Monthly Archives: October 2015

Report Card: Back to the Future Part II

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Read all the Back to the Future Part II reviews in chronological order.

At least according by the hubbub today, c.f. #BacktotheFuture, this movie struck a deep chord in audiences with its tongue-in-cheek futurism and occasional forays into brilliance. And while much of social media has been poring over the film to see what it got right (the pointless interpretation of futurism, imho) let’s instead return to our little corner of nerdery and see how its interfaces fared.

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Sci: C (2 of 4) How believable are the interfaces?

This movie didn’t really aim for a serious futurism. It’s a fun adventure comedy that toyed with a futuristic setting amongst its near and far pasts. It didn’t always aim at believable as much as it did entertaining. (This permeable 4th wall is why comedy interfaces are so hard to review, and why I’ve mostly avoided it.)

Close-up of a Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor, a fictional device from the 'Back to the Future' film series, featuring the logo and design details.
A vintage-style television screen displaying a news broadcast with a man in a suit, while a young person in a colorful cap watches in a diner setting.
A hand is placing a tray with a small pizza into a Black & Decker Hydrator appliance.

Mr. Fusion? Oh, we get it. A play on Mr. Coffee, but super high tech! Cafe 80s? Yeah, I guess that’s us(1985) in a nutshell. A hydrator? It’s like those new fangled microwaves only even more fangled! We were never meant to take these things seriously.

But some of the technologies were presented a little more in earnest, but weren’t thought through. Car controls are meant for navigating a vehicle across 2 dimensions, not the 3 of flight. (Or the 4th dimension of time for that matter, and Doc kind of screwed those up, too.)

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On the other hand, the skyways are a believable and a familiar way to corral the potential chaos of millions of flying cars. (Though I should note somberly that where they were going, they did, actually, need roads.) Barring personal stations in our garages, fueling stations may evolve to become as agentive/robotic as this. And given ubiquitous thumbprint readers (and a weak sense of security), you imagine that cops, homes, and service providers would have taken full advantage of it.

A flying car navigating through a futuristic cityscape with illuminated signs showing destinations like Phoenix, Boston, and London.
Scene at a Texaco gas station featuring a vintage design and signage, with a person in a colorful cap looking up at the station.

Fi: A (4 of 4) How well do the interfaces inform the narrative of the story?

So if you’re going to tell of a future that is a few cool leaps ahead of what the audience currently knows, Back to the Future Part II kicked it. It presented technologies that made people want to live in that exact future. It still inspires people to try and actually make it so. Nike plans to release MAGs in 2016. People keep trying to make a hoverboard. That’s the mark of an impression made so deeply people are still yearning for it to be real, 28 years later.

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The smattering of other technologies that helped make this future believable may not have been as directly inspirational, but still painted a picture of a Hill Valley infused with technology.

A person wearing a puffy jacket and holding a hoverboard stands beside a pond with buildings and people in the background.
A group of four characters dressed in futuristic outfits, with one prominently yelling. The setting appears to be a diner or restaurant with various decorations in the background.
A person in a colorful cap stands in front of a large holographic advertisement for 'Holomax Jaws 19', featuring a massive shark with a menacing expression.
A person with curly hair standing in front of a projected image of a snowy mountain landscape, framed by curtains in a room.
A person standing in front of a large screen displaying various digital images and numbers, with a cozy room and brick wall in the background.

Interfaces: C (2 of 4)
How well do the interfaces equip the characters to achieve their goals?

Interestingly, the plot didn’t depend on much technology beyond the DeLorean and the hoverboard. These two were incredibly crucial, but you can pretty much take out all of the rest and all you lose is the gee-whiz. That said, these two were very critical to the plot and the characters’ goals. And between them it’s a wash, with the DeLorean failing to even be believable in giving Doc Brown tools to navigate any of the 4 dimensions (see above), and the hoverboard being so awesome we’re still many attempts in to try and bring it to life.

A futuristic car hovering above a tree-lined street with parked vehicles.
A young boy holding a colorful hoverboard while two girls look on, one with a purple hair accessory and the other in a bright outfit, set in a vibrant street scene.

I should add a tiny shout out to the the ceiling hydroponics, too, even though it wasn’t critical to the movie’s plot, to the McFly’s family goals of having healthy fresh food available even in their urban setting. Gawsh. What will they think of next?

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Final Grade B- (8 of 12), MUST-SEE

It’s with sorrow that those of us who first imprinted on this far out future must, as of today, put this in our past. Hopefully the next generation will get another film that so vividly paints a vision of the future so awesome that they’ll still want to make it happen in, say, 2043.

Pitch time: If you’ve enjoyed the review of BTTF2, there’s so many ways to say thanks.

