Bogus "tractor beam" video
Museum of Hoaxes found this video that purports to show an audio speaker that pulls objects towards it.
How do you think it was done? LinkObviously it's fake. Audio speakers will not create a gravity field. But I'm not sure how they created the special effect. (Not that I know much about creating video effects.)
Perhaps they used some kind of fancy editing software. Or perhaps they did it a really low-tech way -- moving the objects one frame at a time to make it appear as if they were sliding towards the speaker. If they did it the latter way, they managed to make the sliding effect look very smooth.
the latest
latest episodes
A magnet under the table. You can see the glue snap into place when it gets set down.
Or, the table is at an angle to the ground, but the video is shot at an angle as well. Note how the picture frame is placed in the background to almost visually say, "Hey, his is all straight!" when the picture itself is probably tilted.
There is some friction on the table, but the second the speaker goes on, it "shakes" the table and the objects near the top—like the glue, scissors, etc...—are jarred by the speaker noise they move down the table.
That said I also think the speaker noise is fake. For my take on this to work, there would have to be deep, thumping bass. Not a high pitched "twee" sound. Why the soundtrack? To mask the bad dubbing?
Also, perhaps there is a magnet beneath the table where items are placed. Just strong enough to keep items in place. But weak enough to allow them to slide when jarred by speaker noise.
Can I get a "no prize"? EXCELSIOR!
Magnet. Every item has a small snap when it's put down. Plus, if there really were "gravity waves" being created, the objects would be accelerating towards the speakers, not moving at a constant velocity.
Also, the objects are suspiciously flat to the ground when they're moving, especially the scissors.
Notice the tether on the cell phone does not "fall" into the field like it should. Instead is it pulled by, then flips behind, the phone itself. This supports the magnet-under-the-table theory. Had it been a field, the lighter, unencumbered tether should have came first to the speaker.
Hey, did anybody notice the speaker isn't plugged in to anythign?
On the pull away shot, pause it and you can see the other orange dongle of the cord on the floor.
Much less a power cable for the speaker, usually the one with the volume knob has the power cord... Don't know about this particular model though.
Picture for the lazy:
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/6794/hoaxek8.jpg
Very cute.
The tilted-table version would be more fun. You can do things like pour a liquid out of a pitcher and have the stream deflect diagonally toward the speaker. Of course, you'd have to adjust the props on the back wall accordingly and use a bit more superglue.
Certainly a magnet,
the glue bottle is the real giveaway as it jumps into position when he sets it down.
@5 Great catch Stephen! Of course he unplugged the speaker from his laptop just prior to moving the camera. *eyeroll* I thought that it was strange to take the camera off the mount prior to stopping recording, or at least not editing that part out. I suspect that it was an excuse to reveal the speaker wasn't plugged in, as a kind of wink and the audience.
I immediately thought "magnet" as well, but the table has a divider that partitions the tabletop into two halves. A magnet would have to pass through this divider. Granted there could be a hole in the divider, but I suspect something simpler.
Just for the heck of it, I took a look at the owners manual pdf, and yes, the power cable does connect with the speaker that has the volume/phones jack.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6424/hoax2og0.jpg
Funnily enough, the manual doesn't mention telepathy or anything else out of the ordinary.
The whole thing rotates to one side - the camera, the table, everything is part of the set. If you rotate them together, you won't perceive any movement on the video. At the end, he takes the camera off the tripod, but I think that's a different set (and, if you look closely, the objects aren't in the exact same position). He has one set that rotates and one set that doesn't. Notice, also, how sparse the sets are? That makes it easier to create two identical sets, and reduces the number of things that have to be nailed down in place. There's a video of Penn and Teller doing the same thing.
It's obviously magic unicorn power. Duh. You people and all your fancy science.
Somewhere I saw a video-debunking of a "chi master" who used a magnet to make objects slide on a table.
@8 the magnet could be in the table surface, in a hollowed section, and pulled by a rod or string. That would also make the movement look smoother.
--------table top
magnet
--------table bottom
blow on the pencil. my friend tried this on my when we were drunk at denny's.
The magnet is obviously INSIDE the speaker.
Now, as we all know, EVERY speaker does allready contain an electro-magnet (It´s what makes the membrane move). In theory, it is possible that this speker has an malfunctioning magnet that simply attracts metal.
