Film / TV
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Abstract: The 2006 movie Idiocracy depicts an extremely stupid consumerist-focused future. One of the scenes shows a character watching a TV show on a television surrounded by an unbelievably large number of intrusive ads (Figure 1). But is this an unbelievable fraction of screen real-estate to dedicate to ads? Let’s find out! Materials & Methods:…
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The Issue: When multiple people try to view different screens in a dark room, it can be quite annoying. For example, a person trying to watch an atmospheric dark movie might be annoyed by a person playing on their cell phone, yet the cell phone user might also be constantly blinded by flashes of light…
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Background: In the early 2020s, the appeal of short (< 1 minute) videos became widespread, with TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and other services vying for market share. (Surprisingly, the earliest major entrant into this genre, Vine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vine_(service)), completely failed and was shut down in 2017). The Issue: Unfortunately, the popularity of “bite-sized” videos has…
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Background: Thousands of hours of food-themed television shows exist. Not all of these are strictly utilitarian “how to cook” shows, either—many consist of a charismatic host going from country to country and describing the fine tastes of exotic foods. The issue: This is a bit strange, isn’t it? Television is completely incapable of conveying taste,…
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Background: In many movies and books, a financial amount is discussed at some point. For example, a character may remark that a heist “could be worth 100,000 florins” or “the estate had fallen on hard times, and now generated only 576 denarii annually.” The issue: Is the amount discussed above a lot of money? Or…
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Background: People often don’t pay much attention to movies, preferring to play on their cell phones while the movie runs in the background. (After all, if you miss an important scene, you’ll can always rewind and watch it again.) The issue: This lack of dedication to the cinematic arts is a phenomenon that movie directors…
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Background: Exercise routines are often extremely dry and boring. But they can be made more engaging by making a “themed” workout, with each part of a workout helping to accomplish an imaginary goal. This is not a totally new idea. For example, the game “Zombies Run” motivates a person to jog faster by providing a…
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Background: 3D glasses provide the ability to put two totally separate images on a screen at once. Normally, the technology this is used to provide a stereo-3D effect (Figure 1). But we could use this same technology to show subtly (or entirely!) different films to different groups of people in an audience. Fig. 1: Each…
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Background: There are hundreds of famous and excellent movies, but almost no one has seen them all! It’s possible to laboriously go through the extensive backlog of classic movies, but with the current volume of media, this would be a major endeavor. Proposal: By splitting a screen into N segments (for this example, let’s say…
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