50 Years of Visionary Sci-Fi Computer Interfaces

We’ve come a long way in computer interface design over the past 50 years, both in the real world of computing and in science fiction’s vision for what computer interfaces should or could look like. This infographic by Liverpool, UK based Glow New Media provides information about movies and TV shows from the last 50 years that have predicted the future. From Lost in Space’s Robot B-9 and flashing spaceship console lights to the original Star Trek’s communicators through the far more advanced designs, like the gesture-based GUI seen in Minority Report, the immersive interactions found in The Matrix and Victoria’s light table seen in this year’s Oblivion.

It’s very interesting to see all these types of interfaces juxtaposed in the same infographic and to compare, for example, how one film from 1979 envisioned future interfaces to how films depict the next generation of interfaces today.