Recently, a silly Snapchat filter has been used to turn some of the most shattering cinematic scenes into utterly hilarious videos. One of those was Tony Stark’s funeral in the movie Avengers: Endgame. The scene that left fans reeling as they exited the theaters was about honoring the late father and husband by releasing a tribute into a creek at his cabin house. The scene included the family and friends of the character who looked on in despair.
The Snapchat Shook Filter Has Made Tony Stark’s Tribute Hilarious
The extremely funny Snapchat filter was used to make Tony Stark’s nearest and dearest friends and family have their faces morphed into manic smiles while mourning for the fallen hero. This includes the Hulk, Scarlet Witch, Pepper Potts, Winter Soldier, Captain America, Spider-Man, and many others displaying huge bulging eyes with wide closed mouths and creepy grins.
After the video was posted to Reddit, it provoked many reactions, with some commenting that people looked like Steve Buscemi and others saying that the actors looked like the character Dwight Schrute from The Office. This wasn’t the only time the Shook face filter has been used to completely alter dramatic moments in films. One TikTok user uploaded a video with the face filter featuring a scene from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. There, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker look rather uncanny during their legendary battle sequence at the end of the movie.
The Crying Face Snapchat Filter Was Also Used to Alter Movie Scenes
Probably getting inspired by their fellow TikTokers, people started using the hugely popular Crying Face Snapchat filter on memorable scenes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Some of those were really funny and left many viewers crying with laughter. While some commented that the snap of Iron Man went very well with the filter, others pointed out that it was straight-up hilarious.
Filters like that point out that anything can be made to look funny with a funny face filter.
Researchers Have Identified How the Brain Tracks Moving Sounds
Until recently, scientists didn’t know exactly how the human brain tracks moving sounds. It is known that the eyes and brain can smoothly track objects, but now researchers have identified the two neural circuits that track the location and motion of a sound. It appears that the brain and ears work together when facing this challenge.
The Human Auditory System Can Track Objects Emitting Sounds
Scientists already knew that humans are very good at determining the location of sounds that are not moving, but some studies suggested that the brain does not track sounds in motion. It was thought that the brain relied more on visual cues or would take static aural snapshots to infer how a sound source was moving. However, it now seems that the brain can track the movement directly.
A new study by Van Opstal and his colleagues shows that the auditory system can track both the position and speed of sounds as smoothly as the visual system when it comes to visible objects. Using subjects in a dark, soundproof room who wore special headgear, the team recorded their head movements when tracking the path of a sound that was moving unpredictably. The results show that subjects could track the movement accurately and smoothly, which would have been impossible if they were just getting static snapshots of the sound’s position.
Humans Can Get Better at Tracking Moving Sounds Over Time
Participants in the experiment got better at tracking sounds over time, which shows how clever the auditory system is. Apparently, it can use information about the motion pattern and adapt its response. The findings also show that the brain is likely to have two neural circuits that it uses to track sound. One is probably dedicated to determining the location, and the other is a complementary one that is dedicated to measuring velocity. The velocity is tracked by comparing the differences in arrival time between the two ears and the way it changes over time.
The research shows how moving the head is important when it comes to accurate soundtracking because the sounds of moving objects change when they enter the ears from a different location. So, in the same way, that the eyes have to focus on a moving object to track it well, the head must move with the object to keep the source of a moving sound in the same area as it is tracked.