While sat on a train today we passed through a station at speed and I couldn’t make out the name on the signs, this got me thinking, is it possible to make a sign that can be read from a moving train? I appreciate that this is purely theoretical as it’s very dependant on speed and distance between observer and sign etc (and you could simply make the text larger and move it further away from the observer), but is it possible to make a sign that can be read where normal writing would just be a blur and if so what would it look like?

I’m thinking along the lines of the 3D adverts on rugby pitches which look like they are standing up from one angle, but look like weird stretched images from other angles.

you have to move your head (turn it) at the same speed, then the sign stays in your view

you have to move your head (turn it) at the same speed, then the sign stays in your view

I’m already weird enough without being the nutter trying to give himself whiplash on a busy commuter train!

A large Zoetrope type barrier might work?

Have a barrier between the train and the platform with gaps in it, and repeated signs in line with the gaps, if you looked out the train you’d see a static sign.

The train from the satellite terminal Zurich airport has a screen running the length of the tunnel which shows Heidi running beside the train, so it’s definitely possible. Albeit expensive.

Does she still blow a kiss or was that only for me?

I saw some freaky things in tunnels in Tokyo. Think it must have been a long screen with images moving the same speed as the train. But I was usually going home drunk after a night out when I saw them so I can’t be too sure.

There was a zoetropic sign thingy on the new york metro,somewhere under the WTC iirc, this about 10 years ago. I don’t know if its still there. (the sign I mean – Im aware the WTC isn’t there anymore)

The other option is just having the text trigger like a camera flashgun

Long long time ago there was an art piece in the the Cornerhouse in Manchester which was just a plinth with a red button on it and a small black glass square. You’d see people walk up it – there’d be a bright flash and then the they’d walk off smiling and muttering ‘f***!’

So I went up and pressed it and there was a flash the word ‘f***!’ was burned on my retinas. Every other painting in the exhibition as are result also had the word ‘f***!’ written across it in glowing green for the next 20 minutes or so.

After seeing that, for fun at a party I did the same thing – doctoring the front of the flash gun on a big old SLR so when I took people’s pictures I could leave them a message 🙂