The ‘I wish I had that’ gadget: Mobile camera phone with facial recognition technology.
In one amazing set piece that takes place at the Italian Opera, Bond uses his mobile phone to take pictures of a number of bad guys and uploads them to MI6 servers in London; matches are sourced in nano-seconds, even if the pics were captured in low light conditions. Genius.
Real life counterpart: Facial recognition software is already here; often used in airports to identify potential suspects on a daily basis. But on a phone? The OMRON OKAO face recognition software may not be quite as nifty as Bond’s hand-held intelligence tool, but it does show the concept isn’t far away, and allows users to protect the privacy of their mobile using facial recognition as a way to unlock the phone.
In theory, you could take pictures of a crowd with a mobile camera phone and run it through a very sophisticated server to find matches; but as far we can find – it’s not quite here yet, or not that we know about publicly. OMRON is one of a handful of companies riding the cutting edge in face recognition technology, one that law enforcement may find extremely useful in time.
The ‘very handy’ gadget: World’s fastest wireless connection.
Bond uploads pics and gets information from MI6 at super high speeds, in various exotic locales – the type of 3G connection we can only dream of in a perfect world. It’s hard enough getting true 7.2Mbs speeds in Australia, so we doubt Bond is going to get much better speeds in Haiti or Bolivia, where he crashes the party on more than a few occasions.
Real life counterpart: Proof of concept designs for high speed wireless exist, but very few are much faster than 10MBs in most part of the world. Scientists in Italy have apparently demonstrated 1.2Tbs a second over a wireless network, which is certainly the stuff of Bond fantasies. In Japan, a more concrete test was carried out with a Satellite connection (precisely the type of connection Bond would need as he zips around the planet) and found speeds of 155MBs plausible. For now, those wireless speeds feel like a very long way off in the future.
The ‘made especially for a Bond movie plot’ gadget: Hydrogen fuel cell powered hotel.
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| The fuel cell car isn't likely to be avaliable anytime soon... |
Not only does this seem like the very type of evil-villain lair that Bond would have schemed to destroy in the Bond series of old, but it’s a subtle nod to the films' pro-environmental themes. In any case, you just know Bond is going to make fireworks out of the place when you hear the ‘f-word’ (not the f-word your thinking of) muttered by the films big villain, with the omnious reply - "That sounds very unstable". Hydrogen fuel cells + Bond + bullets = Kaboom!
Real life counterpart: Plenty of concept vehicles have been designed around the world to show that fuel cells can and do work. But to power a hotel in the desert? The real desert hotel for the film actually exists in Chile, but is otherwise known as the Paranal Observatory - and it’s sadly not powered by fuel cells and isn't a real hotel. Our searches revealed that the Westin San Francisco Airport Hotel may be the closest example of a fuel cell powered Hotel that we could find. Owned by the Starwood group of Hotels, this example and a few others seem to be using fuel cell technology as a way to lower energy costs.
The ‘everyday, boring’ gadget: VOIP/Video phones.
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| VOIP in the Jetsons age always looked more entertaining |
Probably the most pedestrian piece of tech in Quantum of Solace – director Marc Foster deliberately juxtaposes the dreary web cam VOIP conversations of junior MI6 intelligence ops with Bond on his mobile phone. Perhaps its fitting that they didn’t try anything too out there. As a result, these crummy VOIP apps keep the audience grounded within Foster’s realistic Bond landscape.
Real life counterpart: Skype and a million others (including high speed corporate connections) quickly spring to mind.
The ‘We’ll never be able to afford this’ gadget: Omega Seamaster watch.
This Bond watch lacks any of that cool over-the-top stuff we’ve been accustomed to Bond having on his time piece - including lasers, bungee cords, or rocket launchers. It’s an everyday Omega timepiece, designed with an old fashioned charm to be worn with class and style.
It’s also one of the film’s most obvious forms of product placement – although we tend to think a shock proof Casio-G might have been more useful to Bond in his heart stopping crash test situations. And if an old fashioned bit of watch-speak such as ‘crystal domed anti-reflective, scratch-resistant sapphire’ doesn’t mean anything to you, then perhaps you’re not ready for an Omega just yet. But the inclusion of a ‘Co-Axial Escapement movement with rhodium-plated finish’ does sound rather 007 in retrospect.
Real life counterpart: While Omega won’t reveal their prices without ordering a fancy brochure, our searches revealed that the cheapest place you’ll get likely score one of these Bond watches is for $3395 at Amazon marketplace.
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Comments: 2
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bprobst
Nov 24, 2008 8:46 AM
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Uh, guys, the Walther P99 is a semi-automatic pistol, not a revolver. You can tell it's not a revolver because there's no ammo cylinder in the middle that revolves! Back to spy school for you.
Comment made about the PC Authority article:
Quantum of Gadgets?
We look at the gadgets in the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace, and chat to director Marc Foster about the technology behind Bond (includes spoilers).
What do you think? Join the discussion. |
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saywot
Nov 26, 2008 7:19 PM
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Quote:
The ‘old school Bond’ gadget’: Walther P99.
While not strictly a ‘gadget’ in the Bond sense of the word, we thought that its inclusion was justified – the Walther branded firearms have a sacred place in the Bond Universe, particularly since the similar-looking PKK model remains iconic to the series. A German and Polish favourite, the P99 features 630 grams of automatic stopping power and is Bond’s main gun in Quantum of Solace.
they fixed that |
