New Ask Alexander Features
We are always looking for new ways to make Ask Alexander (our two and a half million page database) more accessible and easy to use. Here are two new projects that will make you want to go and play on Alex right now. Instant Translation One of the library’s first and most consistently dazzling [...]
La biblioteca digital de ilusionismo
Our dear friend the brilliant magician Luis Piedrahita recently told us about La biblioteca digital de ilusionismo (Digital Library of Illusion) – a fascinating digital resource for magicians and scholars. At the moment, this library offers access to 62 fully scanned volumes divided into categories: Card Magic, Mentalism, Prestidigitation, White Magic, Magic History, and Scientific [...]
Reconstructing Video from Brain Activity
A pretty interesting method for reading someone’s mind is the subject of this video. Basically the researchers have studied the brain activity using an MRI while showing the participants a number of videos. They then used the brain activity they collected while the participants were watching different videos and made a composite video based on [...]
Glasses Free 3D Display for Mobile Devices
In this demo they use the front facing camera on the iPad to track a person’s head, as the person, or screen, is moved around, the image is adjusted to give a three dimensional effect. Pretty nifty. What magic effects can be done? Will someone ever secretly build an iPad into a table surface for [...]
Playing Card Factory
Raised by lightning bolts, these factory workers assemble decks of playing cards at speeds that are downright astonishing! Of course, Dan and Dave Buck might be able to provide some competition, if they ever put their cards back in the case! Thanks to Steve Cuiffo for pointing out this fascinating video.
Robot Magicians?
This is amazing! A robot hand that can grab, throw, catch, dribble, tie knots, spin pens, etc. How long will it be before we can watch a robot expertly perform the whole calendar of sleights in Erdnase? Will sleights of the future be developed on the computer and available for download onto our robot hands? [...]
Magic: The Science of Wonder
A new magic event looms on the horizon! Magic: The Science of Wonder is a new museum exhibit which is going to be shown in Texas at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Featuring many notable performers, including John Carney and Richard Hatch, as well as a plethora of artifacts, video, props, and other potentially [...]
The Sound of the Voice
Greetings from Conjuring Arts! Our intrepid internet explorer, Steve Cuiffo, recently discovered that some other people, scientists, have discovered a way to levitate objects: with sound. Watch the fascinating video here or read the article first at: Acoustic Levitation.
Alexander: Good or Evil?
The following article, written by Mike Caveney, first appeared in the Conjuring Arts Bulletin: Vol.1, No.1 I recently had a spirited conversation with a group of magic collectors over the pros and cons of our very own database: Alexander – The Computer That Knows. Some suggested that any publisher who allowed his books to be scanned and uploaded onto the data base, [...]
