The Cage's tech...

[RobertScorpio]

So I was watching The Cage, the remastered version on CBS.COM. (Thank you to whoever told us about that new service)..

At the start, in the teaser I think, Kirk tells Gary Mitchell to turn on the 'inter-craft' communication system. Kirk gives the crew a pep talk and ect...but when Mitchell turns on the system, Mitchell just slides his hand above the panel, and as he does, the sound-effects make it perfectly clear the system responds to his 'non touch'...

Maybe someone else has noticed this before, but is that what I saw?? I had never noticed that before. Would have been cool if they had stuck to that kind of tech..

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Christopher]

Uhh, Kirk and Gary Mitchell aren't in "The Cage," they're in "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Spock did use that kind of control in 'The Cage' when he's calling up info on the SS Columbia.

 

[GodThingFormerly]

Mitchell just slides his hand above the panel, and as he does, the sound-effects make it perfectly clear the system responds to his 'non touch'...

Watch WNMHGB again, preferably on DVD. Mitchell is clearly touching the panel with the back of his hand as he slides it across, so the interface would be closer to that of an iPhone or iPod Touch than the purely gesture-driven system Klaatu employed in The Day The Earth Stood Still.

Spock did use that kind of control in 'The Cage' when he's calling up info on the SS Columbia.

As DS9Sega pointed out on several occasions, this unused scene from The Cage demonstrates that Spock was gesturing to a female console operator:

TGT

 

[Brundledan]

That's very cool; I'd never seen that photo. Viewing the scene in that context, Spock now reminds me of several bosses I've had.

Good to see you here again, TGT.

-Dan

 

[RobertScorpio]

Mitchell just slides his hand above the panel, and as he does, the sound-effects make it perfectly clear the system responds to his 'non touch'...

Watch WNMHGB again, preferably on DVD. Mitchell is clearly touching the panel with the back of his hand as he slides it across, so the interface would be closer to that of an iPhone or iPod Touch than the purely gesture-driven system Klaatu employed in The Day The Earth Stood Still.

You are correct, and yes, I did get the title wrong..it is indeed WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE (it was 2am when I was watching)...but even if the back of his hand is just sliding across the panel, it did look pretty cool. Does Chekov ever do this? Or was that panel replaced by a more 'button' kind of panel by the time Chekov gets there..

Rob

 

[GodThingFormerly]

Good to see you here again, TGT.

Bd! Que pasa, homie?

TGT

 

[Brundledan]

Just trying to stay afloat, like most of us lately. I haven't posted in a million years but still check TrekToday fairly regularly; when I see a discussion thread about either of the pilots I can't resist.

When I was last here most of the discussion seemed to center around how great TOS-R was; that was getting depressing and I drifted away. It's discussions like this (and certainly pictures like that) that I missed, so I'll have to check in more often.

-Dan

 

[Brutal Strudel]

That's very cool; I'd never seen that photo. Viewing the scene in that context, Spock now reminds me of several bosses I've had.

-Dan

And he was just a lowly lieutenant at the time. Apparently, Spock was the Dwight Schrute of Pike's Enterprise (and I don't ebven like The Office).

 

[Christopher]

As DS9Sega pointed out on several occasions, this unused scene from The Cage demonstrates that Spock was gesturing to a female console operator:

I'm not convinced. His hand motion in the episode doesn't look like gesturing to a person, it looks like sweeping his arm past a sensor. Maybe that console operator just happened to be sitting there doing something else. Is there more evidence of this claim?

 

[GodThingFormerly]

Is there more evidence of this claim?

My copy of The Cage shooting script is presently on the other side of the planet, but if the console interfaces aboard Pike's NCC-1701 were gesture sensitive then why didn't we see any other members of the bridge crew breakdancing in front of their stations during the episode?

TGT

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'm not convinced. His hand motion in the episode doesn't look like gesturing to a person, it looks like sweeping his arm past a sensor.

