How ‘Star Trek’ artists imagined Apple’s revolutionary iPad – 23 years ago

45 Comments

invisibleSHIELD case for iPad“One interesting characteristic of Star Trek: The Next Generation—one that separated it from the original series and most of the early films—was its widespread use of smooth, flat, touch-based control panels throughout the Enterprise-D,” Chris Foresman reports for Ars Technica.

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“This touch interface was also used for numerous portable devices known as PADDs, or Personal Access Display Devices,” Foresman reports. “These mobile computing terminals bear a striking resemblance to Apple’s iPad—a mobile computing device largely defined by its smooth, flat touchscreen interface.”

Foresman reports, “To understand the thinking that lead to the design of the Star Trek PADD, we spoke to some of the people involved in production of ST:TNG (as well as other Star Trek TV series and films), including Michael Okuda, Denise Okuda, and Doug Drexler. All three were involved in various aspects of production art for Star Trek properties, including graphic design, set design, prop design, visual effects, art direction, and more. We also discussed their impressions of the iPad and how eerily similar it is to their vision of 24th century technology, how science fiction often influences technology, and what they believe is the future of human-machine interaction.”

Read more in the full geekfest here.

45 Comments

  3. Ironic, when someone first posed the question, what do you want in a tablet computer, my answer was the PADD from ST:TNG, where the display and the input device are one.

    Waiting for apple to eventually make a laptop that is two folding touch screens…

    Reply

  11. Nice article!

    Yep, ST: TNG was the best of all the Star Trek series. Although, the original stands alone.

    Best SciFi movies and they forgot Forbidden Planet?

    Star Wars isn’t sci-fi, it’s a combo of cowboy horse-opera, watered-down wanna-be samurai (thank you Kurosawa for Hidden Fortress) and weak Bushido… all tied tied together with marketing scams for toy sales. Wookies? UGH.

    Reply

  12. @Black Omega

    Right! Make sure you aren’t wearing a red shirt when you get a blue screen of death! ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”LOL” style=”border:0;” />

    Reply

  19. “Roddenberry had the wisdom to realize that ‘advanced’ didn’t mean ‘more complicated.’ He actually wanted things to be much simpler. So we took that to mean that it was cleaner, better user interfaces, fewer buttons, fewer things to learn how to operate,” he told Ars.

    Amen. Too many tech people are caught up in being macho and having the most features. And making them as complicated as possible.

    Reply

  20. @Deus Ex Technica

    “Right! Make sure you aren’t wearing a red shirt when you get a blue screen of death!”

    That, my friend, is sound advice – no matter what activity in which you are engaged. Red shirts are the kiss of death… Especially if you are beaming down before the opening credits! ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />

    @Pio

    Also agreed. I remember reading about that a while ago. Wish more Macs were “in service” in that regard. And yes, I do know that was a lame joke! ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />

    Reply

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