The YouTube entertainer, MadGyver, has done it again! Prepare to have your minds blown with the introduction of his Time Machine Glove, powered by Arduino.
Now, the Time Machine Glove doesn’t ACTUALLY cause a temporal shift in the space-time continuum, but it certainly does a neat job of simulating it! The glove can pull of feats such as freezing a fan mid-spin, or stopping drops of water as they fall – all with the simple wave of the glove.
This illusion is possible by the way of a strobe light that is attached to the glove’s palm, and on the back is an Arduino, which lets the user control the frequency of the strobe. By timing the strobe lights correctly (for example, every time the fan blades are in one position) it’s possible to make it appear as though time has ground to a halt entirely.
By steadily decreasing the strobe’s frequency, meanwhile, time can appear to slow down. This perceptual phenomenon is known as the “stroboscopic” effect, and occurs when a continuance motion represented by a series of short or instantaneous samples comes into conflict with the sampling rate of a viewing device.
This is also most commonly associated with the “wagon-wheel” illusion seen in old films, in which the spoked wheels on a horse-drawn cart can appear to be turning backwards. In the case of the Time Machine Glove, however, the effect works regardless of whether you’re filming it or viewing it in person.
The best part about it is, MadGyver has made the instructions for the DIY Time Machine Glove available online so that others can do it themselves. Detailed instructions can be found on Instructables and Github, and the good news is that, as homebrew projects go, this one’s not actually too difficult to build!
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