The Real World Seen Through Your Computer Screen

Photo: dcis_steve

The technology in Iron Man 2 was to die for. Will the high-tech future of "greener" IT include transparent cell phones, touch screen coffee tables, and holographic lab environments? It's coming. Until we have those types of sci-fi and fantasy gadgets, we've got optical illusions and creative slick tricks like these awesome transparent screen trick photos.

Cool huh? But it's no Iron Man 2 gadget either. Summer is in full swing; the kids are out of school. If we want those futuristic transparent gadgets that aren't too hard on the environment, it might be our kids who will make it a reality.

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After checking out transparent screen display illusions like this iPad, maybe your kids will one day come up with the answers for these to-die-for gadgets.

Photo: Willow (Chengyin)

The how-to of making these illusions begins with taking a photo. If it's for your laptop or LCD monitor, move the display so you can see what's behind it. Without rearranging or disturbing the background, take many digital pictures from different vantage points. Don't use the flash.

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Open the pictures in an image editor. Select the best image for the right angle of what you were shooting for. Adjustments can be made to brightness, contrast, etc.

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Once you have the photo just as you want it, with the coloring and lighting as it would normally be in your surroundings, save the image. Set the picture as your wallpaper background.
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Some people are very good at creating this optical illusion - good enough to make all their screens on all their devices appear transparent.
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Getting the color and vantage point just precisely right is harder than it sounds.
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Now if only you could teach the trick to your kids? At worst, you've occupied some of their spare time and quietened them down for a while. At best, their brains will be ticking to make transparent displays and high-tech gadgets a reality rather than just a trick.
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Any device with an LCD can be setup to show this slick trick.
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Here are several more to get you and your kid's imaginative juices bubbling with ideas.
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This optical illusion has been around the block and back. Wouldn't it be nice to think in a few years from now that we could have technology like in the movies?
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All in all, it's a cool parlor trick. For now though, it's all we have. Will you, your teen, or your child be the one to create the sci-fi and fantasy gadgets that will someday rule the future of IT?

Emory professor Sidney Perkowitz discusses how realistic the science and physics are behind Iron Man. But if that still leaves you a bit disheartened, then kick back, relax, and watch this. Then dream and reach for the future.

Pulling off an optical illusion of a transparent screen display trick should be a cake job in comparison.