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Controlled Quantum Levitation Used To Build Wipeout Track

Posted by timothy on from the why-youtube-exists dept.

First time accepted submitter gentryx writes "Researchers at the Japan Institute of Science and Technology have build a miniature Wipeout track (YouTube video) using high temperature superconductors and quantum levitation. Right now this is fundamental research, but in the future large scale transportation systems could be built with technology akin to this. I have a different vision: let Nintendo sell this as an accessory for the Wii U. I'd buy several of these tracks, let the gliders race through the whole house and track them on our TV!" Update: 01/05 22:08 GMT by S : As many readers have pointed out, this is CGI.

11 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. Um? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Um... it's a confirmed fake?

    1. Re:Um? by McDrewbs · · Score: 5, Informative

      Even if the video itself was believable, which it wasn't. The youtube video has this snippet in the description. "(C) Copyright! All rights reserved belong to Sony Entertainment and SCE Studio Liverpool." Little bit of a give-away and all it took was a little reading.

  2. Sorry to break this, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...the video is a fake. I'm amazed that OP didn't catch this, and I'm amazed it fell through the cracks and ended up on the front page. Seriously, just look at the CGI effects.

    1. Re:Sorry to break this, but... by g0bshiTe · · Score: 4, Informative

      @ 1:14 you can see the smoke going through the curve on the track.

      --
      I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
    2. Re:Sorry to break this, but... by w_dragon · · Score: 3, Informative

      Dry ice is generally around -78C before sublimating, while liquid nitrogen is something like -200C when it evaporates. I don't think we yet have superconductors that can get hot enough for dry ice to be sufficient cooling. Thankfully we've moved from liquid helium (gas at -270C) to nitrogen, which saves a bunch of energy, so maybe one day we'll get there, but not yet.

  3. THIS IS FAKE by cultiv8 · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's a trailer for a movie. Jesus people do your homework.

    --
    sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
  4. Slashdot trolled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yep, you lose slashdot. This is a troll. If it was controlled levitation the rotation of the vehicles would be fixed to their original position, and would not rotate to match the track.

    1. Re:Slashdot trolled by skids · · Score: 3, Informative

      Depends whether the hypothetical field was a trench. If the field bent with the track, then the flux-pinning would make it turn to the field closest to that which it had pinned to. The video is pretty believable in that sense, since the magnets appear to run the length of the track segments.

      Of course at that point, you wouldn't be able to change lanes.

      I think they did a pretty good job of making this look a lot like a real setup would have looked.

      --
      Someone had to do it.
  5. FAKE FAKE FAKE!!! by EmperorOfCanada · · Score: 5, Informative

    The mist trails are all wrong. The car changes from when it is in the hand to when it is on the track. The lighting is wrong. The movement is wrong. I am not even sure the track is real.

  6. They didn't actually do it? by Animats · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's quite possible to do this. See this video of quantum-locked magnetic levitation. And this one, with an actual levitating skateboard.

    It looks like the people behind this video cheaped out and didn't actually build the thing, which is lame.

  7. Re:Fake, but Quantum Levitation is real. by amazeofdeath · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Quantum levitation" is just trying to make old superconductivity effects somehow sound even more cool. Try Meissner effect and flux pinning instead.

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    U+F8FF