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"I'm very taken by mythology. I read it at a very early age and kept on reading it. Before I discovered science fiction I was reading mythology."
- Roger Zelazny
 |
| Recon Spiders | ||
| Tiny spider-sized robots that are able to search buildings and identify occupants. |
When searching for the renegade John Anderton, two officers search a flophouse. A thermal scan reveals 28 warm bodies.
What's the best way to quickly search a building full of people who might fight back or have weapons or might try to hide?
 (Minority Report spider robot swarm) "I confirm 28 warm bodies... What do you think - four spiders, one per floor?" "Let's do eight - I gotta eat!" |
| Technovelgy from Minority Report (Movie),
by Steven Spielberg. Published by Dreamworks in 2002 Additional resources -
|
The spider robots are stored in each officer's belt with their legs retracted; the officers throw them across the floor.
(Minority Report spider robot)
Most of the occupants of the building have been through this before, and submit to the robot spiders as they climb onto their faces to scan their eyes.
(Minority Report spider robot)
The above picture shows the scanning process from John Anderton's point of view.
Compare to the metallic spider from The War of the Worlds (1898) by H.G. Wells, the scarab robot from The Scarab (1936) by Raymond Z. Gallun, the spider robot from The Mystery of Element 117 (1949) by Milton K. Smith, the mechanical hound from Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury, the metal insects from The Invincible (1954) by Stanislaw Lem, the Sheem spider robot from The Witches of Karres (1966) by James Schmitz, the spider tripod from Rendezvous With Rama (1972) by Arthur C. Clarke, the spider cable device from The Web Between the Worlds (1979) by Charles Sheffield and the spider robotic insects from Runaway (1985) by Michael Crichton.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Minority Report (Movie)
More Ideas
and Technology by Steven Spielberg
Tech news articles related to Minority Report (Movie)
Tech news articles related to works by Steven Spielberg
Recon Spiders-related
news articles:
- MAST Spider Robots Like Minority Report
- The STAR Robot - From Minority Report?
- Gestures Control Spider Robot Army
- CRAM Cockroach Robots Flatten On Demand
| Artificial Skin For Robots Is Coming Right Along |
| Robot Guard Dog On Duty |
| Wearable Artificial Fabric Muscles |
| Dancing Robots Taught Dance Moves |
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'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'
'It's so light that you can set it up in five minutes by yourself...'
'Heavy penalties... were to be applied to any one found driving manually-controlled machines.'
'Buy a Little Dingbat... electropen, wrist watch, pocketphone, pocket radio, billfold ... all in one.'
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...'
