Columbia University Scientists Invent a Working Time Machine
Published August 08, 2004
I just read what I think is the most profound and interesting thing I've come across in quite some time.
It's an article which appeared in Newsweek magazine back on July 12, about a new technology which has the potential to remake our world.
Ko Nishino and Shree Nayar, computer scientists at Columbia University, have come up with a way to extract information from a hitherto unexploited property of eyes: their ability to mirror the world around them.
Their "corneal imaging system" at first seems rather prosaic: it's a high resolution digital camera that takes a close-up of a face.
The real action then begins, when the image is downloaded into a computer.
Sophisticated software isolates the circular area over the iris, where a film of tear fluid on the cornea reflects the world like a clear lake.
From there, it's possible to lift a wide-angle view of the person's surroundings when the picture was taken.
They have, in effect, created a time machine.
The researchers plan to exhume the reflections from old photographs and thus view the surroundings from the point of view of the subject.
Beyond amazing.
Have a look here at the fascinating videos of how their discovery works.
- Columbia University Scientists Invent a Working Time Machine
- Published: August 08, 2004
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- Section: Culture
- Writer: bookofjoe
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I'm communicating to you from a time when a headline accurately reflects the content of its article. It obvious isn't the present.
Good one, Ed.
And if you surf around long enough, you'll read a story about how they're working on sending baseball bats via a Time Machine to fight terrorists from the past.
News Flash: This just in!
Pine tar seen flashing from the Grassy Knoll!
jeesus.
The primary application of this technology will be ... anyone? ... yes, fine tuning of advertising campaigns. It might sound wonderful and "time travelly," but it will get used mostly in the neverending struggle of marketers to separate us from our cash.
There was a theory held long ago (I'm too lazy to look this up right now, but I'm thinking late 1800's maybe?) that if one could lift retinal images from the dead (specifically, victims of violent crime), one would be in possession of forensic evidence, i.e. the last thing the victim saw. Obviously this was debunked a long time ago, but this story sounds eerily similar.
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Were there any high-quality still photographs taken of those who were facing the "grassy knoll" at the moment when JFK was shot?
That's just one potential use for this incredible new technology.