Blinking lights convey so much filler

April 11, 2013 11:07 AM

Futuristic User Interfaces in video games, animes, and movies.
posted by Taft (36 comments total)

I fucking love these things! I see one come up on my dashboard here or there, but never in sets like that. Thank you!
posted by griphus at 11:14 AM on April 11, 2013

Griphus, your post is here for you to pick up.
posted by The Whelk at 11:14 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

I kind of want to be able to run that "Mental Toxicity Level" graph on my iPad during meetings. It would give me a sense of resignation.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:15 AM on April 11, 2013 [5 favorites]

This is awesome.
posted by brundlefly at 11:15 AM on April 11, 2013

that "Mental Toxicity Level" graph

Evangelion, IIRC. I was always tickled by how things like "mental toxicity" and "absolute terror fields" were quantifiable scientific concepts in that universe.
posted by Iridic at 11:28 AM on April 11, 2013 [5 favorites]

I could watch the Zero System boot up all day, and I don't even like Gundam.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:29 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

I wish they told you what each of the images come from. I'm pretty sure that all of the UIs from Anime are Neon Genesis, with a couple from Akira and Ghost in The Shell...
posted by KGMoney at 11:30 AM on April 11, 2013

Akira is still the best.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:31 AM on April 11, 2013

Also a winner: The "psychographic display" in the most recent anime post (another Eva screen) that reads like the narrative chart of Primer.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:33 AM on April 11, 2013

Commence dragulation.
posted by en forme de poire at 11:34 AM on April 11, 2013

Yay! I was hoping to see the Neon Gen three wise men getting corrupted. I love that UI when the virus spreads across them.

ABSOLUTE TERROR FIELD
posted by Our Ship Of The Imagination! at 11:38 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

What, no LCARS? If anyone in touchscreen UI design wants a license to print money...
posted by Appropriate Username at 11:38 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

In all videogame futures, as in Star Trek, iPads are disposable.
posted by Artw at 11:38 AM on April 11, 2013

So let's say I wanted to get the aesthetic experience of Eva (and a friend with the complete series on DVD) but have zero time or inclination to watch the entire thing. What should I watch?
posted by griphus at 11:39 AM on April 11, 2013

If you just want the aesthetics and don't care if the story makes any kind of sense, there's "Evangelion: Death & Rebirth," which compresses the first 24 episodes of the show into a 70-minute parade of robot-laden nonsense.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:42 AM on April 11, 2013 [6 favorites]

Holy shit that is exactly what I want.

Now has anyone done something similar with the the Metal Gear Solid series?
posted by griphus at 11:43 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

So let's say I wanted to get the aesthetic experience of Eva (and a friend with the complete series on DVD) but have zero time or inclination to watch the entire thing.

Or watch the new movie versions: 1.11 and 2.22.

Still gorgeous. Still a mind-fuck.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:43 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

Watch the first episode! The one with the big fight and when Shinji first goes down in to NERV with Misato. Lots of great views of the underground city, UI, and the inside of the facility. I noticed Adult Swim showed a three hour single episode of the series that seemed to mash together the first several episodes or something.

This.
posted by Our Ship Of The Imagination! at 11:43 AM on April 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

3.whatever is out in Japan! I don't know if fansubs exist.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:46 AM on April 11, 2013

griphus: You should check out the Rebuild of Evangelion movies (1.11 and 2.22), which are basically remakes of the TV series with a great deal of the less-interesting filler (i.e. a lot of the eye-rollingly stupid comic relief) taken out. The first two are available on US DVD right now, and the third one should be floating around in fansub form online.

On preview: What TheWhiteSkull said.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:46 AM on April 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Also, holy shit, it only took seventeen years but we finally found the target audience for D&R!

And I say that as someone who paid full retail for the DVD when it finally came out in America.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:47 AM on April 11, 2013 [3 favorites]

This is amazing. Reminds me of this very related post, if you happen to have missed it. With the focus here on games and animation there is very little overlap between the two.
posted by Lorin at 11:49 AM on April 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Dynamic! Bar Graphs! Many of them!

This is cool.
posted by Rock Steady at 11:50 AM on April 11, 2013

Sources confirmed that over the next few minutes, Cipher industriously navigated between multiple computer monitors displaying 3D-rendered images, criminal profiles, warehouse floor plans, and HTML code before brusquely swinging his chair around.

posted by griphus at 11:50 AM on April 11, 2013 [3 favorites]

Why the often cited justification of Skynet and the Terminators' monomaniacal desire to exterminate the human race were perceived threats of deactivation, these pictures are compelling evidence that the real impetus was Cyberdyne's decision to suppress conscious thought in their creations by bombarding their sensory input with random snippets of machine code and a pointless checksum routine.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 11:53 AM on April 11, 2013 [3 favorites]

In all fairness, the one in the second row, right hand side, group IV could have been the machine my mother was hooked up to when she had a stroke, or at least would be if it had another 15 or so squiggly lines on it. After a while I could tell which ones were the "I think I'll breath now" squiggle and which were the "let's move a body part" squiggle. (I'm sure the intensive care nurses had a better understanding / different words for this data.)

In the end, mom recovered about as well as one could reasonably expect so hooray for squiggly line displays.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 11:58 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

“School’s in session, bitches.”

I used to end every stand up that way till I got a written warning. Fucking suits.
posted by Ad hominem at 12:08 PM on April 11, 2013

Needs more idiotic interface from Lawnmower Man.
posted by maxwelton at 12:09 PM on April 11, 2013

You're supposed to remain seated until the judge calls you to testify, Ad hom.
posted by griphus at 12:09 PM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

You're supposed to remain seated until the judge calls you to testify, Ad hom.

Chirst, imagine if programmers had to give status under oath?
posted by Ad hominem at 12:12 PM on April 11, 2013

Needs some entries from the Mass Effect series. They pretty much have it all: transparent holographic screens, people typing on keyboards that have unlabeled keys on a rectangular grid layout, every third screen showing an endlessly scrolling graph, and my favorite, the omni-tool--a combination communications device/tricorder/tool fabricator/all-purpose Swiss Army knife device (and, depending on your class, also potentially your main weapon)--that shows up in game as a sort of orange holographic gauntlet with no labeled displays or controls whatsoever.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:27 PM on April 11, 2013 [3 favorites]

Yes- Mass Effect for sure!

"I have an orange, energy-based, holographic wrist-computer that I can STAB YOU WITH!"
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:47 PM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

ABSOLUTE TERROR FIELD

Absolut Terror

credit: an anime photoshopper from the late 90s, went by the handle 'General Chow'. Sadly, has disappeared.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 1:07 PM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

I am are still looking for MovieOS/MovieWM. I love me some interface hacking but lack the mad coding skills.

Also looking for a holographic gestural interface for my cat. Will use datagloves if necessary.
posted by Samizdata at 1:08 PM on April 11, 2013

I can't see any of the Neon Genesis gifs without hearing this in my head.

And yeah, minus some of the comic relief and fan service, NGE still holds up amazingly well.
posted by dephlogisticated at 1:22 PM on April 11, 2013

So I started watching 1.11 last night and I'm really enjoying it. Especially because I have a bit of a grasp on the sort of stuff they cut out and that is the exact stuff that kept me from ever being able to enjoy anime series.
posted by griphus at 12:38 PM on April 12, 2013