MIT's "ZeroN" suspends gravity and disbelief

Magnets. You know the jokes, you know how they work. Jinha Lee and Rehmi Post of MIT certainly do, and they're using that knowledge to produce "ZeroN", a physical and digital interaction element that floats and moves in space by computer-controlled magnetic levitation.

To realize such interactions, we developed a magnetic control system that can levitate and actuate a permanent magnet in a pre- defined 3D volume [...] combined with an optical tracking and display system that projects images on the levitating object. Conventional levitation only enables levitating an object at one point. In ZeroN Project, users can move a levitated object to anywhere in a predefined 3D space and leave it there without dropping it since the system constantly readjusts both magnetically and mechanically. It is about turning 3D space into levitating space.

Of course there's the argument of semantic scruples as to whether this technology actually counts as "anti-gravity" when it's technically just utilizing manipulated fields of electromagnetism. Electromagnetism, Anti-Gravity. To-ma-to, To-mah-to, To-yo-ta. What matter is that it's awesome. Now the question of practical applications...

Project Kronos

Excuse my language with the opening of this post but, f*ck yeah Sci-Fi! It seems the genre has reached a second coming in terms of sheer quality and originality. With the fantastic films hitting theaters to the independent work found online, there is truly something for every niche of the genre. Even with all of the quality out there, it isn't every day that I manage to come across a short filled with as much potential as seen in Hasraf 'HaZ' Dulull's Project Kronos.

Using a style similar to what can be seen in scientific documentaries, the fictitious Space Agency describes their journey into space using the human brain as nothing more than a computerized hard drive. That in itself is enough to spur up some interesting debate on how we perceive the human soul. The entire short does an amazing job at painting a believable scientific journey and I often found myself losing touch with reality as I fell into the constructed world, it's truly a mind bender.

I fully expect to see quite a few Hollywood heads turn towards Dulull once this video goes viral, because it's absolutely destined for it. If I don't hear more about the continuation of this film in the coming months I'll eat my shoe, because this is truly an incredible piece of cinema that deserves to be expanded upon.