1. Holograms
Star-Wars-like holographic technology has been utilised in the real world, so it?s definitely a prediction that?s come to pass. Prince Charles used it to send a message during the World Climate Summit in 2007. And the news giant, CNN, gave it a go ? or, ahem, gave the impression that it did.
The one exception was it hadn?t been possible to project it in real time ? which is where Cisco came in. In 2007, Cisco unveiled its real-time ?On-Stage TelePresence Holographic? in front of a live audience in Bangalore. There was one person on a stage in Bangalore, then the holograms of two people were projected from California and all three men just stood there talking at length in real time. It?s quite incredible to watch - looks extremely authentic and VERY live.
2. Handheld communicators
Star Trek?s handheld communicators meant the Starfleet could talk to anyone (or anything) in the galaxy in real time. In 1973, a man stood on a New York street and made the first phone call from a handheld communicator: the mobile phone. The world hasn?t looked back since. Not only do mobile phones look and work (in some ways) like the handhelds used in Star Trek, over the years they?ve been matched in size and are even getting smaller. It?s only a matter of time before we get mobile phones so small, you can clip them to your clothing like a badge (as in Star Trek communicator badges).
Unfortunately, the smaller the mobile phone, the harder it is to find. Hands up if you?ve ever spent AGES looking for your mobile phone.
3. Video-telephony
Officer: Captain, we?re being hailed by an unusually hairy male-boobed Ferengi called Si-monster Cowell.
Captain: On screen, officer.
Skype and the like might be all the rage these days and ?Skype me? might be fast becoming an everyday expression. However, films like 2001: a Space Odyssey, Star Trek and Blade Runner were rocking it waaaay before all that. For example, on the Star Trek command bridge, there was the big space-viewer display that doubled up as a two-way video-telephony screen through which all manner of creatures would often ask for help or downright antagonise. And in 2001: a Space Odyssey, Dr Floyd phones his daughter from Space Station V via video link-up.
Even before that, the short story ?In The Year 1889? (written by Jules Vernes? son, Michael, but published under Jules? name) mentions vid-com technology. In it, a man desperately missing his travelling wife communicates with her by activating ?his phonotelephote, the wires of which communicate with his Paris mansion. The telephote! Here is another great triumph of modern science?. He ends up having a morning ?full of blessings for the inventor, when by its aid he is able distinctly to see his wife despite her great distance.?
4. Ear-piece communication device
The delectably gorgeous Uhura used to use a metallic ear piece as a communications device, remember? She always used to press it down to her ear while looking uber-focused.
Spock had one too.
The ear pieces were wireless and hands-free (well, apart from the million times Uhura touched hers. Surprised she never got RSI).
Remind you of anything? Isn?t the concept similar to the ear pieces people now use when they?re on their mobiles? Bluetooth, anyone?
5. The Internet
In 1898, Mark Twain, inspired by the work of inventor, Jan Szczepanik, penned a sci-fi story, ?From the London Times of 1904?. He wrote of a telectroscope that enabled people to communicate globally.
?The improved ?limitless-distance? telephone was presently introduced, and the daily doings of the globe made visible to everybody, and audibly discussable too, by witnesses separated by any number of leagues.?
Was he really referring to the internet??? You be the judge, but the internet (oh, the irony) abounds with theories that that?s what he was indeed referring to. Some even claim he?s the father of the internet. Others say Twain?s imaginings were of more relevance to the ARPANET, the military communication network used by the US during the Cold War.
6. Communications satellites
In 1945, Arthur C Clarke published a paper, ?Extra Terrestrial Relays ? Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?? in the British magazine, Wireless World. He conceptualised that global communications could become a distinct possibility if a set of satellites stayed in the same point over the earth by moving in tandem with it. Known as geosynchronous or geostationary satellites, or satellites, his concept came to fruition in 1965 when the first commercial geostationary satellite, Intelsat I Early Bird, was launched.
There are now hundreds of satellites in geostationary orbit (sometimes called the Clarke Orbit or the Clarke Belt).
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