27 Back to the Future Gadgets and Trends we have in 2023

May 9, 2024 Mark Elliott

27 Gadgets featured in Back to the Future' gadgets that are real in 2023 !……

2015 was the year when Back to the Future II promised everything would be cooler.

The first Back to the Future movie hit theaters 37 years ago.

In the sequel, released in 1989, director Robert Zemeckis imagined a futuristic world where people would have hoverboards, food hydrators and automatic dog walkers. Oh, and for some reason, fax machines would still be cool.

Amazingly there are some gadgets the film predicted correctly. Here are a just a few tech tools from the Back to the Future universe that have actually come to life.

1. Phone glasses

Phone Glasses

In Back to the Future II, everyone wore multi-purpose smart glasses to watch TV or answer calls.

Today, we have things like Google Glass and the Oculus Rift for similar-ish tasks, though neither are super mainstream yet.

Marty’s future self gets fired during a video phone call in Back to the Future II. That call is not only prophetic of video chat applications like Skype and Apple’s FaceTime but also of Facebook, in that personal details like date of birth, occupation, political leanings, and hobbies are shared electronically.

BTTF Phone Glasses

Of course, the movie gets a few details a little wrong—like the widespread use of fax machines. But amazing prediction being the movie was released some 36 Years ago

2. Doors with fingerprint recognition (and biometrics in general).

THUMBPRINT BIOMETRICS

BTTF Fax Machine

Thumb Print Reader

Thumb print reader on front door

Aside from phones with touch ID, people today can buy door locks that operate with fingerprint recognition.

In BTTF II’s version of 2015, thumbprints are the preferred mode of identification. We first see a futuristic thumb-pad in action when Hill Valley Police use one to identify Jennifer, whom they find sleeping in an alley.

Once at the McFly residence, we see another thumb pad, in the place of a doorknob. They pop up again as a way to make mobile payments. None of that seems very far-fetched today.

The real question when it comes to thumbprints isn’t about the technology itself, but if it’s “the most efficient, reliant way of accelerating and expediting transactions,” says Shawn DuBravac, head of research at the Consumer Electronic Alliance.

What seems more likely is less of a reliance on actual thumbprints and more of one on our smartphones, which DuBravac says “will become an extension of your thumbprint.” That sounds better anyway. If your front door and phone communicate with each other, the door can open while you’re walking toward it, rather than requiring you to press your thumb to a pad.

For an even more futuristic twist, there's a hotel in Barcelona that has a fingerprint recognition system on its doors, as well as a Singaporean hotel that has fingerprint recognition technology. (On top of that, it also largely be run by robots.)

3. Marty McFly's self-lacing Nikes and Smart Clothing

THE SELF-LACING NIKES

Do we really need self-tying laces ?

Not really. Laces are not only very easy to tie, but also quick and don’t exactly require a ton of energy.

But that doesn’t mean that self-tying laces aren’t super cool or make us any less excited about the prospect of someday owning our very own pair of Nike Air Mags.

Gone would be the days of not only your shoes coming untied by accident, but also trying them too tight or too loosely. That’s a world I want to live in.

In the sequel, McFly slips on a pair of self-lacing white Nikes, inspiring a chorus of ooh-ing and aah-ing sneakerheads.

In 2011, Nike actually released 1500 pairs of limited edition Nike Air Mags, replicas of the '80s high-tops.

They were only sold through an eBay auction, with benefits going toward the Michael J. Fox foundation for Parkinson's Research.

Nike Mags

Nike Mags Hoverboard

2011 Nike Mags

Auto Adjusting/Drying Clothes

Real world technological advancement has led to the public sale of hydrophobic sprays that can prevent items and clothing from becoming wet, but we still don’t have anything close to the amazing jacket that Marty McFly wears in Back To The Future Part II - which not dries itself after the hero’s hoverboard mishap, but even has the capacity to grow and shrink to fit perfectly on a person’s body. This would certainly make shopping a hell of a lot easier (no need to try anything on!), but clothes probably also last a lot longer.

Self Adjusting Jacket

Size Adjusting Fit Jacket

Auto Drying Mode On

4. TV video calls

VIDEO CALLS IN THE FILM.

