Evangelista at bevangelista_at_sfchronicle.com.
Jim Witte
jswitte_at_bloomington.in.us
Indiana University CS
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