With a new year just starting, it is a good time to list some of my favourite products that were only ideas at some point in the past and now they have come true. Here is a list to name a few, Submarine, iPad, iPhone or Laser Guns, where all of these were Science Fiction that has turned out to be accurate predictions. In the next decade there are going to be more Sci-Fi turning Practical Science.

iPad
First in my list is iPad that was properly described by Artur C. Clarke when he talked about "newspad".

"When he tired of official reports and memoranda and minutes, he would plug in his foolscap-size newspad into the ship’s information circuit and scan the latest reports from Earth. One by one he would conjure up the world’s major electronic papers…Switching to the display unit’s short-term memory, he would hold the front page while he quickly searched the headlines and noted the items that interested him. Each had its own two-digit reference; when he punched that, the postage-stamp-size rectangle would expand until it neatly filled the screen and he could read it with comfort. When he had finished, he would flash back to the complete page and select a new subject for detailed examination…”"

The Martin JetPack
Comic strip character Buck Rogers jetpacks was dreamed up in 1920's. In 1960's Military built Bell Rocket Belt started to appear at public demonstrations. However you can now purchase your own very own from Martin Aircraft Company. This is quoted from their site -

"Since the beginning of time man has dreamed of flying as free as a bird. Today, that dream is a reality. The Martin Jetpack is the world’s first practical jetpack.

The jetpack has been a major goal of the aerospace industry for over fifty years - a goal that has been achieved by Martin Aircraft Company. The Martin Jetpack is a result of years of input from a team of engineers and developers worldwide."

Laser Guns
I am not talking about the military one as the purpose of this blog is to avoid anything Military/Distructive and list what is commercial and can be purchased by anyone anywhere. This one can zap a mosquito in flight. How cool is that? ,

Radar
First conceived by Ralph 124C 41+ by Hugo Gernsback in 1911. And it took more than 20 years when in 1933 Guglielmo Marconi creates a working device that could detect remote objects by signals. People understood the concept of radar long before scientists first built a radar system. In the late 1930's all of the countries involved in World War II rushed to create better radar systems to use in the war. Great Britain was one of the leading developers of radar in the years leading up to World War II. The research they conducted led to an early warning radar system called "Chain Home". They built radar stations around the British Isles to provide warning of an aerial invasion. Now days, without this invention, commercial air travel will not be possible.

The Submarine
It was 1869 when Jules Verne’s submarine was first thought of. Some say that it may have been earlier than that. But as Science Fiction we have to accept Jules Verne as the first official inventor. InTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne:

jw submarine by salar golestanian

“For some time past vessels had been met by “an enormous thing,” a long object, spindle-shaped, occasionally phosphorescent, and infinitely larger and more rapid in its movements than a whale.

The facts relating to this apparition (entered in various log-books) agreed in most respects as to the shape of the object or creature in question, the untiring rapidity of its movements, its surprising power of locomotion, and the peculiar life with which it seemed endowed. If it was a whale, it surpassed in size all those hitherto classified in science. Taking into consideration the mean of observations made at divers times — rejecting the timid estimate of those who assigned to this object a length of two hundred feet, equally with the exaggerated opinions which set it down as a mile in width and three in length — we might fairly conclude that this mysterious being surpassed greatly all dimensions admitted by the learned ones of the day, if it existed at all.”
Read more about The Submarine Technology of Jules Verne here.

Microsoft Kinect
Microsoft Kinect Fulfils Its Destiny as Minority Report Gesture Simulator. The realistic presentation of the technology in Minority Report has finally come about with help from Microsoft Labs to become the benchmark for genuine future technology. Not many would have thought we’d catch up so soon?

Whilst Everyone is having so fun with Kinect hacks that MIT stepped into the game and whipped up a gesture system with enough fidelity to recognize palms and the tips of individual fingers, which we thought was impossible given Kinect’s resolution. And here’s the best part: because MIT’s Kinect Hand Detection doesn’t require special control gloves like Tom Cruise wears in Minority Report, we’ve already surpassed the technology of the movie.
Last month we had this article on this subject here: Minority Report PC input with Kinect - Microsoft should wake up!

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About Scifiwood News Reviews and Blogs

These are various short and long News Articles, Reviews and Blogs by Salar Golestanian and employees of SalarO.com as well as contributors of Scifiwood.com. The subject matter are mixed topics with Pure Science to Science Fiction as well as general topics on Web Trends, Technology, Software Engineering genre, or whatever subject that can affect the convergence of today's technology with Science Fiction in any shape or form. These Blogs and Reviews don't have commercial or corporate aspiration, so they are indeed completely independent views. Some of these entries may be short and just link you to the actual news or site that can expand further on the subject of interest. In Phase II we plan to incorporate some Social Networking applications within the portal.