Monday, October 18, 2010

3D Television - Still a Fantasy




I was shopping with my wife the other day at Costco, a warehouse type store with dozens and dozens of TV's on display. She ventured off to look at some jewelry while I wandered up and down the electronics aisles looking at all the flat panel sets arranged in sizes ranging from very, very large to downright ostentatious. At the end of one aisle, I came across a demonstration display for a monstrous-sized 3D screen, complete with sample glasses mounted on a viewing stand so folks could take turns looking at the images in full three dimensional glory. There was this really cool demo program running, so I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about.

They were showing a sequence of free-style ski jumps and the 3D images were simply awesome! I couldn't contain my excitement at how cool it was to see the skiers fly out of the TV screen as they launched into their twists and turns right in front of me. Naturally, I wanted to share this excitement with my wife, so I called her over, asking her to check out this really cool 3D TV I found. And naturally, she walked over to where I was standing to see what I was so excited about. Of course precisely when she came within eyeshot of set, the demo program switched over to incredibly attractive athletic women in bikinis playing beach volleyball...

The good news is, I saved a bunch of money and I won't be at risk for becoming a couch potato. Who needs a stupid 3D set anyway?
...
...
Dammit!

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Friday, October 8, 2010

Optical Illusions


If I could just convince my mind that those wheels above are not spinning. They are not moving at all - I know that. Stop spinning!!!




The lines are all parallel I'm telling ya! Parallel!



What do you mean this isn't a spiral? Of course it's a spiral. No way it's a collection of concentric circles. Nope, not believing it at all. Why, if you trace the line, you'll see it's ... dammit!




OK, count the black dots you see. Huh! Piece of cake. One... two... three... wait! Hey now! Stop it!




This one just isn't right. I mean, I know it's not spinning. Of course it's not spinning. Nope, not spinning. STOP SPINNING!!!




Gaaa!!! Everything, just stay still! That does it! I'm looking for illusions that won't move.




Finally, something that isn't moving! Now if I could just focus on it, I'd see it's just two loops that are closed. How hard can it be to focus?

Well now, that was fun, wasn't it?

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