Looked that way to me too.

Maybe that console operator just happened to be sitting there doing something else. Is there more evidence of this claim?

And of course deleted/unused scenes don't "count".

 

[Christopher]

My copy of The Cage shooting script is presently on the other side of the planet, but if the console interfaces aboard Pike's NCC-1701 were gesture sensitive then why didn't we see any other members of the bridge crew breakdancing in front of their stations during the episode?

I have a trackpad on my computer keyboard, but it still has keys. In TOS and all the 24th-century Trek series, they can give voice commands to the computers but still have keyboard or touchpad controls. The existence of one interface method does not exclude others.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Well those Enterprise's computers obviously require the user to have the Anci... erm.. the Vulcan gene to be operated with gestures. Duh!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

My copy of The Cage shooting script is presently on the other side of the planet, but if the console interfaces aboard Pike's NCC-1701 were gesture sensitive then why didn't we see any other members of the bridge crew breakdancing in front of their stations during the episode?

You want that, go watch The Legend of the Rangers and check out the Ranger weapons console that's powered by kickboxing. I am NOT making this up, much as I wish I was.

 

[Harcourt Fenton Mudd]

Simple...Spock is a hacker/geek and customized his UI.

 

[Gagarin]

The Spock "finger wave" thing...Spock never was sitting on the bridge the whole episode. The science station is manned by another crewman the whole time.

I never saw that picture of the medium-shot with the woman sitting there, but she's in other coverage shots from The Cage. If I recall she had very severe eye-brows, like Spocks. You can see her as they read the print-out "food and water obtainable, unless...".

To me, when Spock is talking about the SS Columbia, he's doing a mini-presentation to the Captain. He gestures the person sitting down to change the slide/picture.

The simplest answer is "next slide" rather than a gesture-sensing computer. The Star Trek people were, at this point, "let's do what is simplest and looks like it would 'work' and be from the future." I don't think a hand gesture sensing computer is the simplest explanation, therefore, I tend to think that it's wrong.

 

[Sector 7]

So I was watching The Cage, the remastered version on CBS.COM. (Thank you to whoever told us about that new service)..

Rob
Scorpio

You are welcome. I posted that some time ago.
Since I know you were really just testing us, I'll assume you meant WNMHGB. I like the idea of the non-touch operation, but I was only a baby when it was first aired so I have no idea. I'll leave it to the fanboys to debate.

 

[GodThingFormerly]

I have a trackpad on my computer keyboard, but it still has keys. In TOS and all the 24th-century Trek series, they can give voice commands to the computers but still have keyboard or touchpad controls. The existence of one interface method does not exclude others.

Certainly not, but statistically speaking one (extremely ambiguous) sample of a gesture interface in how many hundreds of hours of The Franchise makes for a rather wide error margin.

Simple...Spock is a hacker/geek and customized his UI.

Which would have very likely left Spock's replacement SOL in the event our favorite Martian got himself killed on Rigel VII.

TGT

 

[Christopher]

The simplest answer is "next slide" rather than a gesture-sensing computer. The Star Trek people were, at this point, "let's do what is simplest and looks like it would 'work' and be from the future." I don't think a hand gesture sensing computer is the simplest explanation, therefore, I tend to think that it's wrong.

Given that "electric eyes" did exist at the time, the idea of machines that could sense gestures surely existed in some form as well. After all, the show did incorporate doors that opened automatically when they sensed motion. A computer that detects hand gestures is simply a variation of the same idea, so I don't think it exceeds any threshold of reasonable simplicity.

However, I just reviewed that scene on tape (yes, I still have it on VHS), and I have to admit, Spock's gesture isn't what I thought it was. It is basically a pointing gesture, though with a rather sharp flourish preceding it. And from the wider-angle shot of where that crewwoman is sitting, it is certainly credible that he was pointing at her. So I'm inclined to concede that that probably was the idea -- just not for the reason you give here.