Video Call

Mc Fly Video Call

TV SKYPE CALLS WITH AN XBOX ONE

Video chatting straight from your TV seemed like a futuristic impossibility in 1989. Today, we have the power of video calling in our pockets. There are also numerous ways to video chat on a TV in today's world, from using a smart TV with Skype to using a BluRay player or an Xbox One.

5. Tablets

Characters casually wield tablets in the film and — surprise, surprise — we're obsessed with the things now. Sure, we all made our jokes when the iPad was initially released, but tablets have since become the perfect in-between for people carrying laptops and too tired to stare at small phone screens.

BTTF Tablet

Mobile Payment Technology

Viewers catch a glimpse of a flat, wireless electronic device in the film, during a scene in which an elderly Terry asks Marty to electronically donate $100—equal to only a couple of inflation-adjusted 1985 dollars—to save the town’s historic clock tower.

Thankfully, inflation hasn’t hit the dollar nearly as hard as Back to the Future predicted. But mobile technology has met and even surpassed that of the devices in the movie—in a way that one of the film’s screenwriters recently said he never could have imagined.

6. 3-D movie obsessions (and never-ending sequels)

Jawes 19 3D

Jaws 19

AN AUDIENCE WATCHES A 3-D FILM

In one scene, McFly walks by a movie theater called a Holomax playing Jaws 19 — and a hologram of a shark leaps out at him.

Sure, we don't have hologram theaters, but 3-D movies have become de rigeur (experiencing a particular boom after the release of Avatar in 2009) and are only becoming more impressive.

Sequels and remakes in general are also getting fairly more aggressive in Hollywood. (Looking at you, Fast and Furious 7 and Spider-Man).

7. Hands-free gaming

THE ARCADE GAME WILD GUNMAN

Wild Gunman

Marty playing Wild Gunman

THE XBOX KINECT Playing video games with your hands is basically like playing "a baby's toy," according to a kid in the film (played by a pint-sized Elijah Wood). Today, we have the Xbox Kinect, which can operate via gestures and spoken commands.

Wild Gunman

8. Holographic Advertisements

The proliferation of holograms definitely sounds cool, just because the technology would actually be neat to see in real life, but it has its downsides as well. For example, do you really want to be just minding your own business on a street corner and suddenly get attacked by an advertisement for Jaws 19?

Halographic Jawes

9. Dog Walking Drone

Dog Walker Drone

Owning a dog is a lot of fun, but it’s also a lot of responsibility. That fact was surely the inspiration behind the dog walking drone featured in Back To The Future Part II. Sadly, this device would probably be exploited, but it would definitely be helpful if you’re just too busy to go for a walk, or are on vacation and can’t find a dog walker.

Flying drones are ubiquitous in Back to the Future’s 2015, and they’re shown doing everything from walking a dog to capturing images for news organizations.

The latter prediction has come true, and while people still walk their dogs the old-fashioned way, drones—widely available to consumers for about $1,000 a pop—have given us new and creative ways to catch fish, deliver dry cleaning, and make people feel awkward at holiday parties

Owning a dog is a lot of fun, but it’s also a lot of responsibility. That fact was surely the inspiration behind the dog walking drone featured in Back To The Future Part II. It would definitely be helpful if you’re just too busy to go for a walk, or are on vacation and can’t find a dog walker.

10. Floating Back Fixer

BTTF Flying Back Brace

Hurting your back is rough, simply because it means that practically every move you make starts to hurt. It’s why I can have a lot of appreciation for the floating back fixer that George McFly uses in Back To The Future Part II.

11. Food Hydrator

Food Hydrator

A part of me does wonder if the taste of the food featured in Back To The Future Part II is at all affected by the dehydrating/hydrating process, but assuming that it’s not, then hopefully this technology will eventually become a part of our everyday life.

Not only would it make preparing meals incredibly easy, but it would also make it extremely simple to send a great deal of food to people and areas suffering from starvation.

“Boy, oh boy, Mom, you sure know how to hydrate a pizza.”

But, “Boy, oh boy, Mom, you sure know how to PRINT a pizza” is a total possibility.

