Home | Glossary | Timeline | New

Science Fiction in the News Articles
Related to material in Rainbows End
by Vernor Vinge

Excellent near-future novel by Vernor Vinge. A recovering Alzheimer's patient slowly regains his wits in the San Diego of 2025. A poet, he learns to adapt to a world in which real and virtual blend perfectly.

Science fiction in the News articles describe real-world events that relate to the ideas and inventions in sf novels and movies. Select a news article:

Vernor Vinge Smart Contact Lens On Wired
   Vernor Vinge got there first - but Wired drew it up real nice for us.

Augmented Reality Shopping In Osaka
   Using this system, you could see how you looked in different items of apparel without that tedious dressing and undressing.

Everything Is Toy RFID-Enabled Fun
   Cool prototype lets you impose music on your environment that makes you part of things, rather than distancing you from your surroundings.

Building Shaker Quake Machine
   Engineers get out from behind their laptops and shake up a real 275-ton building.

Anti-Shredder Computer Versus Stasi Secret Police
   Oh man, does Vernor Vinge have an idea for these people - talk about an anti-shredder!

Augmented Reality Humanoid Robot U-Tsu-Shi-O-Mi
   I'm not sure why I think this is so disturbing, but I think that it's the sensitive featureless robot used as the substrate that gets me...

Book-Scanning ScanRobot Neater Than Navicloud Custom Debinder
   Nicely implemented book-scanning robot tastefully leaves books intact after yanking their text into the digital age.

'Nearest Tube' Augmented Reality iPhone App
   Newest decal required on the iPhone: 'Please don't attempt to drive or walk based on the image you see on your iPhone, held right up against your eyes.'

Library Removes All Books
   It's a radical move, getting rid of all of the books in your school library. Will they be missed?

Flexible Building Survives Test Quakes
   Flexible buildings that flex for earthquakes, concentrating the damage in replaceable steel 'fuses'.

Skiff Reader Solves Apple Tablet Problems
   You might like this one better if you're just interested in reading.

Scanner Could Let You 'Rip' Books
   If this device could be commercialized, you could 'rip' a book like you can rip a CD, digitizing its contents for easy storage on your computer.

DARPA Shredder Challenge Won!
   In which DARPA creates a 'Who can put Humpty Dumpty back together again' challenge for document mavens.

T-Shirt Computing And Vinge's Wearables
   The foundations are being laid for wearable textile computers.

Google's Project Tango VR Tablet Pictures Your 3D World
   'Surely most were virtual, but the blending was perfection.' - Vernor Vinge, 2006.

Technovelgy.com is devoted to the creative inventions of science fiction authors and movie makers. Look for the Science Fiction Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary of Science Fiction Inventions, the Timeline of Science Fiction Inventions, or see what's New.
Find new authors and technologies - Shop for yourself, your library and your lab.

Science Fiction
in the News

More SF in the News