Minority Report

This past December Garratt Gallagher, a researcher at MIT, used the Xbox Kinect to create an interface – a gadget that allows people to communicate with computers. But unlike your keyboard, this interface projects computer files onto a screen and – with the Kinect positioned in front of the controller – you can scroll through files, enlarge images, and toss data off the screen all with a few waves of the hand. The idea for this invention came from the 2002 Stephen Spielberg film “Minority Report.”

John Anderton (Tom Cruise) lives in 2054 Washington, D.C., where murder no longer exists. This is thanks to a system called “PreCrime.” Anderton – a PreCrime cop – extracts visions of future murders that three mutated humans called “precogs” are able to see and view them with, yes, an interface. He fast-forwards through the visions like a video to get as much information about the murder as possible. The cops must then locate the future crime scene and stop the murderer before blood and guts start flying. One day, a precog vision depicts Anderton shooting a man he’s never met. The crime will take place in less than thirty-six hours.

The film is based on a Philip K. Dick short story called “The Minority Report”. Besides the title and the precrime technology, the film and story have little in common. The book is dark without a clear resolution. The film is more hopeful and optimistic.

In Dick’s story, Anderton is a balding, pudgy 50-year old. Hardly the suave, charming Cruise. Though often stereotyped as an untalented actor who only gets lead parts cause of his looks, Cruise’s performance is sleek, stylish, and believable.

His smoothness goes well with the Film-Noiresque aspects of “Minority Report”. The lighting gives the film a black and white color palette, drawing attention to the sharp contrast in light and dark. We can’t help but notice that there are times when an object or person that was originally in the light, is suddenly in the dark – and the lines between dark and light, good and evil are blurred.

The film has its light, entertaining slapstick moments – Anderton gets chased by a team of men with jetpacks, and the hunt causes them to crash through the windows of people’s homes (on one occasion, the flame from one of the jetpacks reaches the burgers in someone’s kitchen and cooks them). But the movie also poses serious questions concerning the role technology will play in our lives and how it could shift our moral compass. Then again, it also begs the question, if I can make an interface with the Kinect, can I also train it to do my homework?

To see the Kinect interface, click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlLschoMhuE

To view the “Minority Report” interface, click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwVBzx0LMNQ&feature=player_embedded