talkmagic.co.uk

a couple of years ago now, me and tomo did some research on it...(remember mate?)...

I'm shocked that i did...

anyway, go buy yourself 5 packets of smarties, and go count the contents...easy...

you'll soon cut some of your "methods" down

the technique he taught the guy works (the bit speeded up) but it doesnt take a genius to work out what he told him really is it?

the rest, is very simple to "do"...

Tomo wrote:

Robbie wrote:

Tomo wrote:Look up the word 'subitizing'

Subitising can be improved by practice. After many years of counting the lengths of the blanks in crossword grids, I can subitise them up to about nine, and be no more than one away up to about twelve or thirteen. A minor skill which is not very useful in everyday life, unless you do have to count grid lengths a lot.

Think deeper young Robbie. Think deeper...

You're not supposed to subitize the whole thing in one go.

Did I say I was? My problem is, I can only do it with crossword grids. (My other problem is, I can't do basic mental arithmetic to save my life.)

Roland wrote:Derren Brown has done several interations of a similar trick where he throws a bunch of smarties on a table and counts them in a couple of seconds and tells you how many of each colour there are.

Any pointers on where to get background material on how to do a similar effect? I can't see anything in any of the major mentalism books and dvds.

Thanks,

Roland

I'll tell you that he ISN'T counting very quickly and is doing a magic trick.

IAIN wrote:a couple of years ago now, me and tomo did some research on it...(remember mate?)...

I'm shocked that i did...

Blimey, that's going back a while!

Can this be right?

he's splitting the random layout of the buttons into a grid and remembering what colour buttons and how many of each colour are in a section of the grid. he then went on to use the same technique to do the drawing for the next part of that sequence.http://hypnosisforum.com/showthread.php?p=47182#post47182

Probably not.

I used to love reading hypnosisforum.com. It has some total loons!

Simple and direct!!!

KidKagoule wrote:Can this be right?

he's splitting the random layout of the buttons into a grid and remembering what colour buttons and how many of each colour are in a section of the grid. he then went on to use the same technique to do the drawing for the next part of that sequence.http://hypnosisforum.com/showthread.php?p=47182#post47182

No.

Think about it man. Why bother trying anything like that when you could, say, CHEAT and hit the number everytime with no effort?

Tomo wrote:Look up the word 'subitizing'

Can you count faster than a chimp?
Chimpanzees are better at subitizing than humans.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6577241.stm

Perhaps this is not as subtle, however I propose that he can not only know know which buttons were taken but the colors too.

It takes slight modification to his method to achieve this. Perhaps that makes you go in the right direction.
I'm skeptical if the effect can be done with smarties though.

Could it not be achieved through a similar technique to speed reading? E.g. speed counting?

It's just a thought however - I've no idea how speed reading is done, so can't help much further I'm afraid!