Okay, okay. Here we go. Greetings children. It's me Captain Disillusion and you're...
You're not so little anymore, are you?
I know it's been a while and uh...
You're probably thinking
You've learned it all, huh?
Green screens, motion tracking, digital augmentation of real footage obscured by low resolution.
Thanks Captain D. We get how it works now, we don't need you anymore.
Well you're wrong.
New imaging techniques are developed all the time: deep compositing,
computational photography... You gotta stay informed.
Because just knowing that any video can be faked these days is a double-edged sword.
It can sometimes lead you to conclude that a slightly implausible video is fake, when it just might be real.
Or might'n it?
Guy builds a Star Trek phaser
There are several videos like this featuring DIY enthusiasts
outfitting prop phaser guns with real laser diodes.
Pretty cool.
Except we've all played with laser pointers, and we know that you can see the point but not the beam.
Unless it's traveling through a translucent medium, like smoke,
which is in fact exactly what this guy filled the room with, but not everyone is convinced.
«So have people really established that this is for real?»
«The beam looks way perfect, just like the shows for me, but I could be wrong.»
«I mean, wouldn't this be all over the news?»
Okay, nevermind YouTube comments, but we all know that Facebook comments are for real
I don't want a name drop but a pretty prominent skeptical podcaster is adamant
that this video has been faked.
«There's no laser beam in the world as wide and bright as that one.»
«At least not without a power supply the size of a building.»
«He may have put a small laser into it, but the beam in this video has been majorly enhanced.»
«I say it was fully animated on top of whatever existing beam would have been visible.»
Valid points. But just in case, let's hear from an expert in the field.
THAT'S WHOM YOU ARE THE SON OF!
- Uh? Wh- what's happening? - Hi, Mr. Flare?
- Question: - (Oh, it's you)
- as a dues-paying member of the electromagnetic spectrum, - (Yes)
- can you, uh... "enlighten" us - (You got fat)
about this video? Is the laser real or has it been faked somehow?
Lasers... You think I know about lasers... Of course! We're all the same aren't we?
"Oh, he's a flickering green lens flare. He must know everything about freaking blue lasers!"
Do you understand your own corporeal privilege?!
Yeah, I'm just gonna shuck and jive for you, master,
- and tell you all about my brothers the blue l- - Okay, okay...
Thank you.
I guess the only way to get to the truth is a uh...
marginally scientific experiment
First we construct an exact replica of the garage from the video. This will be left empty. It's our control.
Then we build another copy of the garage which we fill with fog,
using the same kind of fog machine as in the video.
And while I could totally also build a perfect phaser replica,
I'm not going to for copyright reasons.
But I will use the same kind of 1000 mW blue laser diode that they often put in these models. Ready?
Fire in the hole!
Now if you can hear me through the fake sound effect added in post,
the beam is clearly visible and just like in the video it can pop balloons.
In fact, it even kind of works without smoke. In fact fact, it even works outside in the daylight.
The only time it doesn't seem to work very well is when you're not looking through a camera.
Look: the beam is faded and hair-thin.
What does this mean?
It has to do with exposure and contrast curves.
Unfiltered camera imaging sensors can actually see farther into the ultraviolet and infrared
parts of the spectrum than the human eye.
It's why the invisible emitter of a remote control may show up on video
and why some early camcorders with night vision mode used to see through clothes.
But human vision still vastly outperforms a sensor when it comes to light sensitivity and dynamic range.
An unlit interior space might look like this to the naked eye
but this is the way it looks to the raw sensor of a camera.
So we have to do all kinds of exposure tricks just to make it look normal.
We open up the aperture and electronically amplify the brightness of the image with gain or ISO settings.
And keep in mind that most consumer camcorders on auto mode do this on their own.
But once we've compensated and made the overall scene look brighter,
the truly bright objects become super bright and bloomed on the image.
So Christmas lights look like burning stars.
Light bulbs look like plasma torches and laser beams can look... like phaser beams.
So there you have it.
It was real but inadvertently enhanced by the nature of video technology.
(And in a way,)
- (no one was technically wrong.) - I thought I turned you off.
- Ya sure do!
But now I'm afraid it's time for me to go, kids. A student in Wichita
got one of these lasers, and didn't wear the safety goggles!
Love with your heart, use your head for everything else!
Captain Disillusion!