Can your computer do magic?
This prototype design can. The Illusion PC is one of thousands of entries into the Next-Gen PC Design competition sponsored by Microsoft. Gizmodo spotted it, and I have to agree that it pulls off a pretty nifty visual trick.
The Illusion PC, entry No. 911 in the Next-Gen PC Design Competition.
(Credit: NextGenDesignComp.com)The design makes the PC appear to have no inner components. The designer says the aim was to make the computer not look like a computer, and when turned off to look just like a household decorative object.
The cube measures 8.25 inches on each side and uses a Mini-ITX mainboard, 200-watt mini-PSU, and slot-loading DVD burner meant for laptops. It has room for up to two standard desktop hard drives. The Illusion can also come with a mini 6-inch monitor and TV tuner card as options. A small wireless keyboard and air mouse are used to control the PC.
While it's intended as a home theater PC, it could also be custom built to consumers' tastes, the designer says.
Click here to see the other equally awesome finalists in the competition.
In theory, robots aren't designed to make mistakes. But a University College London (UCL) project team is hoping errors in how software "sees" optical illusions can make robots more like humans--mistakes and all.
Project leaders Dr. R. Beau Lotto and David Corney at the UCL institute of Ophthalmology say the study provides unprecedented insight into how the human eye can be fooled by lighting and shading. Instead of simulating the human brain, the software simulates learning patterns from past visual experiences.
(Credit:
Brown.edu)
The UCL Institute of Ophthalmology study recreated the vision errors using software that "learns" colors and shading based on thousands of images. After the software was trained to predict the shade of colors from those images, it was subjected to shade-based optical illusions.
The illusion in question involves viewing the same shade of color on two different backgrounds. The human eye often sees the color as darker when it's on a lighter background and lighter when it's on a darker background.
And just like the human eye, the program saw shades as lighter when they appeared on a dark background and darker when they appeared on a light background.
These errors can be helpful in simulating exactly how and what humans see, which paves the way for "smarter," mistake-making robots.
The research paper for the project is available here, and this NewScientist article has more details on the UCL research project.
Duuuuuuude...
(Credit: Essey)What's a tablecloth without a table? This thing, apparently.
Through creative use of transparent acrylic, the Essey Illusion Table and Grand Illusion Table fool your eyes into believing that a tablecloth is all you need to keep your meatloaf off the ground.
The table uses solid acrylic "tablecloth" corners to provide the support needed to keep the table on terra firma.
At $225 to about $470 for the tables, depending on the size and style, you may not be in the market to buy one. But if you're an aspiring magician, you should at least bear in mind that they exist; any attempts at the "pull away the tablecloth" trick with these tables could end up even more disastrous than usual.
[Via Chip Chick]
- prev
- 1
- next