“In the future, maybe consumers will go down to the store, pick up a tube of A, B, and C molecules, type ‘filet mignon’ [into their 3-D printers], and they’ll have filet mignon,” says Roger Clemens, a food scientist at USC and spokesman for the Institute of Food Technologists. Early versions of this technology are currently in the works. In fact, a pizza printer exists, though the product doesn’t look delicious, or even edible. Still, the dream of “pizza from a tube of nothing,” as Clemens calls it, is alive.

12. Sleep-Inducing Alpha-Rhythm Generator

A bad night’s sleep is the worst. You wake up feeling miserable, and that particular feeling seems to follow you throughout the day as everything becomes stupid, annoying, or enraging. If we actually had EZ Sleep’s Sleep-Inducing Alpha-Rhythm Generator, however, all of this would be put in the past. At night, you just point the two lights at your face, and before you know it you’re getting the most restful sleep of your life.

All it takes is a quick flash from Doc’s handheld device made by EZ Sleep, and Jennifer is out cold. A product like this in the wrong hands would be trouble.

“The idea that we can induce a radical change in at least an unhealthy brain with a series of light flashes is not completely out there,” “The demand for it would be incredible. People are definitely looking for that device or that pill that makes sleep automatic.

13. Hoverboards

Can anyone honestly say that they walked away from a screening of Back To The Future Part II without wanting a hoverboard of their very own?

While surely dangerous – just like any skateboard – they look like they’re a ton of fun, and also a good method of transportation.

It’s true that they have their limitations – like lower-power models struggling to work over water – but I wouldn’t even hesitate picking up the real deal if it worked exactly how it does in the film.

We’re talking about a real hoverboard here, not Hendo’s hoverboard, which requires a specialized surface to hover. In BTTF II, the hoverboard Marty borrows from a young girl works on any surface except water.

How far away is that? Frey is firmly noncommittal. “Ten years, 20 years, who knows?” he says. He’s not so quick to discount Hendo’s innovation, though, saying, “It’s an interesting breakthrough in thinking that dramatically brings a BTTF II–type device much closer.”

14. Weather Control and Scheduling

Weather prediction has certainly come a long way since Back To The Future Part II, but sadly we still haven’t gotten to the point where a government body called "The Weather Service" can schedule when it’s going to rain.

It’s a shame it doesn’t exist, because it could not only stop or prevent major disasters, but also save lives. It would even be beneficial for all of us on a day-to-day basis, just because it would allow us all to plan our schedules better around necessary but dreary weather.

15. Mr. Fusion

The Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor has a fairly small role to play in Back To The Future Part II, but given that it’s an invention that could potentially solve the world’s energy problems, it deserves very special recognition.

The idea of turning garbage into fuel is one that today’s scientists only dream about, and if the technology were actually invented it could change everything. The version featured in the film isn’t 100% ideal, as it can really only power the DeLorean’s time circuits and flux capacitor and not the car itself, but it is the ultimate step in the right direction.

16. Flying Cars?

Flying Cars back to the Future

When Doc, Marty, and Jennifer first arrive in 2015, the airborne DeLorean is cruising through the sky on a literal highway. According to Thomas Frey, executive director of futurist think tank the DaVinci Institute, we shouldn’t expect to see either of those things, ever.

“We will never get to the flying car era,” Frey told Vulture. “We will get to the era where we get flying drones that haul people, though.” The BTTF II model, in which a person gets behind the wheel of his own flying car, is too dangerous, Frey says.

Flying along the Freeway

Flying Taxi Cab

“Once we get into three-dimensional space, flying vehicles are exponentially more complicated, As for the highway in the sky, Frey envisions a much more sophisticated solution to controlling air traffic. “Directional layers of airspace,” he says, where specific altitudes have a designated direction in which vehicles fly.

Flying DeLorean

Not to Mention the Weight
Don’t believe Goldie Wilson III, grandson of former Hill Valley mayor Goldie Wilson, who charges “only $39,999.95” to convert an “old road car into a skyway flyer.” Frey says, “Traditional cars are way too ‘Heavy’. They’re constructed all wrong for something like that.”

