What was Johnny lee Miller wearing in hackers

[Jim Pez]

In the movie hackers Johnny lee Miller is wearing something that looks like google glass. Do any of know what it was ?

[JamesD]

I always figured it was just a movie prop

[ZylonBane]

If only you had some sort of picture of this that we could look at.

[Tanooki]

If only you had some sort of picture of this that we could look at.

 

Looks like a modified Tiger R-Zone.

[schnuth]

You could totally hack the Gibson with one of those.

[brak]

The script refers to it as a "Pirate Eye" Eyepiece. A google of that will find some modern equivalents such as this http://www.fpvhobby.com/184-pirate-eye-lcd-goggle.html.

 

Other sites call it a monocular FPV or HUD.

 

As far as the one in the movie, I have never been able to find any trace of it online. I've looked a lot for it. They custom made quite a few things in the movie. So, it could just be a prop.

[Gamemoose]

I remember years back, and I'm not sure if it was before or after this movie, there was some guy who had something like that only bigger. Dubbed something like he was "bionic" or "cyber", this guy did stuff online for his work constantly. He cobbled together a small computer, mini monitor, some sort of single hand keyboard that clasped around the hand, a cell phone that basically ran dial up speed and then a mini monitor that covered his eye.

 

In the news piece you could see him walking down the street just clattering away on his mono-keyboard. It was just....weird.

 

Now you see peopke walking around with their smartphones tapping away as they walk.

[LoftBits]

I realise I am responding to a 3yo conversation, but someone might find it useful:

he is wearing Hitachi's Xybernaut Poma Wearable PC

Some details here:

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/portable-devices/the-5-rubbish-wearables-that-actually-make-google-glass-look-cool-1247061/2

And in case someone is reading this another couple of years in the future and the techradar page is gone:

"Launch date: January 2002
Cost: $1,500 (about £886, AU$1615)

The Xybernaut Poma Wearable PC was another foray into the head-mounted display market that launched way before Google Glass.

The wearable comprised of a 309g Windows CE device, running on the Hitachi 128MHz Risc processor with 32MB of RAM.

Xybernaut offered pocket versions of Internet Explorer, Outlook, Windows Media Player and Word pre-installed and there was an optical mouse to control it, with a colour display mounted on a headband.
The head-mounted monitor allowed you to view 800 x 600 pixel images, giving the impression of a 13-inch monitor.

Hitachi thought people would use the computer to work, surf the Web or play games when they were out of the office or away from home. But with the mini screen in front of one eye it was a little hard to also concentrate on what was happening around you.

Why it should have been awesome: A) the ability to do things you'd normally need to wield a very weight laptop around for, meaning plane trips are much simpler and B) you'd look like a Borg.

Ultimate reason for failure: Like the Private Eye, the Xybernaut Poma Wearable PC added a lot of bulk to carry around. It wasn't particularly mobile, ran really slowly (even to 2002 standards) and looked a little silly."

[+x=usr(1536)]

On 9/18/2020 at 7:13 PM, LoftBits said:

he is wearing Hitachi's Xybernaut Poma Wearable PC

Some details here:

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/portable-devices/the-5-rubbish-wearables-that-actually-make-google-glass-look-cool-1247061/2

And in case someone is reading this another couple of years in the future and the techradar page is gone:

"Launch date: January 2002

 

Little-known facts about the Hitachi Xybernaut: it has the ability to travel at least seven years back in time in order to meet production and theatrical release schedules ?

 

On 7/1/2017 at 7:01 PM, Tanooki said:

Looks like a modified Tiger R-Zone.

 

I'm not totally convinced it's the Tiger R-Zone either, though - that plastic piece across the forehead is radically different to the R-Zone's headband.  Sure, it could absolutely be one that's been modified, but it just doesn't feel quite right.

 

There were more than a few companies fooling around with eyepiece-based HMDs around that time - Sony's Glasstron springs to mind as one example.  It could be any one of a number of devices that were trying to enter that market space in the mid-'90s, but it definitely has something of a console accessory vibe to it.

Edited September 22, 2020 by x=usr(1536)

[Daemon]

It's just a movie prop. The optical head mount display wasn't developed until 97, and have only very recently become commercially viable. 

[DavidD]

On 8/19/2017 at 1:07 PM, Gamemoose said:

I remember years back, and I'm not sure if it was before or after this movie, there was some guy who had something like that only bigger. Dubbed something like he was "bionic" or "cyber", this guy did stuff online for his work constantly. He cobbled together a small computer, mini monitor, some sort of single hand keyboard that clasped around the hand, a cell phone that basically ran dial up speed and then a mini monitor that covered his eye.

 

In the news piece you could see him walking down the street just clattering away on his mono-keyboard. It was just....weird.

 

Now you see peopke walking around with their smartphones tapping away as they walk.

I remember seeing a tv news segment on that guy.

 

Does anyone have more information?  I kind of want to see how long that lasted...

[David Maynor]

On 9/23/2020 at 9:26 PM, DavidD said:

I remember seeing a tv news segment on that guy.

 

Does anyone have more information?  I kind of want to see how long that lasted...

Lookup Thad Starner. He was a prof at Georgia Tech before going to Google to design Google Glass. 

[graywest]

On 8/11/2017 at 2:51 AM, brak said:

The script refers to it as a "Pirate Eye" Eyepiece. A google of that will find some modern equivalents such as this http://www.fpvhobby.com/184-pirate-eye-lcd-goggle.html.

 

Other sites call it a monocular FPV or HUD.

