Slashdot Mirror
James Bond Gadgets
whencanistop writes "Given that the new James Bond film is just about to be released, this is quite a nice summary of James Bond gadgets from past films. Tomorrow Never Dies was on telly last night and I was commenting on how the mobile phone that controlled the BMW was awesome, why they haven't done it in real life is beyond me (although there would probably be a few accidents if they ever did). Ridiculous to think that in 1963 the gadget of choice for Bond was a pager though." Of course, the best gadget in the Bond universe wasn't even 007's ... Jaws' teeth were the envy of every kid with braces.
Myth Busters build a remote controlled car every other episode (they always seem to build it from scratch... odd).
Here's a toy car retrofitted to be controlled by an iPhone: http://www.walyou.com/blog/2008/09/10/how-to-remote-control-rc-cars-using-the-iphone/
Put the two together (no problem), stick in a camera (also no problem) and you've got your own accident waiting to happen.
Why does nobody do it? Most people have enough trouble driving a car with pedals and a big wheel while sitting in the driver's seat looking out the window, never mind trying to drive it with little buttons and a tiny screen from outside.
It's cool that Bond films at least partially stick close enough to the near future that the gadgets are cool but we can look back 40 years and yawn.
are just car/gadget ads.
What about Oddjob's razor-brimmed bowler hat? That's the one I always wanted! Mythbusters tried to make one, and managed to knock off the head of a concrete statue (with Kari throwing no less) even though it was a hollow core molded statue. Still, that hat put a new spin on the old "dressed to kill" standard!
... to strap to his noggin in case he ever comes up against any similarly equipped sharks.
Two words...Little Nellie! Can I have one please?
Smivs on the intertubes!
... there is a more (er, very!) comprehensive list on Wikipedia (of course, where else!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_James_Bond_gadgets
I know this because I designed/created a system to do it a few years back.
Its actually not very hard, I did this with a app on my then-new smart phone, using its internet access to connect car based computer I also gave internet access and configured to use a static host name using a dy-dns like setup on the car based computer system.
The hardest problem I had was calibration of the electronics to interface with the actual driving of the car; I never realized how much we as humans compensate for a slight directional drift on the steering wheel, or how refined our ability to break slowly is. Also, the brakes are an issue as the correct leverage for the breaks can be broken easily if you don't set it up correctly; Get it wrong and you cant actually use the car outside of the remote control because the assembly to drive it is in the way.
In general, The older the car, the more issues you will have. Also, the power and electrical systems are the picture of inadequacy if you are looking to build your own 'Kit'. I actually may try to dig out my old notes, many of my ideas for additions may be possible now.
- d
Back then a pager was a big thing. Consumer electronics of that type were still kind of new back then.
Honestly, some people seem to think the world began with episode 1 of star wars.
They didn't mention the Bensen Gyrocopter from "You Only Live Twice". That was a real, flyable aircraft, although the version that came in four big suitcases (a scene stolen from "Thief of Baghdad") was a dummy.
Of course there is the Eddie Izzard sketch brilliantly animated without the help of Daniel Craig.
Image Properties:
Location: http://www.computerweekly.com/PhotoGalleries/232923/19_20_Jet-pack-Thunderball-1965-Sean-Connery.jpg
Location: http://www.computerweekly.com/PhotoGalleries/232923/34_20_Mini-speedboat-The-World-is-Not-Enough-1999-Pierce-Brosnan.jpg
etc...
My favorite, I think perhaps from one of the Roger Moore Bond films, was the Soviet agents knife in the shoe. It was hilarious watching her try to kick Bond, swinging the leg around trying to 'git im'
This post brought to you by your friendly neighborhood MBA.
yes, yes they have had a sub-car
Rinspeed sQuba
Andy
Small autogyros are very maneuverable, have short take off/landing and are potentially a lot safer too. A small auto gyro gives reasonable speed and mileage. Landed, the rotor can be folded away quite easily and the autogyro could be easily powered by its own engine (as a simple motor trike).
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Short story as I want to go home in a minute...
:)
Broke both my jaws 20 years ago, two metal gumshields were glued to my teeth, both of these had little hooks pointing up/down away from my mouth, on these hooks were elastic bands, these bands kept my nouth in the correct possition (and had to be cut if ever I puked).
When I'd healed, the elastic bands were removed and I looked just like Jaws. No white teeth, just metal.
If it wasn't for all the other metalwork screwed into my skull, I'd have been chewing through cables.
Liquid food for ten weeks... No pictures but I promise you it did happen.
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
Least known, but most used, Bond gadget: penis
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
I guess it didn't heal so well then?
