Comments on: Quantum levitation realizes humanity's age-old dream of floating supercooled Wipe Out RC cars

By: richardathome

richardathome — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 08:58:00 +0000

To clarify: The vapour trail passes through the solid wall

By: robdobbs

robdobbs — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:50:00 +0000

Now with actual Wipeout soundtrack: (Mute the first vid for best effect – it’s the best I could do on such short notice)
http://youtubedoubler.com/2Scr

By: invictus

invictus — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:08:00 +0000

Looks like lots of other people think it’s fake, too. For example:

http://kotaku.com/5872701/is-this-quantum-levitation-powered-real-world-wipeout-track-too-good-to-be-true

By: Nathaniel

Nathaniel — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:07:00 +0000

Huh. It actually had me fooled. The physics is pretty realistic – see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws6AAhTw7RA and skip to 1 minute in to see a genuine demo of the phenomenon, which behaves very similarly.

But on closer inspection those pixels are pretty suspect – in particular the way the vapour trails overlap the track in the very last shot after it cuts to black and cuts back again seems hard to explain unless they’re CG’d in. But then why did they go to all the trouble when it wouldn’t have been that hard to build a real one?

By: OtherMichael

OtherMichael — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:07:00 +0000

“Magnetic flux pinning” will not win our hearts and minds. Was that phrase concocted by the same brain-trust that thought that a Photoshop-manqué called “The GIMP” would win over America’s Heartland?

While I do appreciate the use of the letter “x”, “Quantum levitation” sounds much cooler. I’d vote for it in the Republican Primaries on that basis alone.

By: Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:32:00 +0000

Come on Boing Boing. “Quantum levitation” is a nonsense term. This is just goofy buzzword speak for magnetic flux pinning. It’s not even a particularly apt term. Are we going to see videos about magic bracelets that do stuff with ionic energy next?

By: Guest

Guest — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:30:00 +0000

What’s rude is thinking that other people enjoy that moment when something that appears real and is presented as real, totally isn’t. You might. It offends me.

By: Guest

Guest — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:28:00 +0000

ostensibly, if you run a lab, you have a machine that puts it IN them for you.

Not that this whole thing would work, but that’s how that part would.

By: william beaty

william beaty — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 04:42:00 +0000

Fake and unsafe. Try putting some LN2 in a steel bottle, you’ll get unexpected shrapnel in places you won’t enjoy. Also, it would be a bit believable if it took 20sec of spewing vapor before the superconductor cars cooled down. And no, there’s no such thing as “quantum locking” or levitation, that’s some marketer’s hype wording to keep you from googling to find it was invented ten years back, not in 2011. It’s called superconductive flux-pinning, and all type-II superconductors do it.

More impressive: superconductor hoops http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Hb59mFuCo

By: awjt

awjt — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 04:19:00 +0000

AWESOME FAKE first draft. I was swindled! Swindled, I say!

By: flickerKuu

flickerKuu — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:59:00 +0000

No, you are taking a lower rez and upscaling it 2-4 times. It will always look like crap.

By: Evan G

Evan G — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:43:00 +0000

Holly shit the “future” actually happened in a small way! While this video looks a little to “clean” to avoid scrutiny what they are doing has be demonstrated in part before. Google “quantum locking”.
Also where my Qirex mother fucker!

By: Syn -

Syn - — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:34:00 +0000

the vapour trails are as fake as they get. Come on!

By: hypnosifl

hypnosifl — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:33:00 +0000

I agree it's annoying to get your hopes up that something cool is real and then find out it's just a fake, but in this case an effect a lot like this has actually been achieved, just not with toy cars (and with the motion not controlled by remote). See this video which a few people already posted--my guess is that the fake video was inspired by this real one, since it was a pretty popular video that got posted on a lot of blogs and such back in October.

By: Trader Tim

Trader Tim — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:14:00 +0000

Seems there’s two reactions to this – “Hey, its pretty cool, who cares if its fake?” and of course the more heavy-handed “FAKE. LAME.”