 

As far as the one in the movie, I have never been able to find any trace of it online. I've looked a lot for it. They custom made quite a few things in the movie. So, it could just be a prop.

Apologies - I'm also bumping this forgotten topic, but I've been doing a bit of research lately and stumbled across this thread. The script probably actually meant a "Private Eye" head mounted display:

http://www.loper-os.org/vintage/paralleleye/eye.html

A company called "Reflection Technology" was building these as early as 89/90. Uses a nearly identical tech approach to what the Virtual Boy had, but years earlier.

 

In fact, there were quite a few companies working on head-mounted devices in the early 90s, and some people cobbled together their own.
http://genesis.eecg.toronto.edu/head-mounted-displays.html

 

So these were definitely available at the time the movie was filmed, but not in widespread use. Probably ridiculously expensive, too - far more than what "Zero Cool" as a high school student could have afforded. I've been reading the "Mondo 2000 - User's Guide to the New Edge" compilation book. Mondo 2000 was a magazine reporting on the "bleeding edge" of cyber culture in the late 80s/early 90s, and some of it matches up so closely with what was being portrayed in the Hackers movie that I'm sure the screenwriters must have used it as a reference.

 

BTW, some of it is laughably dated, but a surprising amount of what they discuss turned out to be prescient. For example, in the section I'm reading right now they're discussing the potential future convergence of computers and television (and they even use the term "smart TVs") - and this was written in 1992 or earlier.

 

I've sort of gained a new appreciation for the movie "Hackers" lately. When I watched it in high school, I thought "Wow, this is so stupid." Now I think "This is so stupid that it's AWESOME!"

 

[JamesD]

On 12/31/2021 at 7:25 PM, graywest said:

I've sort of gained a new appreciation for the movie "Hackers" lately. When I watched it in high school, I thought "Wow, this is so stupid." Now I think "This is so stupid that it's AWESOME!"

I was going back to college when this came out.  All my CS friends and I thought the cringe worthy "tech" was hilarious.
But it was still fun to watch.  Never thought it was awesome though.

[DataError]

On 7/1/2017 at 8:09 PM, schnuth said:

You could totally hack the Gibson with one of those.

Yeah, it definitely made it much easier and faster to hack. Who knows, without it they would all still be in prison today and gas prices would be $10 a gallon. Thanks pirate glass!

[+x=usr(1536)]

It's about time that pagers worn strapped to the wrist make a comeback.

[+OLD CS1]

On 7/30/2023 at 7:33 AM, x=usr(1536) said:

It's about time that pagers worn strapped to the wrist make a comeback.

There is an app for that.

[+DZ-Jay]

On 12/31/2021 at 9:25 PM, graywest said:

Apologies - I'm also bumping this forgotten topic, but I've been doing a bit of research lately and stumbled across this thread. The script probably actually meant a "Private Eye" head mounted display:

http://www.loper-os.org/vintage/paralleleye/eye.html

A company called "Reflection Technology" was building these as early as 89/90. Uses a nearly identical tech approach to what the Virtual Boy had, but years earlier.

 

In fact, there were quite a few companies working on head-mounted devices in the early 90s, and some people cobbled together their own.
http://genesis.eecg.toronto.edu/head-mounted-displays.html

 

So these were definitely available at the time the movie was filmed, but not in widespread use. Probably ridiculously expensive, too - far more than what "Zero Cool" as a high school student could have afforded. I've been reading the "Mondo 2000 - User's Guide to the New Edge" compilation book. Mondo 2000 was a magazine reporting on the "bleeding edge" of cyber culture in the late 80s/early 90s, and some of it matches up so closely with what was being portrayed in the Hackers movie that I'm sure the screenwriters must have used it as a reference.

 

BTW, some of it is laughably dated, but a surprising amount of what they discuss turned out to be prescient. For example, in the section I'm reading right now they're discussing the potential future convergence of computers and television (and they even use the term "smart TVs") - and this was written in 1992 or earlier.

 

I've sort of gained a new appreciation for the movie "Hackers" lately. When I watched it in high school, I thought "Wow, this is so stupid." Now I think "This is so stupid that it's AWESOME!"

 

It is never too late to revive an old dead thread.  So here we go, for the fourth or fifth time!

 

I remember the Mondo 2000 magazine, I read a few of them back then.  I found them fascinating — a mixture of naive kitsch, silly faux outrageousness, and futuristic optimism.  Sort of what I would imagine the Popular Mechanics and similar “futurisic” magazines may have appeared to the 1950s nerd.

I wasn’t part of the CyberPunk subculture (I thought I was much cooler than that, LOL!), but I was aware of it, and knew a few friends that were heavily into it — mostly for the rad clothes and pink or blue hair colour.  (Me? I was more partial to eyeliner and jet-black hair dye to go with my sulky emo mood while listening to The Cure or Joy Division.)

 

Anyway, I would love to relive my misspent youth reading those old rags.  I’m sure I would get a kick out of it.  Anybody knows if scans are available online somewhere?

Asking for a friend … 😏

    dZ.

[graywest]

1 hour ago, DZ-Jay said:

Anyway, I would love to relive my misspent youth reading those old rags.  I’m sure I would get a kick out of it.  Anybody knows if scans are available online somewhere?

Archive.org has scans! https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A"Mondo+2000"

Not sure if every issue is included, but there are quite a few. The whole late-80s/early-90s cyberculture is a fun era to study, even if tech reality didn't turn out to be as fun or utopian as they had hoped.