Spark & Anvil Privacy

FlipbookForge

Guess the next frame, then flip a predictor's flipbook and catch where its world drifts.

Getting ready…

Where this idea comes from

The flipbook

In 1868 John Barnes Linnett, a printer in Birmingham, patented the kineograph: a little book of pictures, each a bit different from the last, that seemed to move when you flicked the pages with your thumb. Ten years later, in 1878, Eadweard Muybridge photographed a galloping horse in a row of quick pictures and showed that all four hooves leave the ground.

One thing to hold: A stack of pages, the same place on each one, and a thumb to flick them.

Why it matters: A flipbook only works if each page follows the rules of the world: a ball that hits the wall comes back, a cat that walks behind a box is still there. A machine that only guesses the next picture from the last two does not know those rules, and its flipbook slowly goes wrong.

What we don’t know: Do babies know that a hidden thing is still there? Jean Piaget (1937) saw babies start to search for a hidden toy at about eight months, and thought the full idea came later still. In 1985 Renée Baillargeon and colleagues found that five-month-olds looked longer when a screen seemed to swing right through the place where a hidden box was. Other researchers argue that longer looking may only mean the babies noticed something new. The debate goes on.

Dates:

  1. 1868 Linnett patents the kineograph.
  2. 1878 Muybridge’s galloping horse, picture by picture.
  3. 1937 Piaget writes about hidden objects and babies.
  4. 1985 Baillargeon: babies look longer when a screen seems to pass through a hidden box.

Sources: British patent no. 925 of 1868, J. B. Linnett (“kineograph”); Wikipedia, “Flip book” · Wikipedia, “The Horse in Motion” (Muybridge, 1878) · R. Baillargeon, E. S. Spelke & S. Wasserman, “Object permanence in five-month-old infants”, Cognition 20 (1985) · M. M. Haith, “Who put the cog in infant cognition?”, Infant Behavior and Development 21 (1998)

Meet the cast — the characters who teach this

  • Pencilla draws each frame by the rules of the world: the ball bounces, the door stays, the cat is still there behind the box
  • Guessit A tin bird that predicts - looks only at the last two pictures and keeps going the same way, so it is right for a while and then drifts
  • Stayput A tortoise who does not move unless something moves it - a door or a wall stays where it is, frame after frame
  • Smudger A raccoon who keeps the hidden things in mind - a cat behind a box is still there, even when you cannot see it
  • Dropsy A koala who lets things go to watch them fall - things fall down unless something holds them up
  • Bumper A hedgehog in a little helmet - two solid things cannot pass through each other, so a ball stops or bounces at a wall
  • Evercount A squirrel who counts the acorns - the number of things stays the same unless something adds one or takes one away
  • Oneway A hen with an egg - some changes only go one way, so a cracked egg does not uncrack and the pictures have an order
  • Keepshape A beaver who measures with a stick - a thing keeps its size and shape as it moves, so a ball does not stretch
  • Longlook An owl who looks further back - to tell where something is going, look at more than the last two pictures

What next? Pick a door

Chosen from what this app is about. What you open is remembered on this device only.