MAVERICK
Member
Don't be ashamed to admit it: voyeurism can be fun sometimes. We're not advocating using a pair of binoculars to spy on your next door neighbors' exotic late-night activities or anything sordid like that, but who doesn't love to sit by the window at a cafe every once in awhile, and peer at all the people passing by outside?
Well, people-watchers in London and New York are about to get a cross-continental fix, thanks to a cool new device called the Telectroscope, which allows the two cities' residents to peer through a giant tube to catch a glimpse of what's happening across the pond.
The twin Telectroscopes, located near London's Tower Bridge and New York's Brooklyn Bridge, create the illusion that the two telescopes are connected by a tube that runs beneath the Atlantic Ocean, but no deep-sea diving was required for this project: It simply uses high-speed broadband internet technology to display images from the two venues in real time.
By paying a small fee, visitors can step into the Telectroscope' s tube, and wave to the life-sized stranger in the partner city. The device has "all sorts of lovely possibilities, " Nicky Webb, the director of Artichoke, the company that produced the Telectroscope, told The Telegraph. "You could arrange to meet friends in New York, or even propose marriage down it!"