Please help me work out how this 'thought transmission' was achieved

[Fasto]

Well, they're not claiming it's telepathy, but I know from conversations with a few relatives that it came across that way to certain people, so I was wondering if you guys could help me work out how this was done.
(It's not a magic trick, so the exposure rule shouldn't apply.)

Bit of background:
There's a German TV Show called "Wetten Dass..?"
You can look it up on wikipedia, it's the most successful show in Europe and has been going for almost 27 years. As far as I know it's the only German show which regularly has guests like Madonna, Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson etc...

Anyway, the show involves people who bet they can do something extraordinary, and a celebrity guest has to decide whether they think they can do it or not. If they're wrong, they have to perform a small, usually quite silly, task (although really big people have been let off occasionally).

On this occasion, 2 swiss girls claimed that they'd developped a special, undetectable language, consisting of invisible signs.

Here is the link to the video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZJMjTODxujc

The first part of the video consists of explaining what they claim to do, explain that they developed it because they wanted to be able to communicate in a classroom without getting caught, and asking the guy (actor Tobis Morretti, unless I'm wrong) if he thinks they can do it (he doesn't).

The Host (Thomas Gottschalk) has a book with 200 random, unrelated sentences, 3 of which he will choose at random and ask one of the girls to transmit to the other. He also points out that the girls are wearing sensitive microphones that would pick up any noise they made.

One thing that got me thinking is that the host never explains whether the girls are familiar with those 200 random, unrelated sentences.
If they were, they'd only have to come up with 200 different subtle signals, which wouldn't be too hard. If they weren't, they'd have to be able to transmit individual words, which would be much harder I think.

The actual 'test' starts at around 5:00 minutes.
At 5:14, the first sentence has been successfully 'received': "Sein hohes Fieber ging nicht runter" which means "his high fever did not get better" (or 'get lower').

The 2nd sentence starts at around 5:32. "Sag mir, ob ich früher einen Glücksbringer bei mir trug". "Tell me, if I used to carry a mascot around with me". (I'm not sure if mascot is the correct english word - Glücksbringer refers to any object that a superstitious person carries around because they believe that it brings them luck).
At 5:52 the receiving girl asks the transmitting girl if she could make the last sign any clearer. At 6:18, she asks her to repeat the 2 middle parts, and reveals the sentence at 6:27.

3rd and final sentence starts at around 6:42 and is revealed at 6:52. "Im nächsten Jahrhundert wird alles anders sein" - "Everything is going to be different in the next century".

He then switches over - the girl who had been receiving sentences will now transmit them and vice versa.
First one at 7:10 - "Zwei Eidechsen lagen in der Sonne" - "2 Lizards were lying in the sun".
At 7:18, the other girl asks her to make the last sign a bit clearer, and repeats that request twice until she reveals it at 7:50.

2nd sentence: "Er fiel vom Teppichrand und brach sich ein Bein" - "he fell off the edge of a carpet and broke his leg". (No really, it's nonsense). Asked to make it a bit clearer at 8:18, and revealed it at 8:27.

Last sentence: "Sie ist im besten Alter" - "She has the best of age".

I'm assuming that they memorized the 200 sentences and worked out a different signal for each of them, so they're actually identifying the sentences, not the individual words.

Any ideas?

[GodMark2]

If they were allowed to see each other, it could easily be done with blinking eyes in morse code. Well, maybe easily is a bit of a stretch (10 seconds for 30 characters is pretty darn fast), but with training it's a possible information leak, especially if they had some similar code that was more efficient.

[petra10]

Good trick although I am not sure how they did it. When I was in High school my mates and I made up a kinda code between us. It involved eye movements and hand signals.
Think I'll watch again and see if they have any eye or hand signals.

Btw kids nowadays have a sort of code they use when texting each other or when they are on msn, its like a different language.

[blutoski]

I'd have to see it live to develop a set of plausibles, and then we'd have to be up close to slice it down to the probables.

One thing, though: pretty useless code that takes 15-60 minutes to transmit a sentence.

How physically close were they? That will help narrow down a bit.

For example, as an experiment just now, my wife and I can both control pupil dilation/contraction. We both know morse code. So, we were able to communicate this way in a quick experiment. It worked pretty well, and took a lot less than 15 minutes to transmit that first sentence (more like a minute and a half).

But this only works when we're at most a few feet apart.

This could be done with any bidirectional motion: blinking, twitching a finger slightly, wiggling an ear, nostrils... Maybe they're tracing letters with their eyes... lots of possibilities, but I'd have to see them live to work it out.

I doubt it's literally invisible, so much as hard to detect.

As an analogy, if somebody did a card trick, and you described it in a web forum, I couldn't tell you how it was done in a million years; but I could probably tell you in a moment how the trick was done if I saw the trick. Or at least give you a few variations.