Wilson Hover Conversion

17. Robot Gas Stations
By 2015, Hill Valley’s local Texaco has lost its attendants, replacing them with a robotic arm that fills the tanks of flying cars. The Dutch have invented a robotic pump, and though these are a long way from ubiquity,

Robot Gas Station

More likely, though, he says, is a variation on the full-service gas station but for electric cars. “Being able to drive over a platform with an electric car, and charge your battery and never have to get out, is entirely possible right now,”

18. Neon Curbs

Neon Curbs

It’s easy to imagine why neon curbs would be common in 2015 Hill Valley, given the need to land a car from above, but don’t expect to see them in real life.

In fact, all public-safety lighting may one day be replaced by jellyfish genes, “We’re able to embed them in trees and plants, and there’s some interesting speculation that a lot of night lighting is going to go away and we’ll have our plants and trees glowing in the evening.”

19. Abolition of the Justice System

Back to the Future Police

In 2015, Doc tells Marty, lawyers are abolished and the criminal justice moves at the speed of light. That’s how Marty Jr. is tried, convicted, and sentenced within two hours of his arrest.

That kind of justice system would require a society in which “surveillance is so pervasive, intrusive, and thorough that every action (and thought?) could be monitored and recorded.” The technology to achieve that type of surveillance, at least as it relates to actions, exists today, but let’s hope it’s never deployed.

Not because we should fear the technology itself, Smith says, but because of the people behind it. “We would always need to worry about the manipulation of criminal evidence and control of prosecutions by those flawed human beings who are controlling the technology.”

20. Bionic Implants and Rejuvenation Clinics

Technological advancements in BTTF II’s version of 2015 aren’t limited to consumer electronics and transportation. There are a few goodies for those hoping to live forever, too.

Bionic Implants Griff Tannen

Bionic implants are apparently elective enough that teenage Griff Tannen has them, and Doc mentions a trip to a rejuvenation clinic that, among other things, added 30 to 40 years to his life.

Doc Brown Rejuvenation Clinic

Frey, who has written extensively on the future of biotech, says 3-D printing presents an alternative to rejuvenating our failing bodies or augmenting them with mechanical implants.

“There’s all this work being done on 3-D printing body parts. How long until we can 3-D-print an entire replacement body for ourselves?” he asks.

21. Cubs Sweeping the World Series in 5 games

If we would have done this piece a few years ago, BTTF II’s joke about the Cubs finally winning the World Series would be just that — a joke.

But in 2016 just a year after they predicted in the film it actually happened ! ….”If only we could go back in time and put some money on the Cubbies”

Cubs win world Series

22. Computers that take orders via voice controls:

Cafe 80’s

Siri, anyone? And the new Apple TV emphasis on Siri integration makes it even weirder.

23.News footage being filmed by a drone:

News Drone BTTF

Drone footage is increasingly common, though they didn't quite foresee the explosion in the amateur drone market.

24. Super-thin advanced digital cameras?

Marty McFly and Doc Brown

If anything, Doc Brown is a bit behind the times. Our phones are usually our cameras now too.

25. Large Screen Multi Channel :

BTTF Large Screen TV

While we might not watch six TV channels at once, Marty's son certainly has the same need for multiple streams of information as today's millennials. We just prefer them in rapid succession, on our phones, or via a dual monitor setup.

26. Waste-Fueled Cars

Although you can’t yet buy a vehicle with a fusion engine, like that in Doc Brown’s DeLorean, the scene in which Doc uses garbage to power his car (well, technically the flux capacitor) is prescient.

In fact, Toyota is promoting its new hydrogen fuel cell car—the Mirai—with an ad campaign featuring Back to the Future actors Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd.

Hydrogen-powered cars are lauded as environmentally friendly since they convert hydrogen and oxygen to electricity, with water vapor as a byproduct. That eco-friendliness is partly offset by the fact that fossil fuel or natural gas is typically consumed to create the hydrogen in the first place, but scientists are experimenting with solar and wind-powered generation—and, in Orange County, Calif., hydrogen will be harvested from human waste.

27. Pepsi Perfect

Pepsi Perfect

This one is a marketing stunt, though hardcore fans might not mind: In honor of the trilogy’s 30th anniversary, Pepsi is selling a limited number of bottles of “Pepsi Perfect,” the soda of choice in Back to the Future‘s 2015.

The bottles, sold in the movie for $50

Despite the futuristic packaging, the flavor of Pepsi Perfect is traditional; the company is using natural cane sugar rather than the typical corn syrup. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it any healthier.

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