  • Actually say thanks.
  • Follow the blog, twitter, and share the joy with friends and family.
  • Purchasing the English or Japanese versions of the related book (or hey both)
  • Dropping a credit in the tip jar that you see on every page
  • Invite me to do similar analyses live at your company or recommend me to your favorite conference. I’m this charming and insightful in person, too, I swear.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088763/Currently streaming on:

Videoconferencing

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Marty Sr. answers a call from a shady business colleague shortly after coming home. He takes the call in the den on the large video screen there. As he approaches the screen, he sees a crop of a Renoir painting, “Dance at La Moulin de la Galette,” with a blinking legend “INCOMING CALL” along the bottom. When he answers it, the Renoir shrinks to a corner of the screen, revealing the live video feed with his correspondent. During the conversation, the Renoir disappears, and text appears near the bottom of the screen providing reminders about the speaker. This appears automatically, with no prompting from Marty Sr.

Needles, Douglas J.
Occupation: Sys Operations
Age: 47
Birthday: August 6, 1968
Address: 88 Oriole Rd, A6t
Wife: Lauren Anne
Children: Roberta, 23 Amy, 20
Food Prefence: Steak, Mex
Food Dislike: Fish, Tuna
Drinks: Scotch, Beer
Hobbies: Avid Basketball Fan
Sports: Jogging, Slamball, Tennis
Politics: None

A man in a brown suit stands in front of a large television, reacting to a scene featuring another man smiling. The background contains a brick wall and various objects like a globe and a sound system.
A scene featuring a man standing in front of a large screen displaying a character named Douglas J. Needles with the caption 'Occupation: Sys Operations'. The setting appears to be a home or office with a brick wall.
A large television screen displays a man's face with a caption showing his name, Douglas J. Needles, and age 47. A person in a suit stands nearby, looking at the screen.

This is an augmented reality teleconference, as mentioned in Chapter 8 of Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction. See more information in that chapter. In short, it’s a particularly good example of one type of augmentation that is very useful for people having to interact with networks of people much larger than Dunbar’s number equips us for. Unfortunately, the information appears in a distracting scroll across the bottom, and is not particularly pertinent to the conversation, so could benefit from a bit of context awareness or static high-resolution display to be really useful.

When the conversation is done, the screen fades to black, and an animated AT&T logo appears as a female voice offers Thank you for using AT&T. Afterwards, another odd crop of a famous impressionist artwork appears on screen. (1887-88 Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hatby Van Gogh, if you’re curious.) This must be a preference set by the McFlys.

During the conversation, Needles convinces Marty Sr. to front some money for a shady deal. To provide the money, he grabs his briefcase and presses one of several lit buttons on its surface. A thin reader raises from the surface on mechanized accordion arms. The slot glows white, and Marty inserts his ID card into the recess and yanks it to the right. Marty presses another button and the reader retracts.

A person sitting on a couch watching a television screen displaying a character named Douglas J. Needles with details about their preferences, including drinks and hobbies.
A scene depicting a living room with a projector displaying a character named Douglas J. Needles, who is smiling. The screen lists personal information, including children's names and ages. A man in a suit is sitting in a chair, holding a briefcase and looking at the screen.
A person sitting on a couch gestures towards a large television screen, which displays a smiling man with information about his food preferences. The room has a cozy, lived-in appearance with bookshelves, a globe, and casual furniture.
A person sitting in a living room, looking at a digital screen displaying a man's profile with food preferences and dislikes.
A person sitting at a table with a notepad, looking at a television displaying a man named Douglas J. Needles, detailing his drinks and hobbies.

Though pretty cool, this portable authenticator seems multimodal, the two objects are both of the same type, i.e. something he possesses, and so is only marginally more secure than unimodal systems.

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Almost instantly, Marty is caught in the act and fired by his boss over the same video phone. To bring home the news, Fujitsu-san presses some button off screen and large letters YOU’RE FIRED appear overlaid on the screen, animating repeatedly for emphasis. Simultaneously, he sends Marty faxes, which Marty receives numerous times in the faxes in his suitcases and others which are installed all over the house, including the in the closet where Jennifer is hiding.

A person in a suit is shown from behind, reacting to a large screen displaying the text 'YOU'RE FIRED' in bold letters, with a dimly lit room in the background.
A black briefcase on a chair with a sign reading 'YOU'RE FIRED!!' next to it, and a yellow paper strip saying 'YOU'RE' in the background.
A paper sign reading 'YOU'RE FIRED!!!' is displayed on a wall-mounted message board.

I’m not sure what would lead Needles or Marty(2015) to engage in something illegal that is obviously and instantly discoverable by authorities, but that is not a matter of interaction design.

VR Goggles

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At the dinner table, both Marty Jr. and Marlene have VR goggles. Marty wears his continuously, but Marlene is more polite and rests hers around her neck when with the family. When she receives a call, red LEDs flash the word “PHONE” on the outside of the goggles as they ring. This would be a useful signal if the volume were turned down or the volume was baffled by ambient sounds.

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Marty Jr’’s goggles are on, and he announces to Marty Sr. that the phone is for him and that it’s Needles.

This implies a complete wireless caller ID system (which had only just been released to market in the United States the year before the movie was released) and a single number for the household that is distributed amongst multiple communications devices simultaneously, which was not available at the time (or hey, even now), so it’s quite forward looking. Additionally, it lets the whole social circle help manage communication requests, even if it sacrifices a bit of privacy.

