Star Trek production artists talk iPad

Ars Technica?s Chris Foresman has a terrific interview up with Star Trek production artists Michael Okuda, Denise Okuda, and Doug Drexler about how they conceptualized iPad-like devices for TV and movies? some 23 years ago. Their device was known as the PADD (Personal Access Display Devices):


Drexler said that to him, the iPad is ?eerily similar? to the PADDs used in Star Trek. ?We always felt that the classic Okuda T-bar graphic was malleable, and that you could stretch and rearrange it to suit your task, just like the iPad,? he said. ?The PADD never had a keyboard as part of its casing, just like the iPad. Its geometry is almost exactly the same?the corner radius, the thickness, and overall rectangular shape.?

?It?s uncanny to have a PADD that really works,? Drexler said, unlike the non-functional props made for the TV series and later films. ?The iPad is the true Star Trek dream,? Drexler told Ars.


[Ars Technica]

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