If the lable of the glue-bottle is printed on tinfoil, then all these objects DO contain metal and this all might even be just a misunderstanding of elementary physics, rather than a deliberate hoax.
Here's the Penn and Teller version (it appears about 2:30 minutes into this video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU0O2-o67C0
I'm "leaning" towards jack #2's angled table theory, using a magnet to hold the item in place and then removing the magnet when the slide is desired. It has already been pointed out that the items seem to snap into place when they are put on the table. The angle of the picture in the background changes a couple times during the video, and I can't imagine whey the picture would have been bumped so often unless they were adjusting it for a reason. It is the MOST straight just before the pull-away which is the classic magician's "see, nothing up my sleeve..." I wonder if they left it unplugged on purpose or not.
having done "magic" like this in the past (for a one-eyed audience with no depth perception...aka: a Film camera)
I cannot tell you exactly how it was done because I was not there, but I CAN tell you how it was probably done
First: No Magnets
Second: The camera and tripod and set pieces are all locked down.
So the pull-back at the end is there to throw you off. It does not "prove" anything.
Third: Everything you see at the end is the "set". It is not very large, it has a floor, a back wall, some other stuff on the periphery to throw you off and make you believe there is more to it, but...it is just a set piece with a floor and a back wall.
But they are on what is known as a "gimble" (think teetertotter).
Does not have to be fancy. It could just be a piece of pipe down the middle under the floor that the set piece "tilts" on.
They just went one step further than "normal". They fooled you into thinking it was just the table and chair and speaker locked down.
I have built these before in the past for TV Commercials, as long as the camera is locked down onto the set (and the tripod is definitely attached firmly to the floor...) then you can flip the thing upside down if you want, but in this case, all it takes is tilting the set slightly. The speaker will stay in place on its own with a bit of Spray Mount on the bottom for grippage.
Magnets are too much bother. And they are not as strong as you think they are. Gravity is your friend and it is cheaper.
Entire "room" set (table/back walls/etc.) tilts/rotates.
Camera is locked/mounted to this "room".
Place object, step out of frame, rotate "room".
Had they controlled the fall a little better, esp. where each object approaches the speaker, the answer would be harder to detect. Instead, they use the speaker to hold the object. A more finessed tilt would start flat, then go to a tilt to begin the slide, and then a return to flat, so that when the object meets the speaker, it isn't so obvious each object want to continue falling. That said, they did a great job with the phone, but the flaw there is the cord gives away the slide. And the glue bottle was probably tricky, too, due to its higher center of gravity.
But I'm willing to hear that they did both gimble and magnet. I know I'd try to get each method to look like the other if a "how'd they do it?!" viral flame war campaign is the goal. That way they can show everyone was right. :)
The speaker is not plugged in:
http://www.scottkellum.net/temp/plugitin.jpg
It looks like a system of magnets. Notice how everything is place with the metal end facing the speaker (especially the pen).
I like this video. Here is another video that relates to audio and moving objects. I think its cooler. ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5qqtQrVfNY
Note that when the cell phone is being pulled by the "gravity," the nylon lanyard doesn't move at the same speed as the phone - it gets dragged alongside. If the phone was being pulled by "gravity," the lanyard would move along at the same speed.
Additionally, few speakers have a range that goes below 20 hz , as lower tones fall below the range of human hearing.
If you want to test this on your own speakers, here's a 20 hz tone as an mp3 file. It comes across as silent on my Macbook ('tho maybe my hearing is shot from years of subway riding). If the tone was audible, it would certainly be a low bass.
Also, random: Just below the range of hearing, the resonant frequency of the human eye is 18 Hz. The human skull resonates higher in the range, between 500 Hz and 7.5 kHz (ymmv).
I seem to recall that the FCC imposes limits on the range of speaker output, but can't find documents stating the same. Anyone know if that's the case?
@15
There is a misunderstanding of physics going on here all right.
Despite what Hollywood has told you, magnetic fields don't work that way. Magnetic fields diminish at a rate inverse square of the distance. In other words, a magnetic field at twelve inches away is 1/144 times as strong as at one inch away. Even if it were some sort of (impossibly strong) super-magnet in the speaker, the object would be slammed against the speaker, not come to a stop in front of it.