Garden Center

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In the center of the kitchen, mounted to the ceiling, is a “Garden Center.” Out of use, it retracts out of reach, but anyone in the family can say “Fruit, please” and the Garden Center drops down to allow fresh grapes to be plucked right off the vine. When done, Marty Jr. tells it to “retract” with a thump on it, and it retracts back up to its resting place near the ceiling.

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This is wonderful. Responds to many types of inputs and keeps healthy, fresh fruit available to the family at any time.

Black & Decker Hydrator

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Lorraine prepares the family a pizza using a hydrator. She opens a sealed foil package, branded “Pizza Hut,” and removes a tiny puck of a pizza, placing it in the center of a large pizza tray. She inserts the tray into a “hydrator” oven and closes the hinged front door. A small green light illuminates on its panel. She puts her mouth close to the device and instructs it to, “Hydrate level 4, please.” A red light illuminates as a bubbling sound is heard for a few seconds. Then a timer bell rings, and both lights extinguish. Lorraine removes a full-sized and fully-cooked pizza from the oven.

It could be improved by not having her have to remember and enter the level of hydration. There might be an argument that this helps the hydrator feel like they’re doing enough effort, like the legendary Betty Crocker egg story. While snopes tells us that the usual version of this is poppycock, but also references Ernest Dichter’s research in which yes, the first generation of homemakers using instant cake mixes felt that a preparation that was too easy was too indulgent. So, perhaps the hydrator is first generation, and later generations will be able to detect the hydration needed from the packaging.  

Hoverstuff

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Hover technology is a thing in 2015(1985) and it appears many places.

Hoverboards

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When Marty has troubles with Griff Tannan he borrows a young girl’’s hover scooter and breaks off its handlebar. He’s able to put his skateboarding skills to use on the resulting hover board.

Griff and his gang chases Marty on their own hover boards. Griff’s has a top of the line hover board labeled a “Pit Bull.” Though Marty clearly has to manually supply forward momentum to his, Griff’s has miniature swivel-mount jet engines that (seem to) respond to the way he shifts his weight on the board.

Hovertraction

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George requires traction for a back problem, but this doesn’’t ground him. A hover device clamps his ankles in place and responds to foot motions to move him around.

Hover tech is ideal for leaning control, like what controls a Segway. That’s just what seems to be working in the hoverboard and hovertraction devices. Lean in the direction you wish to travel, just like walking. No modality, just new skills to learn.

6-Screen TV

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When Marty Jr. gets home, he approaches the large video display in the living room, which is displaying a cropped image of “The Gold of Their Bodies (Et l’’or de Leur Corps)” by Paul Gauguin. He speaks to the screen, saying “Art off.” After a bit of static, the screen goes black. He then says, “OK, I want channels 18, 24, 63, 109, 87, and the Weather Channel.” As he says each, a sixth of the screen displays the live feed. The number for the channel appears in the upper left corner for a short while before fading. Marty Jr. then sits down to watch the six channels simultaneously.

Voice control. Perfect recognition. No modality. Spot on. It might dynamically update the screen in case he only wanted to watch 2 or 3 channels, but perhaps it is a cheaper system apropos to the McFly household.

Scenery display

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BttF_096Jennifer is amazed to find a window-sized video display in the future McFly house. When Lorraine arrives at the home, she picks up a remote to change the display. We don’t see it up close, but it looks like she presses a single button to change the scene from a sculpted garden to one of a beach sunset, a city scape, and a windswept mountaintop. It’s a simple interface, though perhaps more work than necessary.

We don’t know how many scenes are available, but having to click one button to cycle through all of them could get very frustrating if there’s more than say, three. Adding a selection ring around the button would allow the display to go from a selected scene to a menu from which the next one might be selected from amongst options.

Café 80s

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Following Dr. Brown’s instructions, Marty heads to Café 80s where the waitstaff consists of television screens mounted on articulated arms which are suspended from the ceiling, allowing them to reach anyplace in the café. Each screen has a shelf on which small items can be delivered to a patron. Each screen features a different celebrity from the 1980s, rendered as a computer talking head and done in a jittery Max Headroom style.

A retro-style kitchen with vibrant decor, featuring a woman in a pink outfit sitting at a counter, watching a vintage television while surrounded by multiple screens displaying various images.
A person with short blonde hair sits at a retro-style table, watching a television showing a close-up of a person speaking, surrounded by a wall covered in various stickers and posters.
A retro-themed diner featuring a roller-skating waitress taking an order at the counter, with colorful decorations and an old man sitting at a table using a laptop.
A character wearing a colorful hat watches a vintage-style television displaying two hosts in a diner setting, featuring Pepsi logos on the tables.

Patrons speak directly to the figure on screen as if it was a human server. With perfect speech recognition, the figures engage in dialogue with the customer to answer questions and take orders. When Marty orders a Pepsi, the waiterbot turns away to attend to other customers, and a small cylinder rises from the Pepsi-branded table in front of him containing a “Pepsi Perfect.” When Marty removes the soda, the delivery cylinder descends quickly back into the table with a whoosh.

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Sure. This is functional as a robotic cafe. The limitations of the cafe are apparent when a violent gang intrudes, and the cafe does nothing to help protect its customers or itself, not even call human officers to intervene.