Gesture interfaces in the movies

Compiled by Ernest Reid

Nintendo Power Glove
The Wizard (1989)
While officially licensed, the Power Glove was made by Barbie manufacturer Mattel without any design input from Nintendo—which may explain why it was so imprecise and hard to use. Kids in the 80s wouldn’t know these shortcomings from how the glove was portrayed in the 1989 movie The Wizard, where Fred Savage’s enemy adeptly wields it, saying, “I love the Power Glove. It’s so bad.”
The G-speak Soe
Minority Report (2002)
The gloves Tom Cruise uses in Minority Report are real. Better known as the “g-speak Spatial Operating Environment,” the gloves were invented by Spielberg’s science adviser John Underkoffler. After spending 15 years at MIT’s Media Lab, Underkoffler launched Oblong Industries, hoping to bring the g-speak gloves into everyday life.
Sogo 7 Data Gloves
Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
To get online in this cheesy cult-classic, Keanu Reeves needs a Sino-logic 16, Sogo 7 Data Gloves and a Thompson iPhone, among other cyberpunk toys. Once logged on, Keanu must navigate the virtual web by theatrically moving his hands around. At the same time, Yakuza track him down online by “narrowing the bandwidth” and moving their hands even more wildly.