Archive for June, 2010

Apple iPad Magic Show

Shinya, a Japanese magician performs tricks with his iPad, bending the boundaries between digital and real worlds! The show is based on the theme of the evolving forms of communications and its future. Definately worth a watch!

So do you think we can ever get that far in communicating with each other? Let me know in the comments below!

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Pikabus – The fun and friendly school bus

Count on the Japanese to make going to school fun! The people in Osaka came out with a pikachu shaped school bus to ease kindergaten kids going to school for the first time.

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Ballerina Optical Illusion

If you’ve got time to waste, check out this optical illusion. Is the ballerina going clockwise or counterclockwise???

optical illusion

Depending on which direction you see the ballerina moving in, it will tell you which side of your brain it will use more. If you focus hard enough, you will see the ballerina change directions. How does this work? Here’s an explanation from good ol’ wikipedia:

The Spinning Dancer, also known as the silhouette illusion, is a kinetic, bistable optical illusion resembling a pirouetting female dancer. The illusion, created by web designer Nobuyuki Kayahara,[1][2] involves the apparent direction of motion of the figure. Some observers initially see the figure as spinning clockwise and some counterclockwise.

The illusion derives from the lack of visual cues for depth. For instance, her arms could be swinging either in front of her to the left or behind her to the left, and hence with her circling clockwise or counter-clockwise on either her left or right foot. She changes leg because she is facing either towards or away from the observer, there being no surface features on the silhouette to indicate at any point which side of her is presented: the least ambiguous positions are her profiles when she is on either side of her circle, though it’s still not known whether the foreground or background leg is on the floor, and from where she moves indeterminately either on the near or far arc across to the other profile.

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