Science fiction does a good job in imagining what the future could look like. But what's even cooler is when science fiction inspires real-life inventions that do the things we only thought existed in movies and books. Check it out below:

Invisibility coats.


The first sci-fi movie in 1902 France featured astronauts visitng the moon.


Instant frozen food? Common today, magic a hundred years ago.


Flying cars - things you saw in The Jetsons, but Terrafugia's TF-X is making that a reality.


Shark repellant - there's such a thing. Scientists have created a device that uses magnetism to overwhelm some of the shark's sensors that will send them swimming away.


Star Trek's communicator - we call it a smartphone these days.


Dog thoughts-to-speech - a headset called No More Woof uses a dog's brainwaves to tell you what they are thinking. Not sure how accurate this is.


Video chatting - unheard of 70 years ago. Before it was created of course.


Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was written in 1869, before submarines were made real.


Mosquito drones are real. They look like the real thing and can even inject you with poison.


Holograms - we're closer to this than ever. Now we even have holographic displays on some cars and we're bringing back dead artists with this tech.


Replicators - now called 3D printers. You can pretty much make anything you want. Probably more in the future too.


Supervirus - There is such a thing and we should all be afraid of it. It can be created in a lab.


Smartwatches - James Bond won't be the only one donning devices like these anymore.


Self-cleaning doors. Doorknobs are truly one of the dirties places in the house. Now there are self-sterilizing door handles which use UV light to kill off germs.


Facial recognition - As seen in countless movies, now some police departments are using this tech to identify people.


Curing blindness (sort of.) Star Trek's Geordi La Forge's Visor on the show allowed him to see. Today, there are retinal implants that could do the same.


Wiping your memory - in Men in Black, they used the Neuralyzer to erase a recent memory. Scientists today are testing a drug which can block an enzyme in your brain for memory retention.


Self-tying shoes. Nike is making them this year. Marty McFly won't be the only one anymore.


Hoverbike - seen in Star Wars, there's now a hoverbike in the works which could be ready by 2017 and made by Aerofex.


Killer robots - Killer robots are always in sci-fi movies. Now the U.S. military has created a mini-tank robot that can be outfitted with weapons.