Talks to Watch

Why I Don't Watch CSI

1.7M views · Jul 8, 2009 · 1:18 · 0 HN recommenders · 3 mentions · discussed 2012–2020

A one-minute clip from a CSI episode featuring the trope of zooming and enhancing low-resolution images. The uploader says it was the last CSI episode they watched.

Why Hacker News points people here: HN uses it as shorthand for the unrealistic 'zoom and enhance' trope, in jokes about image restoration and software that claims to recover detail.

What Hacker News said 3

CriticalDylan16807Feb 2020

“You can't do this”

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> When chess was basically solved, it was dismissed brute force Deep blue was brute force. There are different ways to solve a problem, and only some of them are impressive in certain ways, even if they're impressive in other ways. > Today we have superresolution algorithms that can reconstruct license plates from low-res images. You need to take another look at CSI. You can reconstruct a little bit, usually with the help of multiple frames or exact font data. You can't do this: link this video > Many tech people dismiss such progress as "just statistics", but I haven't seen much of an attempt to find a definition of intelligence that is meaningful different from "just statistics". In fact I doubt it's possible within the realm of science, i. e. without resorting to mind-body dualism. That's about as useful as saying everything is 'just chemistry'. It's true but not helpful. And the same way that your brain and a science fair volcano are both just chemistry, demonstrating a simple reaction isn't impressive.

in “Tesla's self driving algorithm's overlay [video]” · view on HN
JokeryanwaggonerOct 2012

“I think you're safe to continue mocking for awhile”

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I think you're safe to continue mocking for awhile: this video This one is obviously comedy, but always enjoyable: link

in “Restoration of defocused and blurred images” · view on HN
JokefaitswulffNov 2018

“a la the CSI TV show[0]”

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I was really hoping this would be a paper describing how to "enhance" the image a la the CSI TV show[0] [0]: this video

in “Finding a Murderer in a Victim’s Eye” · view on HN