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'Invisible' car posted online causes a stir


Still Waters

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At first glance this might look like a picture of someone’s driveway, but if you look a bit harder you’ll see it’s actually a close-up of an incredibly shiny car.

The picture, posted on Reddit, shows a black car that has been so highly polished it perfectly mirrors its surroundings.

Picture is in the link:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/picture-apparently-invisible-car-posted-online-blowing-peoples-minds-095140623.html

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  • The title was changed to 'Invisible' car posted online causes a stir
 

Wow!  That is amazing.  It probably took me a minute or so to figure it out.  Cool illusion.  

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I wish I had the money to build an "invisible" car. 

What I mean is:

Use flexible screens for the body and have cameras on the other side projecting onto the screens.  

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3 minutes ago, Myles said:

I wish I had the money to build an "invisible" car. 

What I mean is:

Use flexible screens for the body and have cameras on the other side projecting onto the screens.  

Top Gear actually tried this, using a transit van. 

It mostly looked like a van with lots of TV screens on it. But then... amazingly..., for a few fleeting seconds, it actually worked. The van disappeared. 

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6 minutes ago, Myles said:

I wish I had the money to build an "invisible" car.  

Would THAT be good driving down a highway or through even a "green light" intersection?

And what about kids walking in front of you because they can't see you?

Or a bicyclist not seeing you?

Or a vehicle changing lanes.

Edited by pallidin
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I�m afraid I call photoshop on this. The �splash� of water is to imitate motion, and looks to be from a hose, while the wheel we can see clearly isn�t moving.

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Sorry about the lncorrect question marks, I think my iPad is having a bad day!

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It doesn't appear invisible. It IS invisible.

The British military is using similar technology - which it calls ADAPTIV - to make British Army tanks invisible.

 

Edited by Black Monk
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I saw the car straight away. Then again, I paint cars every day for a living so I'm used to looking at paintwork from this angle to look for scratches and dents, lol

Cool pic though! I might have to try something similar when I next do black :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Can't see a car or tire period...      After stareing at the pic for like 5mins finally able to see car 

Edited by Michael Walker
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I have some doubts about this image...

Does anyone have a series 5 beemer?  duznt havta be black.. if so, would you mind taking a few shots of both the front and back, trying to get your camera up very close to match the image being presented? From what I can Google about the 5 series, the door handle (?) looks wrong, and there are other problems.  It is also very curious that there are no other shots of this vehicle, either at reddit or at what appears to be the source:

https://www.instagram.com/niftynicholsdetailing/  (a free ad for them!)

.. you'll need to scroll down about 1/4 of the way to find this pic, and then click the image and click again for a higher resolution shot.

If I see one around, I'll try to get some further evidence.... If it is photoshopped - most of the work is very good to give credit where due.

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10 hours ago, ChrLzs said:

If I see one around, I'll try to get some further evidence.... If it is photoshopped - most of the work is very good to give credit where due.

To be fair, I don't think it is photoshopped ChrLzs. Finishes like this on a car are pretty easy to achieve when you know what you're doing and the rest is just playing around with angles and lighting. Obviously, having a decent camera and knowing what you're doing will help massively. Unfortunately, unlike yourself, I don't really know much (ie - nothing) about cameras and the wizardry that surrounds them :lol:

 There's a couple of other shots in the link you provided that have been done similarly (in fact one of them looks even more invisible than the op's)

   

 

Saying that - the first pic of the two above has me pondering as to why the handle(?) at top left of the pic is there. So maybe there is some manipulation somewhere. Hmm. 

Edited by Stiff
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4 hours ago, Stiff said:

Saying that - the first pic of the two above has me pondering as to why the handle(?) at top left of the pic is there. So maybe there is some manipulation somewhere. Hmm. 

I think it's mirror, then door handles, then lettering, if that helps..  But similarly, if you look at the OP pic, look at where the 'handle' (??) is - behind the door and above the wheel well?  OK, it's hard to be sure what we are seeing or even if it's the front or back of the vehicle, but there's enough 'strangeness' here to make me wonder.  There's a few other issues and another major aspect that can be checked, but I haven't yet had time as it's a bit complicated (ie the geometry of the reflections).

It'll have to wait until I have more time (and I have a few other projects already queued up... so many mysteries, so short a life!)

Edited by ChrLzs
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On 15/09/2018 at 8:47 PM, Stiff said:

I saw the car straight away. Then again, I paint cars every day for a living so I'm used to looking at paintwork from this angle to look for scratches and dents, lol

Cool pic though! I might have to try something similar when I next do black :)

Agreed. Im a painter as well and saw it as a pretty typical black reflection. If the lights right the paintwork doesnt even need to be good to pull this off in a photo

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Just briefly, to explain my problem with the image, you'll note that the majority of the side panel reflection is relatively undistorted - it's only at the bottom edge that there is any noticeable stretching/distortion of the image, and it isn't much.

But if you look at this page on the BMW 5 series vehicles, all of the doors that I can see have very pronounced and quite deep curves running horizontally along the door panels.  While I haven't done the required geometry checks to check it fully.. I find it hard to reconcile those curvy doors with that pretty flat reflection - plus that door handle (?) looks horribly wrong and seems to be floating above the wheel arch, not on the actual door....   I'd like to see some other images of the vehicle, but none seem to be available.

Anyway, whatever.  I can't really justify spending heaps of time on it..  Some things don't *need* to go viral, imofo.

 

(That's InMyOldFashionedOpinion, obviously..)

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14 hours ago, ChrLzs said:

Just briefly, to explain my problem with the image, you'll note that the majority of the side panel reflection is relatively undistorted - it's only at the bottom edge that there is any noticeable stretching/distortion of the image, and it isn't much.

But if you look at this page on the BMW 5 series vehicles, all of the doors that I can see have very pronounced and quite deep curves running horizontally along the door panels.  While I haven't done the required geometry checks to check it fully.. I find it hard to reconcile those curvy doors with that pretty flat reflection - plus that door handle (?) looks horribly wrong and seems to be floating above the wheel arch, not on the actual door....   I'd like to see some other images of the vehicle, but none seem to be available.

Anyway, whatever.  I can't really justify spending heaps of time on it..  Some things don't *need* to go viral, imofo.

 

(That's InMyOldFashionedOpinion, obviously..)

Yes but you need to take into account a couple of things. First of all the  wiki article states the 5 series has been in production since 1972 and the shape has changed drastically over the years. Do we have the year of manufacture of the car in question? If its an earlier model they were very slab sided in comparison to the photo of the more modern bmw on wiki. 

Secondly perhaps the photo is taken below the door handle? Or has this car been built and modified? Shaved door handles? I can tell you now those panels are very straight and Im betting someone's spent a lot of hours straightening that thing. Or its a later model with simply well enginered panels.

Ive photographed a lot of cars over the years. Im thinking the reason the car appears so invisible is due to low light conditions and all that shrubbery behind the photo creates perfect camouflage to trick your eye when going fron reflection to reality.

 

Edited by Gecks
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