Personally, I'm in the "gimbaled room" camp. Wax the table and it wouldn't take much of a tilt at all to get the objects to slide across the table.
This looks like a fake, but it's possible to do something similar for real by setting up vibrations in a horizontal surface-- I have a couple videos here:
http://www.moonmilk.com/milky/projects/art-machines/sd1
OMG! I've got to get those speakers!
@ 18
Unless I'm mistaken, some magnets are so powerful they can fly across rooms and take off body parts when they snap together. As for being more difficult, people often go to greater lengths than they need to.
The gimbal seems obvious enough, but it doesn't strike me as impossible that several magnets may have been used in combination with such a pivot. Magnets have been used in trick pool tables, roulette wheels, and magic acts for a very long time. I'm no expert, though.
I'm on board with the pivoting set theory, and the two-different-sets theory (#10). I will add that the picture frame is tilted differently in the second set, just before the pull out. Also curious is all the other equipment to the left, a tripod and some other stuff with a cloth over it, some backdrops. Of course that stuff proves nothing, but still makes you wonder.
So, it is a gravity field, its just the same one that we're all stuck in.
Fake. Physicist Max Ell proved that a high-quality audio cassette tape played through a good speaker will actually *repel* small objects. Proof:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DP89iMe0BY
There are no magnets or tilting room.
The table is tilted in the first part of the video and flattened after the break, near the end, for the pullout. After the break an electric socket appears on the left side of the table. The socket wasn't there before. Also, pulling the video position slider to the different objects shows the gap between the picture and the speaker changing, showing that the maker is adjusting the table angle for each object.
With the angle close to the point where the object will slide the sound would be enough to overcome the static friction between an inclined table-top and the object, causing the object to slide.
For the cellphone issue, the lanyard is lighter and has more friction against the table than the phone. This explains why it lags behind.
IAINC---The socket looks like it would be too far out of frame in the original shots---also the gap between speaker and picture are not consistent I agree but there is no change within a single object---based on changes in light it just looks like each object was shot at a different time.
Elmer's Glue-All and plastic pens aren't responsive to magnetism. Vibrations wouldn't move every object at the same speed and in the same direction -- and unless I miss my guess that's a particleboard desk, so it's not going to vibrate anyway. I'm with Brit, Microcars, Numlok, and Hootenanny: it's a rotating set.
If you want another tip-off, look at the angle of the guy's arm when he sets an object down, and then when he retrieves it. It's consistently different -- that is, different in a consistent way -- because the position of the set-up has changed in relation to him. Also, there's a cut between each object, presumably to let them rotate the set back to its starting position.
I think the sound is there solely to suggest that there's some relationship between the speaker being turned on and the object sliding toward it.
Agree that the table is tilted, but still think that a magnet is used to hold items in place before they are allowed to slide.
Elmers glue will respond to magnets if you drop a few ball bearings in it. ditto a plastic pen with metal inside. What makes you think these items are unaltered?
Tilted table, and the tone may be enough to dislodge the item. Notice that the picture in the background is at a slightly different angle for each shot.
I'm with #10/Brit - the way the objects move, it just seems to be a result of tipping the table (and room, and camera) allowing the untethered objects to slide (which stop when they hit the speaker). Old camera trick.
Notice how the camera shot is interrupted by that black title screen. This would be more convincing without that break.
Here is my theory.
The whole room is rotating on an axis. Simply secured the picture/chair in one place as the wall/picture/floor move to the side.
Also if you look closely every object stops by hitting the speakers dead on, such as gravity would pull it. Notice how they never have the object propel itself from a different angle toward the speakers. This is consistent with my whole set tilting on a single axis theory.
Assuming that this is a viral ad for a speaker company I'm sure they have the funding to do that.
Also, for when they pull back the camera if you look closely (not just ignoring the fact it's unplugged now) you can also see the set has ever so slightly changed when they black the screen to say "Gravity Speakers" such as, look at the orientation of the photo on the wall. It is not the same as it was before possibly showing the set has changed.
I'm a little surprised that no one has suggested the grand-daddy of all "telekinesis" tricks. All you need is a piece of thin light fishing line looped around an object. All you need to then is tug gently on the line and you've got yourself a magically moving object.
The fact that this demo is done on a white table against a white background is what makes me naturally inclined towards this theory since fishing line is an easily detectible scam unless done under the proper circumstances.