Comments on: Perceptual chronograph

By: Reg

Reg — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 01:33:51 +0000

Fair play to Jessie for keeping his eyes focused on the device whilst falling backwards at such a speed. Quite a task in itself.

By: SpacedCowboy

SpacedCowboy — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:50:52 +0000

It’s a cool idea and the test looks impressive, but there are so many other explanations of why he could see the numbers the while he was falling. The fact that this effect was repeated despite a practice run also confounds the test.
I believe the ‘life under threat’ condition could be more accurately manipulated, and that the measurement of time passing should be done automatically. If time really does slow down even in the subject’s specific locality, than an automatic timer would be able to determine this if attached to the subject.
I understand the point of this experiment is to suggest that perception of time changes (which has been shown fairly conclusively already), but I think the conclusions the video hints at are unfounded and somewhat misleading.

By: sidereader

sidereader — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:39:16 +0000

One of the fastpitch women's softball teams (US olympic, I believe) marks balls with colored numbers and then uses a machine to pitch them at high velocities. Their intent was to train their team to see the ball at speed clearly enough to first discern the color of the markings and then to see the number. They succeeded.

I am dubious of this experiment; vision and comprehension is subject to training.

By: dan

dan — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:06:30 +0000

This has kind of been investigated before. Not read the whole article yet so maybe im repeating stuff. A guy used very similar test – instead of numbers flashing, simply a light which seems to be ‘on’ but infact flickers faster than eye can percieve (like a strip light). He did a parachute jump (i think) and sure enough, he could then percieve the light flickering (he built the light into a wrist strap)…

By: Magician13134

Magician13134 — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:55:49 +0000

Hey! Neato, my project made it to Hackaday!
@Diddle, yeah that's what I was thinking, so I decided to try it for myself, I'm wondering if it wouldn't be easier with the word rather than numbers. I built a four character display, so I may try that. Be sure to see the newest versions here:
http://www.ladyada.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6119
They just keep getting better!

Again, thanks for the feedback, everyone!

By: John

John — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:53:33 +0000

@dr – why not? It certainly changes with fatigue, so why not other factors?

By: Urza

Urza — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:36:41 +0000

dr – that’s exactly the point. the clock doesn’t actually slow down, but your brain speeds up, therefore you are able to perceive what it’s displaying because it _appears_ to be flashing slower.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:28:05 +0000

The rat on marijuana’s perception of time didn’t slow down, he just forgot what he was supposed to be doing. :)

By: tommy

tommy — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:25:09 +0000

Time IS an illusion, Lunchtime doubly so.

~very deep, they have a column in Reader's Digest for people like you~

By: Leadhuena

Leadhuena — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:16:20 +0000

I have another observation on this. I’ve noticed that after I’m done running, that the pitch of the songs on my music player has lowered, and the songs all sound a little slower. I always thought this was some auditory illusion (or totally psychosomatic), but could it be due to the fact that I’m experiencing time slower due to a heightened heartbeat?

By: gripen40k

gripen40k — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:56:13 +0000

The rat on weed just made my day. Absolutely hilarious!

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:02:40 +0000

The Discovery channel did something on this in their Human Body series, seems to work…., they tested it with people bungee jumping for the first time.

By: Digital Buddha

Digital Buddha — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:53:13 +0000

How cool is this!
Yogi's and meditators in East have been talking about this for eons though. They say you can alter your perception of time and reality through meditation, the deeper you go into the mind, the deeper your perception of reality...

By: Computer Repair

Computer Repair — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:42:19 +0000

My only question is how we can speed up the clock of our brain.

By: DR

DR — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:02:39 +0000

It's a nice project, but a flawed premise. Your perception of time may slow down, but there is no reason to expect that the flicker fuse frequency would change.