Month: November 2016

Enlarge (credit: Paramount Pictures)

At last, we've got an extended look at the live-action, western version of Ghost in the Shell, based on the Japanese franchise about cyborg consciousness in futuristic Tokyo. The action looks like a combination of The Matrix and Blade Runner, and some of the scenes perfectly replicate images from the Japanese feature film.

It's unclear whether the setting is still supposed to be a Japanese city, or if it's just a random multicultural megacity. Regardless, Scarlett Johansson plays cyborg hero Major Motoko Kusanagi (known simply as "The Major" in this film), whose spirit is human and whose body is robotic. She's a talented member of the police force, and we see plenty of her generally being seriously badass. The trailer looks pretty exciting, it appears that the plot will revolve around The Major trying to figure out how she became a cyborg, as well as stalking a dangerous AI hacker (possibly a version of the Puppet Master from the first Japanese feature film).

Fans of the original franchise, which includes both manga and anime series, have been dismayed about this adaptation ever since Scarlett Johansson was cast as The Major. Comic book writer Jon Tsuei argued that the series is fundamentally about Japanese culture and history, especially its relationship with technology after World War II. By casting Johansson, who is neither of Japanese descent nor native to Japan, the story becomes something fundamentally different. But obviously the filmmakers believe that Johansson is the right lead for the film, and she certainly has shown that she can play tech-enhanced humans/AIs brilliantly in the movies Lucy and Her.

Enlarge (credit: EnGoPlanet)

A New York-based startup called EnGoPlanet has installed four streetlights in a plaza off the Las Vegas Strip that are powered exclusively by solar and kinetic energy. The installations aren't mere streetlights though—they also power a variety of environmental monitors, support video surveillance, and, for the masses, offer USB ports for device charging.

The streetlights are topped by a solar panel crest, and have “kinetic tiles” on the ground below them. These panels reportedly can generate 4 to 8 watts from people walking on them, depending on the pressure of the step. The renewable energy is then collected by a battery for use at night. The solar-plus-kinetic energy design is useful on those rare Vegas days without too much sun—as long as there is still plenty of foot traffic.

The four streetlights have a host of sensors that collect information, and details on what kind of information is collected are sparse. In EnGoPlanet’s promotional video, a quick slide lists the streetlights’ additional capabilities: environmental monitoring, air quality monitoring, video surveillance, and the ever-vague “smart analytics.” If the bright side of progress is more environmentally-friendly streetlights, the dark side is that as you replace those old analog streetlights you get the addition of video surveillance from a private company.