Some of these are obvious - cell phones, satellites and the atomic bomb - but I had no idea that Home Theaters and EBook readers had anything to do with scifi.
Probably the most famous scene in the second Aliens movie is when Ripley saves a little girl using a hydraulic exoskeleton. Someone in the military seems to have taken notice, since engineers recently unveiled an exoskeleton that helps a person lift 200 pounds like it was nothing at all. One inventor in Japan even went the extra mile and developed a functional suit almost identical to the one in the movie.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by ari.
Are those dang teenagers on your lawn again?
Like the quote says, "necessity is the mother of invention", many writers ask themselves "what people take for granted now, what would be the next step"? I think many ideas have been inspired by people picking up little tid bits in stories from the work of people like Ray Bradbury, and although the invention or idea may not be new, advancements in technology may lead to new applications and design for ways to improve on it.
In the book Fahrenheit 451 he tells the reader that people in that society use little "seashell" transistor radios they put into their ear, which was unheard of at the time, but a common item to people today with iPods and Bluetooth ear pieces. I'm not saying that he deserves all the credit, but I think we can safely ask the question "would that type of technology be as advanced today if he never had the idea in the first place"?
Many of the best ideas have started before they were even technologically feasible, no matter if it was a writer, artist, or architect who thought it would be "neat". When I was in New Zealand, I vested a power plant where in 1906, a guy found the perfect spot for a hydro electric plant, but it couldn't be made possible until 60 years later when they had the technology to dig through the hard of the mountain. If that guy turned around and said "Nah, it's a stupid idea", there's a chance they wouldn't have that power plant. Sure, maybe later someone else could think of the idea, but would it be the same?