What annoys me about this video is it purports itself to be something it isn’t. Now, I could go into the whole vapor-trail thing, (hey – think that cooler-than-ambient-air-trail coming out the back wouldn’t drift DOWN on the banked turns?) but honestly — its all pretty obvious what is going on here.

I like the idea of teleportation, that is why Portal2, Star Trek and other things appeal to me. But I sure wouldn’t appreciate someone faking a lab ‘setup’ and trying to dupe me into believing they actually had achieved it.

That’s all. I just can’t stand shoddy liars. The effect is nice to watch, but I don’t admire the intent behind it.

By: Ipo

Ipo — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:54:00 +0000

We know. =] And although it may be fake, todays video doesn't seem any more unlikely.

By: Craig Metcalfe

Craig Metcalfe — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:50:00 +0000

Science is real. Here’s a video from Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws6AAhTw7RA

EDIT: Link already posted by 500wetlands, appologies.

By: laredo

laredo — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:07:00 +0000

To the hell with RC cars, I want my hoverboard!!

By: MrEricSir

MrEricSir — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:45:00 +0000

Science + Japan = must be real. Just like that story about the Japanese poop burgers.

By: Curtis Hart

Curtis Hart — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:37:00 +0000

I do too.

…and stop calling him Shirley.

By: Derek J. Kinsman

Derek J. Kinsman — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:02:00 +0000

It’s Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, not Japan Institute of Science and Technology. Also, this would probably be on the JAIST website if it was real, or on NewScientist, Science…

Also, just looking at the setup is weird. The paintball CO2 canister, the Joss Whedon Firefly camera technique, the soundtrack.

Disappointingly fake.

By: Mister44

Mister44 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:05:00 +0000

THIS IS AWESOME!!! Do I have to wait what – 10 years for a consumer model??

Though I have to fault them 10pts for not using Fluke’s “Atom Bomb” for the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHMzCpy0fXc&ob=av2n

Note the Designer Republic icons etc.

By: 500wetlands

500wetlands — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:53:00 +0000

That might be fake, but I found this months ago, and it looks real….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VyOtIsnG71U

By: IronEdithKidd

IronEdithKidd — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:35:00 +0000

Now I want to go home and play WipEout.

Does anyone know any tricks to making old PS1 games look less blurry on 48″ HDTV’s?

By: Daneel

Daneel — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:19:00 +0000

tl;dr

By: RuthlessRuben

RuthlessRuben — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:50:00 +0000

Even though in this case I tend to agree and probably would also say that this might be fake, I have this fantasy where people who view something and then, without any indication towards what brought them to this conclusion, just write “FAKE” and leave it at that are punched in the teeth by a vindictive fist from cyberspace.

Seriously, it’s rude. It’s like running into a concert, yelling “SUCKS!” and then running out again like some deranged vindictive toddler. I don’t expect a full scientific review, but at least write “I think this is fake because I don’t think quantum levitation works that way, they should wobble.”Put some effort into this, ferchritsakes.

There. Thanks to the Internet, I’ve become a cantankerous old man before hitting thirty. I’ll go sit on my porch and yell at teenagers now.

By: evanplus

evanplus — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:34:00 +0000

Yes, that’s what I mean. The fact that they say “no copyright intended” and “all rights reserved belong to…” makes me think it’s a clueless fan of Sony and SCE who made a derivative work and is afraid that Sony or SCE will sue them. This is a common thing clueless fans say on Youtube, which is explained in my link.

Sony or SCE Studio Liverpool would use a more correct phrasing in their copyright notice.

By: irksome

irksome — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:16:00 +0000

Just as well, Xmas has come and gone.

But golly; vapor trails? This would be so much cooler than the Hot Wheels™ I had when they first came out.

Which reminds me, I hope my nephew still has them. Those puppies are worth some coin.

By: OtherMichael

OtherMichael — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:00:00 +0000

they pass-through… as though a vaporous, insubstantial, dissipating vapour?

By: nixiebunny

nixiebunny — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:53:00 +0000

What, you mean this is fake? I had my heart set on buying this for my kid’s birthday!