Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Seen through a video

I have been wondering about something. I think the answer is obvious but I can't seem to decide either way... blame it on lack of sleep or I'm just not smart enough to figure these things out


Anyway, here's the scenario: Imagine Superman watching a video / DVD. There is a closed door. If he uses his X-ray vision on the door in the video,

Can he actually see what's behind the door
-OR-
He can't see anything, since it's a recording and not actual thing

???

Thanks in advance,

Depends on how you want to define his powers. If you go with the standard, meaning it's a vision power, then he cannot see through the door in the video - all he'd ever see is the inside of the TV.

If, on the other hand, you define his X-ray vision as a psychic power, he might just be able to do look through the door. At least that's what I think.

My view? He can't see anything that isn't already recorded on the DVD/video track. I assume we're not talking about an entertainment show where the whole thing is a set, but maybe a video of either a crime scene or of a hostage situation or a live feed of an ongoing crime. I think Lara is right, except that the classic implicit definition of Superman's vision gizmo is that he can see beyond physical objects in his line of sight, not that his vision powers are psychic. So no, he can't see what's behind Door Number One on "Let's Make A Deal" unless he's physically in the studio. (What would he wear, I wonder?)

Of course, it's your story, and you can make him do pretty much whatever you want.

I agree that Clark can't see anything that isn't already there. If the door in the film was firmly closed all the time it was filmed, then Clark can't see through it. Of course, if it was very briefly opened a crack, then Clark can see what was actually seen through this crack, even if it appeared too briefly for others to see. But he can't see as much as he would have been able to if the door had opened widely.

It is the same thing that allows us to see no more of a picture than was there already. If you click on this link , you can see a picture of galaxy M 101 whose file has a size of 290k. But if you click on this link , you will find a picture of the same galaxy, but in this case the size of the file is only 22k. There is no way you can see as many details in the second picture as you can in the first.

Clark won't be able to see pixels in a film that doesn't have those pixels already.

Ann

Here is my take on it, from several POVs.

Actual X-Ray vision: Nope, what he sees in the video is what he gets.

Actual Telescopic vision: Depends on the quality of the media. If it is a high resolution media, he could possibly see what is on the other side if there was a key hole, or he could see what is behind the camera if there was a mirror. If he is looking at your typical security camera footage, (which, honestly, is often REALLY crappy) I don't think so.

Psionic vision(covers X-Ray, Telescopic, Microscopic): same as Telescopic above with the following cavet. It might be possible for his ability to extrapolate details that vision alone just might not pick up.

Yes, I agree completely with James.

My husband's a big fan of the psychic power theory. Although to my knowlege it's never been used to see anything other than a present event; something on tape would have happened in the past.

Another thought -- don't forget the superhearing; it seems logical to me that the video might pick up traces of sounds that would be too faint to be intelligible to normal ears, but that he could make out to some degree. Of course, I don't know what's behind the closed door, so I have no idea if that would be helpful at all And of course security cameras probably don't have sound. So never mind, really.

Bottom line, if you want him seeing/knowing what's behind the door, you write it so that he can; if not, then not. Up to you.

PJ

I agree with the super hearing, that would make sense.

James

I was wondering about responding to this for a whole day. For good or bad I've been very busy and now that I have a few minutes I have little to add to what was already here.

The one thing that did come to mind was that to me, the idea of Clark being able to see through a picture of a door is essentially the same as a cartoon character drawing a picture of a door and then opening it and stepping through. A picture of a door does not a door make. (Or the reality behind it.)

I like the ideas of what might be accomplished with super hearing.

However, I do have another idea of what might be possible with vision. There is a field of image analysis called Hyperspectral Imaging . Now, no matter how good his vision may be, Clark can't see anything in a picture that isn't there. But much of the power of hyperspectral imaging is in subtle pattern recognition. Perhaps Clark's vision would enable him to see patterns that are in the picture that are not apparent to a normal person.

If his vision does cover a broader spectrum than a normal person, he could benefit from hyperspectral imaging as long as it's the real thing and not a picture.

Of course, he could see something that is very small in a picture as long as adequate data to resolve the image is actually there.

Just some thoughts.
Bob

Bob is right about the hyperspectral imaging. Let me start from astronomy to show how Clark could possibly use this.

Here\'s a link to a Hubble picture of galaxy NGC 6782. Not one of Hubble's best pictures, in my opinion.

Here are the original images that went into constructing the picture of NGC 6782. The galaxy was imaged in ultraviolet, blue, visual (yellow) and infrared light. As you can see from pictures, the galaxy looks particularly different in ultraviolet light, compared with how it looks when imaged in the other colors.

Here\'s a link showing what the galaxy looks like when you enhance one color over the other ones. In the first picture, the astronomers have exaggerated the strength of the ultraviolet channel, giving the inner ring of the galaxy a dazzlingly bright blue-violet color. In the second picture, they have enhanced the blue channel, bringing out the outer ring and faint outer arms.

Here is a link to a picture of famous constellation Orion. And here is another picture of the same constellation. But the pictures look strikingly different, don't they? Where does all the red light come from in the second picture?

The answer is that that red light is so called hydrogen alpha light, which is released when a photon of ultraviolet light strikes an atom and forces the electron into a higher, more 'energetic' orbit around the proton. More precisely, the red light is released when the electron 'falls back' into the lower orbit again. The extra energy that the electron absorbed when it was struck by the ultraviolet photon is now released as a photon of red light, whose exact wavelength is always 656.3 nanometers. Most ordinary cameras are relatively insensitive to this wavelength, since it is 'far into the red part of the spectrum' not far from where visible red light turns into invisible infrared light. Our human eyes are really quite insensitive to this wavelength, which is why no human observer ever has seen red color in any nebulae in the sky - at best these nebulae look gray to us! But there are photographic filters which are highly sensitive to hydrogen alpha light. If you photograph Orion with a filter which senses this wavelength only, you can combine the image you get with pictures taken through other filters and create images like the second image of Orion, which is bathing in red light.

I think it is reasonable to postulate that Clark may have the ability to separate light with different wavelengths from each other. I remember a comic book, where Clark used his vision to see an infrared imprint of Lois on the roof of a car - in other words, Clark could see that this car had a Lois-shaped 'imprint' of enhanced temperature on its roof. Lois had left a 'heat print' of herself on the car. Maybe Clark could be able to do something similar here?

Of course, for that to work, the video itself would have to have been shot through at least two different filters and then combined into one video. Unfortunately, I find that unlikely!

Ann

I think it's the episode The Phoenix where Clark zooms into a photograph to see what's written on a napkin, even though following logic all he should have been able to see was the napkin, up close, but still blurry. Darn pixels. XD

I wouldn't put it past the show's writers to make him to something like that. But logically, no, he wouldn't see what's behind that door; just the wiring inside the TV.

Julie

Interesting thought:
Yes, the pixels aren't there. But humans have programmed computers to estimate and fill in what isn't there. NASA, the FBI and the various CSI shows show how computers can interpret data. I could imagine Superman's brain could do the same thing. Letters are fairly straight forward to fill in. So he could read it.
As to the original question, he couldn't see anything behind a door in a TV program, transmitted or played on a DVD or (gasp!) a VHS tape (remember the show is 1993 on).

Artemis

If you want him to be able to see through the door have him look through the keyhole, the peephole or under the door. I'm a great believer in writer's fiat.

A great example of this would be when Lois' saw a reflection in the reflection in her dream and, using the aid of hypnosis, was able to see who had kidnapped her.


Elisabeth