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Small Design Decision – Jo-Ann Ng

Image result for is walle scifi
Aw :’-)

I’ve rewatched Wall-E at least 6 times but I think a (not really that small) design decision that was fascinating about this film was the distinguished shapes between ‘new’ and ‘old’ machines/technology.
WALL-E is a boxy (rusty) old ‘outdated’ with sharp edges, compared to EVE who’s super sleek and chic with curved edges, when all her limbs (and head) are retracted, it creates a seamless silhouette.
This transfers to the other robots in the film as well, such as the rogue robots which all have rounded edges even though they’re not necessarily spherical.
I’m pretty sure the differences between WALL-E and EVE are intentional to help with marketing purposes (easier to distinguish, sells the whole star-crossed lovers ish narrative) but it’s pretty cool that smooth edges are somehow associated with the future.

Image result for wall-e rogue robots
Rogue Robot pals

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Small Design Decision – Brenda Tan

Movie title: Passengers (2016) 

A small design decision made in the movie is a coffee machine that dispenses different types of coffee to the passenger based on his travel class, by scanning a wristband that contains the passenger’s information. For example, an economy-class passenger like Jim has access to only a regular coffee, whereas a gold-class passenger like Aurora can get a latte. This smart coffee machine reminded me of a smart Japanese beverage vending machine that has an in-built camera that detects age and gender, and then displays drink recommendations based on the data it captures. You can read more about it here: http://retail-innovation.com/japanese-digital-vending-with-facial-recognition  

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Small Design Decision – Teo Zi Lin

Science Fiction Movie: USS Callister (Black Mirror Season 4 Episode 1)

The small design decision I noticed in this movie is that the protagonist, Robert Daly, harvested DNA from saliva on a lollipop to steal Walton’s son’s DNA and create a clone for his virtual reality game. This cleverly illustrates the potential of saliva to replace blood (which is the golden standard) for DNA analysis in the near future, unbeknown to many. In fact, collecting DNA from saliva is less expensive than DNA from blood, and saliva yields high quantity high-molecular weight DNA. (Read more facts about pros and cons of using saliva for DNA analysis here: http://blog.dnagenotek.com/8-facts-most-people-dont-know-about-dna-from-saliva)

Teo Zi Lin – A0160163R