Fascinating. Here's a link to the text explaining the car:
http://www.rinspeed.com/pages/cars/squba/pre-squba.htm
This is an actual car, but the Bond version remains sheer fantasy. The Rinspeed's passenger compartment is not pressurized; it's designed to let the water in. According to the above cited text:
The James Bond movie car drove fast on land, and shot wet cement onto the windscreen of a pursuing car, before driving into the sea and then firing a missile to shoot down a helicopter. This is cooler, though, because it actually exists.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Some of us can enjoy fiction without buying into it.
I pity your inability to use your brain.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The hell with Bond. I can't believe we were all so damned naive in the Sixties and Seventies. Dr. No and all those other metaphors for power-lunacy were either working for the government or the government was working for them. No difference at the top. And we, the plebes, were eating that garbage up like candy.
You have a point, but consider this. In 1960 WW2 had only been over 15 years, and that *was* all about defeating a megalomaniac bent on world domination. It's no coincidence that for the next twenty or more years so many films (Star Wars for example) followed a similar theme, as did children's cartoons - how many times did "Speed Buggy" defeat a german-sounding professor intent on ruling the world? This is how our parents' generation dealt with very real nightmare they lived through - you could argue that these films and other productions were a channeling of their collective traumas.
Jet pack - Thunderball (1965) Sean Connery
Not really a gadget but one of the more memorable personal devices that Bond has possessed. After killing Colonel Jacques Bouvar at a chateau, Bond uses the jet pack to return to his car, an Aston Martin DB5. The pack used was developed by Bell Aerosystems as the Bell Rocket Belt which only had a 20 second flying time using a hydrogen peroxide fuel. The scenes in Thunderball were shot using two stuntmen and the shrill sound of the jets was overdubbed with the sound of a fire extinguisher. In 1984, a Rocket Belt was used in the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Jet packs may not have taken over the world but a mild solution of hydrogen peroxide on cotton wool can be used to disinfect and clean keyboards.
Lotus Esprit - The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) Roger Moore
A deviation for Bond cars as it wasn't an Aston Martin, but it doubled as a submarine, so Bond could track down Karl STromberg's underwater lair.
BMW 750 IL - Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) Pierce Brosnan
Another great Bond car and again not an Aston Martin. This car was armed with an impressive array of gadgets - it's bullet proof, laden with sunroof fired mini-missiles, metal spike dispensers, grenades and a cutter hidden behind the BMW badge. The best thing was though that it was remote controlled by a mobile phone - how cool is that!
Mobile phone - Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) Pierce Brosnan
Brosnan was the first Bond to have a truly mobile phone, a concept design from Ericsson. A few years later the R380 production model appeared which had many of the features of the Bond original â" except for the stun gun, fingerprint scanner, lock pick and remote control for a BMW 750iL. In Quantum of Solace (2008), Daniel Craigâ(TM)s gadget-free Bond does possess a mobile and itâ(TM)s still a Sony Ericsson phone. This time its a titanium C902 which also lacks the first phoneâ(TM)s finer accessories â" itâ(TM)s not even a front-running smartphone. However, it does have a useful 5Mpixel camera to assist Bondâ(TM)s surveillance activities.
Aston Martin DB5 - Goldfinger (1964) Sean Connery
The most iconic car used by 007 is a silver Aston Martin which has appeared in Goldfinger, Thunderball (1965), GoldenEye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Casino Royale (2006) and is due to make a return appearance in Quantum of Solace (2008). Admittedly, it has not always been the same vehicle but it has always been a non-standard production model. The first car had revolving licence plates, tyre slashers, a bulletproof shield, machine guns behind the headlights and smoke and oil sprayers at the back. Most famous of all was the ejector seat on the passenger side. IT and sports cars have always been intertwined with many bosses of manufacturing firms favouring Porsche models. Maybe the return of the Aston Martin will spawn a new craze â" if anyone can afford anything larger than a bicycle during the recession.
Fingerprint identification device - Diamonds Are Forever (1971) Sean Connery
This projector-based system was not one of 007â(TM)s tools but was used by diamond smuggler Tiffany Case (Jill St. John). Compared to modern fingerprint identification systems, Tiffanyâ(TM)s device was extremely crude and immovable. To discover Bondâ(TM)s identity, she dusts a glass he has used, runs it through the device and compares it with a known example of his real fingerprint. Fingerprint identification is a much simpler operation these days with the proliferation computer-based fingerprint analysers that can skim through thousands of possible matches in seconds.
Aston Martin DBS - Casino Royale (2006) Daniel Craig It's hard to find a true gadget in the gritty Casino Royale, but Daniel Craig's sumptous Aston Martin DBS possibly qualifies. Daniel Craig nearly dies inside his car, but is brought back to life thanks to a mini portable defibrillator and some antidote.
TV wristwatch - Octopussy (1983) Roger Moore Watc