From Siri to electronic billboards, all the technology movies predicted

IT MAY have seemed like complete science fiction at the time, but much of the technology we laughed at in old movies has come to actually exist today.

Somehow these glasses manage to look sillier than Google’s. Picture: Back To The Future

IT MAY have seemed like complete science fiction at the time, but much of the technology we laughed at in old movies has come to exist today.

And while we aren’t yet getting around on hoverboards or teleporting to work, you have to hand it to the creators of these flicks who successfully predicted these advancements.

Skype and video chatting

We may have worked out an easier way to do it since then. Picture: 2001: A Space Odyssey

Not only did 2001: A Space Odyssey predict TVs in our plane seats and space tourism, it also played with the idea of the video phone and showed the concept behind Skype and FaceTime right back in 1968. Also, let’s not forget the iconic HAL 9000 robot that very much resembles an evil Siri, conversing with people much like you can with your iPhone.

Electronic billboards

It now seems like you can’t go to any city in the world without a giant electronic Coke billboard. Picture: Blade Runner

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, set in a dystopian 2019 Los Angeles may not have got everything right about a modern Los Angeles, but one thing it did predict was the extensive use of electronic billboards, something that is almost mandatory in big cities across the world today. Interestingly, a sequel for the 1982 movie is in the works.

Wearable computers

Somehow these glasses manage to look sillier than Google’s. Picture: Back To The Future

Dick Tracy’s watch is the obvious comparison here for wearable technology, but let’s not forget about that the McFly family from Back To The Future wore glasses that had much the same idea as Google Glass or even Facebook’s new addition, Oculus Rift.

Robot Vaccuums

If only our vacuums turned out to be as cute as this guy. Picture: The Jetsons

The Jetsons may be the one show that we look at as complete fiction, but one thing they got right way back in 1962 was the idea of a robot vacuum, which we of course have today crawling through our living rooms.

Smartphones

While mainly a medical tool, the idea of the Tricorder heavily resembles a smartphone. Picture: Star Trek

Smartphones are the most used piece of technology we own but we’ve only really relied on them for the last 10 years. Star Trek predicted the trend back in 1966 with the tricorder which could record and analyse data and which had different sensors. You could even get apps on your smartphone today to simulate the tricorder.

What technology predictions in movies did we miss? Tell us in the comments below.