Hoax Museum Archives
Hoax Museum Hall of Fame
|
Gravity Speakers
Status: Video special effect
This video purports to show an amateur experiment in which someone created a small gravitational field "using a speaker and a generated sound wave." The instructions say that a Bose Companion 2 Series II speaker was used, and a "sine wave at 16 khz" was generated.Obviously 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.
Perhaps it's a viral ad for Bose speakers.
For some reason this video keeps getting removed from Metacafe. Hopefully it'll stay up long enough for you to see it.
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
Page 1 of 4 pages 1 2 3 > Last »
Could just be a tilted table... he placed that glue awful carefully.
Posted by AThoms on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 09:48 AM
My vote is for a magnet under the table. Every object was either partially metallic or it could have had a magnet attached to its bottom side.
Posted by Gomberg in Richmond on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 10:13 AM
The big clue is the painting on the wall in the background. See how it gets more and more tilted as the demonstration progresses?
The whole "room" (table, wall, camera) is small and on a fixed but tiltable mount. When he's ready for the object to move, he simply lifts the "room" and the object slides down to the speaker, while from the camera's perspective everything stays level. Unfortunately for him, the frame isn't fixed tightly enough to the wall, so it shifts a little each time and blows the secret.
It's a little like that classic Fred Astaire scene where he's dancing on the walls, filmed in a rotating room.
Posted by Vincent on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 10:21 AM
The whole "room" (table, wall, camera) is small and on a fixed but tiltable mount. When he's ready for the object to move, he simply lifts the "room" and the object slides down to the speaker, while from the camera's perspective everything stays level. Unfortunately for him, the frame isn't fixed tightly enough to the wall, so it shifts a little each time and blows the secret.
It's a little like that classic Fred Astaire scene where he's dancing on the walls, filmed in a rotating room.
IMHO, a magnet underneath. Putting a ton of bb's into a white glue bottle is nothing new. It could be a tilting room, but I don't see the audio cable moving at all and doubt that the makers would think of that and not the picture.
Posted by OriginalSim on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 10:30 AM
It's a tilting table/camera as Vincent states. Neat trick, but the background was kept too sparse to make it easier to pull off. He should have made a busier background to help hide the fact that it was a 'set' and not a real table and wall. The picture was included just to fool you into thinking it wasn't tilting, but even that he screwed up on. The pull-back was to make you think he wasn't tilting it, but the picture proves otherwise.
Posted by Charybdis in Hell on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 10:42 AM
THe biggest clue that this is a hoax should be the fact that before each item "moves" the speaker volume is turned up, then turned down after each item. Why would this be necessary? If in fact a device is being used to create the sine wave, that device could be turned on and off regardless of the speaker volume. If the speaker volume is important to the movement, then the moment the object is placed in its path, it would move across the table. There is a significant lag between speaker adjustment and object movement. I vote for magnet under the table.
Posted by Tim on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 11:18 AM
Weeeiiirrrrdddd...
Posted by Nameless in London, marshmellow land on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 01:02 PM
There's no 'snapping into place' typical of a magnet. Doesn't rule it out, but objects being moved by a magenet under a table move far more jerkily than this. They look just like they're sliding down an inclined table.
Posted by Charybdis in Hell on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 01:31 PM
I really doubt they could "catch" the glue bottle and right the table in time to keep it from toppling.
If it were sliding into the speaker on an incline, it wouldn't "right" itself after bouncing off the speaker.
Plus, right after he lets go of the glue bottle it "jumps" onto the magnet. Just a slight movement to the right, but visible.
The cell phone strap would probably not 'stick' to the table on an incline, either.
The stapler jumps backwards as he lets go of it.
Magnet.
Posted by OriginalSim on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 02:24 PM
If it were sliding into the speaker on an incline, it wouldn't "right" itself after bouncing off the speaker.
Plus, right after he lets go of the glue bottle it "jumps" onto the magnet. Just a slight movement to the right, but visible.
The cell phone strap would probably not 'stick' to the table on an incline, either.
The stapler jumps backwards as he lets go of it.
Magnet.
Or, actually, it could be both, with the magnet just there to hold the item in place and then when the magnet is removed, the stuff slides down.
I'd still say that the glue would not bounce back - or perhaps they got lucky or did several shots to get it just right and confuse the issue.
Also, I see the picture tilting then back, then tilting, so I imagine they edited it out of the original sequence.
It's fun anyway!!!!
Posted by OriginalSim on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 02:51 PM
I'd still say that the glue would not bounce back - or perhaps they got lucky or did several shots to get it just right and confuse the issue.
Also, I see the picture tilting then back, then tilting, so I imagine they edited it out of the original sequence.
It's fun anyway!!!!
And just to nitpick, that wasn't even 16kHz (like the sound of the cathode ray tube of a tv, or some crickets). Most adults can't hear that high, which would defy the purpose of using this sound.
The "Mosquito's buzz" is usually around 17kHz, but can go from 16kHz and up.
(See older post about the Mosquito: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/4160/ )
Posted by FrostBird on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 02:58 PM
The "Mosquito's buzz" is usually around 17kHz, but can go from 16kHz and up.
(See older post about the Mosquito: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/4160/ )
Update: I put it trough a frequency analyzer and I get a nice line at 400Hz.
16 thousand Hertz? HAH.
Posted by FrostBird on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 03:18 PM
16 thousand Hertz? HAH.
I think the entire field of view is tilted after the hand disappears. What you see is part of a static backdrop that is separate from the person....he is standing on solid ground outside of the tilt-able setup. The surface of the table must be fairly smooth and slick for easy movement.
Posted by Botfly on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 04:36 PM
In the word(s) of Principal Skinner, magnets!
Posted by matteBlack in USA on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 04:37 PM
I am fairly sure it is a tilted set, as many have described above. It is possible that it is set at an angle so slight that inirtia holds the objects in place (he places them very carefully) until some vibration (the speaker) is added. Since the piece is obviously edited, it would not be hard to try several times on each item until the best effect is achieved, such as "catching" the glue bottle. No magnet required.
Posted by Harry on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 04:40 PM
the speaker isn't plugged into anything. you can see that in the last bunch of frames.
Posted by john on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 04:55 PM
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
Posted by Stephen Ockham in Canada on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 04:57 PM
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
Heh, John beat me to the punch while I was uploading the picture 
Posted by Stephen Ockham in Canada on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 04:58 PM
Definitely some moving of the set going on. Park your cursor on the bottom right corner of the picture on the wall when the video starts, and then watch it shift. It reveals some hard-to-spot cuts as well.
Posted by Shane in USA on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 04:59 PM
Another interesting detail: Note what looks like a curtain screen set up to the right on the pullaway shot. Maybe to provide control over the light so no telltale shadows appear? Just an initial thought, but seems like a lot of trouble to go to unless there is trickery going on.
Enjoyable riddle here, though!
Posted by Shane in USA on Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 05:05 PM
Enjoyable riddle here, though!
Page 1 of 4 pages 1 2 3 > Last »