Thursday 22 March 2012

Man Flies Like A Bird

This video shows Dutch engineer Jarno Smeets flying like a bird using custom-built wings. In the video, shot at a park in the Hague in the Netherlands on March 18, Jarno Smeets is seen using his arms to flap the wings as he appears to successfully achieve take-off, flight and landing.

Mr Smeets claims to have worked with neuromechanics expert Bert Otten to create a design based on the mechanics used in robotic prosthetics which helps to give his muscles extra strength. The Internet is buzzing whether this is fake or not. In a poll done by The Telegraph 43% think it's fake, 25% say it's real and 31% say they can't say for sure.

Computer Generated Imagery specialist have seen the video and couldn't find any traces of CGI. Scientist can't agree whether this is real or not. Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters says he didn't see evidence that it was faked.



YouTube link

Website Human Birdwings.

More about this at Gizmodo

update: It's a hoax. The Internet Bird Man fessed up to the hoax on a Dutch TV show. It turns out he even made up his name. Jarno Smeets is actually a Dutch CGI artist named Floris Kaayk. (thanks Adrian)

9 comment(s):

Anonymous said...

CGI experts are piling on traces that it's fake. Poor quality, no head movement, body positions eerily similar to the flying monkeys from Wizard of Oz, odd shadows, differences in the wings (squares where there weren't before), etc.

Tamy - mortal kombat said...

Good!!!

Adrian said...

I'll just leave this right here...
http://gizmodo.com/5895638/flying-bird-man-admits-flying-bird-man-is-fake++here-he-is

High Power Rocketry said...

It looks very fake...

Did Jamie Hyneman actually say anything?

Plz dont take lies at face value.

LadyBelle said...

http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/humanbirdwings.asp

Fake. Think guy fully admits to it.

Brian K said...

I'm astonished anyone thought it might be real in the first place. It is impossible for a human powered contraption to essentially attain powered flight through the same aerial mechanics as a bird.

Anonymous said...

CGI experts? Hahaha, it's a funny video, but obviously fake. You don't have to be an CGI expert to see that.

Miss Rare said...

Floris Kaayk, (who "played" Jarno Smeets) has admitted it's fake in a Dutch tv show.

Gareth said...

It's a shame that they included the sequence from the side. The rest of it is pretty well done, but that sequence looks really fake.

Clearly not CGI in the way the phrase is usually used, just some simple superimposition of images.