Anyone ever wonder what that computer is on CSI Miami?

[YeOldeStonecat]

Huge transparent fully see through thin monitor, touchscreen input.

Tried Googling around...saw someone say a SmartBoard...but I've seen those a schools,
Someone else said Microsofts "Surface"...but it doesn't have a Microsoft look to it, too...transparent and different.

Probably some custom made thing that's not really fully functional, just wondering if anyone ever got curious and found out about it.

[eeyrjmr]

photoshop

[TechieSooner]

photoshop

While photoshop would SUCK at doing something like that, I'd agree it's more than likely just a rendered clip and not anything real.

What amazes me is the great lengths that these shows go to to custom-design their computer applications. Not a single one would be functional in real life, but SOMEONE is sitting around writing the program for this stuff. I'm talking about shows like NUMB3RS which don't have anything mega-fancy, but their applications are still nothing used in the real world.

[Joe Average]

The only TV show that I've ever seen use actual real-world applications and OSes is a new one: Leverage, on TNT. Recently they've shown XP in operation, unmodified as most of their special effects departments will do by replacing the Taskbar or hiding it, changing the layout of windows, themes, etc. Was pretty amazing to see it when I did, so I got a chuckle from it.

Gotta love how they cover up every single product logo or brand name too... either the manufacturers are getting cheap with their product placement fees or something, all I know is when I saw the characters using iPhones and the logos were hidden, iMacs and the Apple logos on the backs were taped over with silver duct tape, and other such instances, it was pretty fuckin' hilarious... :)

[eeyrjmr]

most actual applications used by gov'n are simple DOS,windows forms applications
go watch the UK's "the bill" to get shots, its just a windows (2000?) desktop and they then launch the required application which is just a frontend to a database

lets put in prospective, I got my mortgage a couple of years ago, at a time where the confidence in the market was high and alot of "money" available. The application the mortgage adviser was using to find and tailor our mortgage looked like a windows95 program (the widgets were) AND THERE was a shite load of ££££ in that sector and they had a simple/functional application

a gov'n funded agency isn't going to throw £££ to provide a flashy-flash program.

[eeyrjmr]

The only TV show that I've ever seen use actual real-world applications and OSes is a new one: Leverage, on TNT. Recently they've shown XP in operation, unmodified as most of their special effects departments will do by replacing the Taskbar or hiding it, changing the layout of windows, themes, etc. Was pretty amazing to see it when I did, so I got a chuckle from it.

Gotta love how they cover up every single product logo or brand name too... either the manufacturers are getting cheap with their product placement fees or something, all I know is when I saw the characters using iPhones and the logos were hidden, iMacs and the Apple logos on the backs were taped over with silver duct tape, and other such instances, it was pretty fuckin' hilarious... :)

I don't know abt the US, but in the UK you cannot do " product placement" on shows, even coke cans are not shown

[MrWizard6600]

Microsoft's surface (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP5y7yp06n0) (damnit auto-hyper-linking-advertising thingy you failed me when i needed you most!) is the closest thing. The new Bond movie, Quantem of solace, with the whole line and circle thing that calls up whatever he asks for and scans it an moves it around and such, thats what I imagine a mature version of Microsoft's surface might look like.

But yeah, what you see in CSI is entirely do-able, although how well is questionable. Using a couple DLP projectors below the glass table calibrated correctly and some kind of overhead motion tracking its possible to do what their doing.

Check out the virtual keyboard (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH8CUTimTvY) (or its ad pitch (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7hJpVYK7H8)) for more of this cool stuff (thats real).

[Joe Average]

In "Quantum of Solace," that was the Surface in action. Read that recently on a tech site someplace... those HP TouchSmart machines are something else though. Every time I drop into Fry's here in Vegas I just gotta head to the back of the store where the desktops are and spend a few minutes with one. Love it love it love it... :D

Wish I could get one, I really do. My current desk situation would be absolutely perfect for such a machine, and a definite space saver. Damned things KICK ASS, they really do.

[YeOldeStonecat]

I guess what got me to thinking of this thread....was last night dorking around with the cube/cylinder transparent desktop features in yesterday OpenSUSE 11.1 install. Had me thinking of the transparent screens on CSI.

[Joe Average]

For some of us geeks, I'd recommend you check out Leverage, though. I know it's a ripoff of the Brit TV show "Hustle" but it's pretty damned slick. Has one guy that's a "hacker" as part of the crew but, at least when he's talking about tech it's not totally made up "sounds complicated" bullshit.

Most of the stuff he speaks about is actually legit - it's like most shows: they have one character that really knows his or her shit (this guy on Leverage, Pauley Perrette's character on NCIS - the forensic Goth chick, Carter on SG-1), etc, and every so often they need to explain something so they do, in tech speak, then of course someone around them can't stand it and interrupts to get the short short version.

Always gets me laughing and reminds me of the "Black Cop, White Cop" routine on the 70s classic TV show "Sanford & Son" where the White Cop would go into this long detailed legalese about a specific situation, Fred would then get that dumbstruck look on his face, then look to the Black Cop who'd restate the stuff in simple ghetto terms... hilarious stuff. :D

But check out Leverage if you can, if you're into TV at all. Great cast, great timing, and it just works...