[Fasto]

I'd have to see it live to develop a set of plausibles, and then we'd have to be up close to slice it down to the probables.

One thing, though: pretty useless code that takes 15-60 minutes to transmit a sentence.



15-60 seconds, not minutes.


How physically close were they? That will help narrow down a bit.


I posted a link to the video! They're about 2-3 meters apart.


For example, as an experiment just now, my wife and I can both control pupil dilation/contraction. We both know morse code. So, we were able to communicate this way in a quick experiment. It worked pretty well, and took a lot less than 15 minutes to transmit that first sentence (more like a minute and a half).


Again, it took less than a minute for each sentence. Since you can see the girs up close, it doesn't look like they're blinking excessively.


This could be done with any bidirectional motion: blinking, twitching a finger slightly, wiggling an ear, nostrils... Maybe they're tracing letters with their eyes... lots of possibilities, but I'd have to see them live to work it out.

I doubt it's literally invisible, so much as hard to detect.

As an analogy, if somebody did a card trick, and you described it in a web forum, I couldn't tell you how it was done in a million years; but I could probably tell you in a moment how the trick was done if I saw the trick. Or at least give you a few variations.

That's why I posted the link to the video. There doesn't seem to be any obvious movement...

[petra10]

There seems to be a lot of crossing and uncrossing of their legs.Also if you look closely finger movements and slight tilting of their heads.

I think they have developed a body movement code between themselves.

[Garrette]

Codes, though unlikely to be Morse code.

If not codes, it's what magicians call a "Book Test," though possibly with a new method. There are many methods for this type of effect, some more impressive than this.

[alfaniner]

If they knew there were 200 sentences, and what they were, they did not need 200 separate signals. They only needed 10, with possibly one more for a flag of sorts. I'll let you figure out why.

[volatile]

If they knew there were 200 sentences, and what they were, they did not need 200 separate signals. They only needed 10, with possibly one more for a flag of sorts. I'll let you figure out why.

9, surely?

ETA: Oh, no, wait. Yes, 10. You're right.

By the way and FYI, "Glueckbringer" can be translated into "lucky charm" in English.

[mayday]

Last night I thought of something that was from a long time ago and I thought had been long forgotten and my husband mentioned it about 3 seconds after I thought of it.

Our brains are capable of much more than we realize.

[danielk]

Our brains are capable of much more than we realize.
Pure gold. Stay away forumites, this quote will go into my signature!

[FramerDave]

Last night I thought of something that was from a long time ago and I thought had been long forgotten and my husband mentioned it about 3 seconds after I thought of it.

Our brains are capable of much more than we realize.

Some of them, anyway. Some are capable of far less than we think.

[alfaniner]

9, surely?

ETA: Oh, no, wait. Yes, 10. You're right.

By the way and FYI, "Glueckbringer" can be translated into "lucky charm" in English.


Come to think of it, I'm know they could come up with an even more efficient code.

And don't call me Shirley...!
:p

[volatile]

Come to think of it, I'm know they could come up with an even more efficient code.

And don't call me Shirley...!
:p

I forgot about zero.

Of course, you could binarise the whole thing and do it with just two signals, but that would hardly be that efficient!

[grayman]

Our brains are capable of much more than we realize.

Impressive until you realize what is telling you this.

[Garrette]

1. We do not know the origin of the book of sentences; the women may well have provided it themselves

2. The sentences are not chosen randomly; the host chooses what he wants

3. The choice is not hidden from the receiver who has a clear view of where in the binder the host turns to

4. The upstage hand of the sender is hidden from the audience and camera by crossed legs but is not hidden from the receiver


All in all, very nicely done. It would make for great spookiness at a Halloween gathering, but as evidence of paranormality it falls far short.

[sthomson]

I notice that, while the sender was quite still during the "transmission" part, she seemed to be twitching and fidgeting quite a bit in the moment between when the notebook was opened and when the camera pulled away. Then, watch the eyes of the receiver - I think whatever communication passes between them happens relatively quickly. The pause is merely for theatrics.

[Reno]

If they knew there were 200 sentences, and what they were, they did not need 200 separate signals. They only needed 10, with possibly one more for a flag of sorts. I'll let you figure out why.

Could be done simply with only 3 signals.

[Azrael 5]

1. We do not know the origin of the book of sentences; the women may well have provided it themselves

2. The sentences are not chosen randomly; the host chooses what he wants

3. The choice is not hidden from the receiver who has a clear view of where in the binder the host turns to

4. The upstage hand of the sender is hidden from the audience and camera by crossed legs but is not hidden from the receiver


All in all, very nicely done. It would make for great spookiness at a Halloween gathering, but as evidence of paranormality it falls far short.

Party Pooper. :D