In the movie, monorails are used as one of the main forms of transportation throughout Syndrome’s island. Originally invented in 1820, these monorails have advanced to include the capabilities to change tracks, and navigate through the network of rails, rather than just travel along 1 loop.
"Monorail History, Facts and Types." Train History. Accessed November 14th 2020
In the movie Mr. Incredibles car had self driving capabilities, which was first invented in 1939 using a wire in the road to tell the cars where to drive, then in 1977 cameras were added to eliminate the need for wires within the road.
HISTORY OF THE AUTONOMOUS CAR. Gringer, Bonnie Accessed November 14th 2020
While Elastigirl was flying to Syndrome’s island, her plane was attacked by guided missiles. These missiles were invented during World War 2 and have the ability to change their direction and follow a target, even if it diverts from its expected flight path.
Tactical guided missiles. Britannica Web site. Accessed November 14th, 2020.
Voice recognition has been around since 1952, with the first program that could only recognize 16 words. In 1976 Carnegie Mellon developed Harpy which can recognize 1011 words. In the movie, this technology has advanced so much that Edna has it use her voice as a form of biometric authentication in order to protect her lab.
A short history of speech recognition. Sonix Web site. Accessed November 14th, 2020.
When Mr. Incredible got a new suit, Edna installed a tracking device to allow his wife to track where he is and come and help him. This technology was originally invented in 1957 and is known as GPS.
GPS tracking devices: A brief history. Rewire Security Web site. Accessed November 14th, 2020.
Syndrome uses a database to store a vast volume of information on superheroes. Databases were originally invented in 1960 and have been improved upon ever since.
A brief history of database management. Foote K. Accessed November 14th, 2020.
Edna installed a sentry gun in her lab to automatically eliminate intruders. This technology was originally developed in 1977 for the US Military to attach to ships.
An article about the original sentry gun, the Phalanx CIWS. Accessed November 14th, 2020.
During the cold war, the CIA utilized pigeons as spy’s by attaching cameras to them and having them fly over enemy land to gather intelligence. This idea has taken a huge leap on syndromes island, where he has robotic birds that not only take pictures, but they also search the property for intruders, tracks their location, has voice recognition to verify authorized users, and can set off an alarm if there is actual intruders.
Pigeon cameras and other CIA cold war spy gear. Sullivan M. Accessed November 14th, 2020.
In 1993 a patent was filed for a trash can that can automatically incinerate the trash that was thrown in. Just like the one we see Edna use in her lab.
Tri-generation garbage incinerator. Clay, Haile. Accessed November 14th, 2020.
Tablets were first invented in 1987, at which point it was just a handwriting recognition device, and then in 2000 Microsoft came out with the first modern tablet, which had a sleek design, and the display right on the writing surface. In the movie Mr. Incredible was handed an advanced tablet, that had a thin design, full display screen, facial recognition, life sensor, and self district mechanism. This was very similar to the IPad which was released 6 years later.
The History Of The Tablet, An Idea Steve Jobs Stole And Turned Into A Game-Changer. Bert, Julie Accessed November 14th, 2020.
Another piece of future tech that has been fully realised by the real world was syndromes bio probe that searched to see if Mr. Incredible was still alive. The closest modern day technology is the Xbox Kinect, released in 2010. This tracks the players body, and movements to allow them to control the game. This could be used to see if there are any humans within site.
The history of the Xbox 360 and the Xbox Kinect. Corden, Jez Accessed November 14th, 2020.
Another yet-to-be-developed piece of technology is the flying machines the guards use. This is a sort of 1 person helicopter that has the rotors rotate around the base of the device, rather than above it. The closes device like this is a video from 2018 of a drone, or quadcopter, that was large enough to carry a human pilot.
Kitty Hawk Accessed November 14th, 2020.
In the movie syndrome had futuristic rocket boots that he could use to fly with. Although still not developed there are a few similar inventions that have been released. In 2009, a water powered jetpack was developed, and in 2012 waterpower boots were also developed, however both of these inventions are powered by an external source, and are thus limited by the length of the hose.
A Water-Powered Jetpack, Rena Pacella, Accessed 11/14/2020
Zapata's outrageous, US$6,600 Flyboard - Aquaman meets Iron Man, Loz Blain, Accessed 11/14/2020
The movie presents the idea of handcuffs driven by an electrical force field. This is used to hold Mr.Incredible captive on Syndrome's island. The force is incredibly strong as even Mr. Incredible cannot escape.
The omnidroid was developed by Syndrome. It is a huge spherical robot with 4 arms. There is no real world counterpart to it, so this is just solidly future tech.
Like the omnidroid, this was developed by Syndrome and does not have a real world counterpart. They are gloves that allow him to control the omnidroid, as well as have access to many smaller devices he invented. They also have an energy beam within them that projects a forcefield and stops anything within that force field.