Archive for the ‘illusion’ Category

Microsoft’s Illumi-Room Is Baby-Step To Holodeck

Saturday, May 4th, 2013

There’s really not much to talk about here with a bunch of words. They’ll just get in the way of you pressing play and smiling like a little kid as your brain sort of automatically speculates on the possibilities of this in peoples’ homes.

We’ve all dreamed of the Holodeck being a part of our secret lair at home. Microsoft’s new IllumiRoom is a lot like watching a baby take its first steps in the direction of Holodecks becoming a standard part of any man-cave.

Sure we’ve seen mapped projections before like at Walt Disney World’s Magic, Memories and You show at the Magic Kingdom…but nothing on a consumer level and nothing with this kind of customization. Using a Kinect, a couple of cameras and some software, this is something that, while in its newborn stage, could lead to some truly innovative projects and ideas…or just mean that we’re going to be leaving our mother’s basements way less than we already do.

[GizMag]

Posted in Alternate Reality, Awesome, Experiment, illusion, Matrix, Star Trek, Technology, Video Games | 1 Comment »

Real Cloak of Invisibility? Company Develops Stealth Material!

Friday, December 28th, 2012

Harry Potter had one. Frodo Baggins had one. Even Max from Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place had one.

In fact, just about every single geek on the planet at some point in their life has probably hypothesized about how cool it would be to have some kind of a cape or blanket that you could cover yourself in and become instantly invisible.

Right?

Well that might soon become a reality.

While we’re still going to have to keep to our hypothetical invisible scenarios in our grinning heads, it won’t be long until soldiers, special ops agents and even….uh…submarines…begin using something called ‘Quantum Stealth’ to get all Predator-like.

Guy Cramer, the president and CEO of Hyperstealth Biotechnology in Canada, is vaguely but loudly declaring that he’s developed an invisibility cloak-like material!

After checking his site and looking at the ‘mock-up’ photos on display, we’re secretly hoping this is a serious technology that’s about to put old-school camouflage in the closet. Poking around online to see if there was ANY hint at what Cramer is developing turned up nothing that actually shows off the technology. He’s claiming that if a soldier were wearing his top secret material you wouldn’t know he was there until you tripped over him.

Pretty bold claims considering we’ve seen this kind of promise before.

But if we know our audience? We’re guessing you’re all crossing your fingers, doing some kind of little victory dance and hoping it’s true too.

[HyperStealth.com]

Posted in Harry Potter, illusion, Invention, Military, Predator, Superpower, Technology | 2 Comments »

Illusion Makes You Believe You Have a Third Arm

Tuesday, September 11th, 2012

Tricking the Mind_ Third Arm Illusion? | www.wftv.com.jpg

Researchers in Sweden have successfully created the illusion of people feeling sensations in three arms at the same time.

In five separate laboratory experiments, 154 volunteers were seated with their hands on a table and a rubber arm was placed next to their right arm. A sheet covered their shoulders and elbows, creating the illusion that the person had three arms. ( Source: Science Daily)

Researchers stroked the both the real and fake arms with a brush simultaneously until 7 out of 10 subjects reported feeling sensation in both limbs. They then threatened the fake arm with a knife and measured recognizable stress in heart rate that is normally associated with the threat of bodily harm.

The study could be helpful in helping amputees better accept prosthetics.

[WFTV]

Posted in illusion, Science | Comments Off on Illusion Makes You Believe You Have a Third Arm

UFO or Famous Landmark?

Monday, July 30th, 2012
Optical Illusion_ UFO? Or Space Needle? (Video) | Gather-1.png

In this clip, a particularly well placed line of cloud cover makes the Seattle Space Needle look closer to a space ship.

Check out the moving footage.

[Gather]

Posted in Aliens, illusion | 2 Comments »

Optical Illusion Morphs Gorgeous Celebrities Into Horrifying Trolls

Monday, May 21st, 2012

Take a loot at the cross in the middle of this video. Keep you eyes focused on it.

The faces that grace the covers of magazines and open films to multi-million dollar bonanzas suddenly turn into grossly deformed freaks. You will swear they slip in a few photoshops, but watch the video again without staring at the cross and you’ll realize just how thin the line between beauty and bizarre really is.

This won second place at the Best Illusion of the Year competition.

Read more here about why the illusion works.

[MB Thompson Research]

Posted in illusion | Comments Off on Optical Illusion Morphs Gorgeous Celebrities Into Horrifying Trolls

The Optical Illusion that Explains Bloody Mary

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

bloody mary optical illusion-1.jpg

The whiz kids at io9 have put together a compilation of research that explains why we see imaginary, monstrous faces when we look in the mirror for an elongated period of time. This is the very basis for sleepover games like Bloody Mary, designed to spook kids into wetting themselves while surrounded by their jerkwad friends.

Ah, youth.

Here’s the jist:

The brain, when faced with a lot of stimulation, only some of which is considered relevant, will tune out the non-relevant parts, filling in what it can from the general area. It’s a little like how the blind spot works, except this is a dynamic process. The brain will zoom in on a desired area, and the rest of the space will fade away. This is called the Troxler Effect, or Troxler Fading.

The post goes on to discuss a study where respondents looked in a mirror for 10 minutes and reported all manner of horrors staring back at them by the end of it. 10% explained seeing dead parents with key elements of their face rearranged.

[io9]

Posted in illusion, Monster, Science | 1 Comment »

The World’s First Touchable Holograms

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Japanese scientists have created the world’s first touchable holograms. Using 2 Wiimotes and a wave emitter to create pressure on the user’s hands Researchers at Tokyo University have developed the technology to be used from everything from basic computing to light switches and doorknobs. Who would have thought the world of Minority Report would be brought to you be Nintendo. I’m pretty sure Google will be the first with pre-cogs though.

Posted in illusion, Technology | Comments Off on The World’s First Touchable Holograms