In Popular Culture
The relative obscurity and "high tech" nature of retinal scans means that they are a frequent device in fiction to suggest that an area has been particularly strongly secured against intrusion. Some notable examples include:
In the 1982 movie "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan", Admiral Kirk gains access to top secret computer files by use of a retinal scan.
In the 1966 movie Batman, Batman describes to Robin how the tiny vessels in the retina are unique to the individual and utilizing the portable retina scan device in the Batmobile they could confirm the identity of the Penguin.
Characters in the 1996 film Mission: Impossible, the film Paycheck, the 1995 film GoldenEye, and the 1999 film Entrapment utilize or try to deceive retinal scanners.
In the 'Splinter Cell' series, retinal scanners are used to identify agents within Third Echleon and guards within military/business complexes.
Read more about this topic: Retinal Scan
Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, popular and/or culture:
“Like other secret lovers, many speak mockingly about popular culture to conceal their passion for it.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“For the people in government, rather than the people who pester it, Washington is an early-rising, hard-working city. It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)