HP Enterprise’s technology contributions to STAR TREK BEYOND have now been revealed, as product designer Chris Carlozzi dished on his prop work to CNET this week.
Carlozzi’s work was done without any knowledge of the film’s plot, but rather, he “just put together things that [he thought] would be like that distant future-type experience.”
Minor spoilers below!
First up is THE BOOK, a flexible tablet device designed to “learn, teach, and aid [in] exploration. It educates and documents life, adding to [the Federation] database.”
This reimagined version of the ever-present PADD prop was actually first revealed back last summer during the Omaze fundraiser promotional campaign – though the on-screen version has a digital addition of the HP Enterprise’s product logo, that glowing green rectangle.
The second new technology is THE QUARANTINE, a kind of cloud-storage and data analysis tool used in the Enterprise sickbay.
Carlozzi:
I really started saying, all right, if I’m doing a device like this, how would I make it [work] in like a Starfleet type of mentality? How would I get something to report back to a ship? How would I get something to report back to Starfleet? How would I have databases, when we’re talking about things that are like light years, or different solar systems apart?
As with The Book, the concept drawings for the digital displays also include HP Enterprise’s green rectangle design.
The final new piece of tech is an upgrade to the traditional medical tricorder, known as the DIAGNOSTIC WRAP. This large-display scanner “analyzes the inside of the creature that it’s wrapped around and the data populates on the screen in real time.”
The prop lives as a handheld unit which appears to be manually expanded for use, while its compressed layout is held in place by magnets.
Marissa Freeman, vice-president of global brand and advertising at HP Enterprise, talked a little bit about the inclusion of the green HPE logo in this tech with IT Business.
Most marketers don’t find a perfect opportunity like this one, where what you have to talk about is exactly what the movie is about – which is the future of technology. [The green rectangle] is like our Nike Swoosh. It’s a bit of an easter egg, a hint in the movie about Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Hopefully, the integration of the HP Enterprise logo will remain as subtle as these sketches indicate, usage that most filmgoers are likely to not even recognize.