have you ever wanted to turn an object
invisible yeah me too turns out if you can bring the background to the foreground
well then you can give the optical illusion of an object being invisible and if you like this simple
concept then you're going to love today's episode because i'm going to use some computer software to
bring the background to the foreground to give you real invisibility welcome to impossible science
hey everyone it's jason latimer world champion of magic coming to you with another impossible
science now today's topic invisibility now what you just saw was a trick of me playing with the
perspective of the camera and that got me thinking what if i gave you guys a sneak peek on something
my impossible science team invented the inside scoop on something i've never shared before see
most people think of invisibility as an object you just can't see but it's a little bit more
complicated than that if you want to make an object invisible just remember it's not about the
object see we see objects because light reflects off their surface and it bounces back to our eyes
when the reflected light off that object is blocked or bent away we cannot see that
object this is why if you have an opaque object in front of you you cannot see immediately behind it
because the light from the background is being stopped by the obstruction
however if we can make the light from the background still reach our eye by bending
it around the obstruction in this case with mirrors we would make that obstruction invisible
so the secret to making an object invisible is really about seeing the background now that we
understand invisibility let's put this theory of the background in the foreground in action
and we can do it with projection mapping projection mapping is a special technology
used in video projection to make brilliant visuals the downside is you can only see these
visuals from one angle when we want to make sure everyone can enjoy impossible science exhibits
we search for a technology that would allow you to experience it no matter your height but because
this technology didn't exist we created it so what you're about to see is extremely unique this is
our prototype of adaptive projection mapping to create this experiment three important things had
to come into play first the software daniel erbach eric trice and i wrote and designed the software
from scratch it uses computer vision to tell the computer where the audience member is viewing
this experiment from and the software also allows us to remove the object from that point of view
the camera our camera is able to identify where someone's eyes would be next the computer
calculated and created an image of what our code would look like if it were empty from that
audience member's height and point of view then the structure we created the invisibility cove
and the blocks we're using with a 3d printer so we know the exact sizes of everything in the code
i love those things finally warped images our software places the warp distorted image in the
perfect position so that we can turn those 3d printed shapes invisible by bringing the
background image forward disguising the blocks in all the right places making sure that the
background all still lines up projection mapping plus camera plus warped images over objects
this is adaptive projection mapping at its finest now you can see that there's the background is
really just a projection right and these colors are coming from the projector so this blue
block you can actually see it on my hand see how those lines match up these are projection mapped
to this blue block this blue block does not have any color to it it's just white in the right spot
so let's dim the lights can't wait for this one and this is what it looks like to be invisible
now even if i move back and forth it's staying invisible the objects are not going anywhere
the projection is just adapting to where i am and so it's trying to keep
the blocks invisible to my eyes let's try to see if we can make the pyramid vanish
isn't that great
if we didn't know that pyramid was there from the beginning we wouldn't have seen that even if i
move back and forth this projection is adapting to the shape and the perspective that i'm looking at
the background is now in the foreground and it's invisible
i would say this is a great proof of concept well that's it for today i hope you enjoyed turning an
object invisible by bringing the background to the foreground if you enjoy just making an impossible
topic possible make sure you let me know click the like button share the video with your friends
and if you have any questions make sure you make them in the comments below
and until next time stay curious because the right question changes everything