[GreNME]

most actual applications used by gov'n are simple DOS,windows forms applications
go watch the UK's "the bill" to get shots, its just a windows (2000?) desktop and they then launch the required application which is just a frontend to a database

lets put in prospective, I got my mortgage a couple of years ago, at a time where the confidence in the market was high and alot of "money" available. The application the mortgage adviser was using to find and tailor our mortgage looked like a windows95 program (the widgets were) AND THERE was a shite load of ££££ in that sector and they had a simple/functional application

a gov'n funded agency isn't going to throw £££ to provide a flashy-flash program.

Just wanted to agree with this post. Most government apps I've seen here in the US were either text-based front-ends to databases-- throwbacks from the days of using thin clients-- or they're very retro Win3.1.1-looking programs with very little in the way of graphic niceness to them running. That's not to say that some government applications out there aren't updated, since I've been told by some people who have worked in government jobs (I don't) that there are some relatively new but very bloated or quirky apps that some state and federal government agencies use. For the most part, though, they take a very "if it ain't broke, don't spend any money to update it" attitude to their software technology.

[Met-AL]

My work just this year moved off a DOS platform to Oracle Ebusiness.

I prefer the DOS application, it's way faster than the java based Oracle.

[dbwillis]

Ill say they use VizRT software, likely "viz engine", we use it here on SportsCenter and do overlays like that

[staknhalo]

Dunder Mifflin uses XP. Some have the royale theme, some don't. :)

[Zero82z]

those HP TouchSmart machines are something else though. Every time I drop into Fry's here in Vegas I just gotta head to the back of the store where the desktops are and spend a few minutes with one. Love it love it love it... :D

Seriously? I played around with one for about fifteen minutes in a store and I found that the screen was incredibly unresponsive and the software was mediocre. It's a good concept, but the implementation is pretty bad.

[YeuEmMaiMai]

the first 48 is as about as close as one is going to get to see what the forensics guys use...

[Joe Average]

Seriously? I played around with one for about fifteen minutes in a store and I found that the screen was incredibly unresponsive and the software was mediocre. It's a good concept, but the implementation is pretty bad.

Maybe your fingers were just dirty or something. :D I can do anything with those TouchSmart machines just by walkin' up to 'em, without issues. Maybe the one you happened upon was defective or something, I really can't say. All I know is when I use one, after a few minutes one of the clerks comes over to bug/harass/hassle me with the "Can I help you with something?" and then they watch me zipping all over the place on that PC and decide "Shit, this guy is better with this stuff than I am..." and they walk away. :D

They're fun machines, really, and very easy to get used to. Even my Wife can manage the interface very quick too, but she prefers playing around with the Netbooks hoping someday to have one... who knows what Santa's got planned for her. ;)

[Zero82z]

My fingers were perfectly clean, thank you very much :p. On the model I was using, a lot of my presses went unrecognized, and I had to press rather hard to get a click to register. The HP software was also pretty laggy, although the multi-touch controls worked better with it than the touchscreen did with anything else. I'm certainly not new to touchscreens either. It seems like it would benefit a lot from a stylus. That's assuming the touchscreen is resistive - I couldn't tell whether it was resistive or capacitive, or possibly both as it had multi-touch capability but seemed to require hard presses in order to click which shouldn't be the case for a capacitive screen.

[Joe Average]

Well it's not a touch screen based on pressure, for one thing. So many people walk up to those machines and press so hard they almost knock the damned thing over. :D Watching the sales idiots jump and twitch when it happens is hilarious, though.

Could have just been a bad machine, who knows. In my experience, it works exactly like iPhones/iPod touches/Mac laptop touchpads nowadays, with the slightest contact making the best "connection" as the case may be. I honestly don't have a clue how these newfangled multitouch screens work (coming from a background of using pressure-sensitive stuff for decades like you'd find in PocketPCs, etc). It's not like tablet PCs with styluses either, maybe I should look into precisely what makes these interfaces tick sometime.

So far it's been a love-hate thing: people love it and get into it quick, or they can't stand it and develop a strong dislike just as fast. It works for me when I use it, so I guess it's love for me... :D

[Zero82z]

I honestly don't have a clue how these newfangled multitouch screens work (coming from a background of using pressure-sensitive stuff for decades like you'd find in PocketPCs, etc). It's not like tablet PCs with styluses either, maybe I should look into precisely what makes these interfaces tick sometime.

I couldn't find any particularly detailed info on the subject, but from what I can tell, the screen is coated with a transparent conductive layer, with a uniformly distributed electric current passed through it. There are circuit points at each of the corners, and when you touch the screen, your finger draws some of the charges from the layer, causing a drop in potential. Based on the relative changes at each of the corners, the controller is able to calculate the location of the contact point.

[TechieSooner]

From a day to day business standpoint I really see the missing practicality of the whole thing.

Kiosks, demonstrations, demos, etc they would work great.

[number69]

I'm usually looking at Emily Proctor when I watch that show.

[MrWizard6600]

For some of us geeks, I'd recommend you check out Leverage, though. I know it's a ripoff of the Brit TV show "Hustle" but it's pretty damned slick. Has one guy that's a "hacker" as part of the crew but, at least when he's talking about tech it's not totally made up "sounds complicated" bullshit.

I love that bullshit! So much fun! I always grunt when I hear some of these figures on TV shows and my family allways looks at me like I'm some computer elitiest. Comon a 4096bit wide symetric key! thats huge!!