The Nettle Magic Project: Scanner for decks of cards with bar codes on edges
This is a stellar example of a quite rare class of magic trick where the method is actually more amazing than the effect. The vast majority of magic tricks are the opposite. The effect is amazing but the method is actually quite mundane. This is one reason magicians don't reveal "secrets". The reality is most magical methods are rather disappointing compared to the astonishing impact of the effect created.For any magical effect there are almost always many possible methods and, conversely, for each method there are multiple possible effects. This method provides a way to know the location (or absence) of each card in a shuffled deck without the performer handling the deck. For most of the effects which could be accomplished with this method there exist a wide variety of alternate, much simpler, methods. Using any of those easier and cheaper methods would likely appear identically amazing to audiences. And that's why I love this method. As a technologist and magician, I've always had a special fondness for wildly complex methods - that rare kind of magic where the method actually IS as amazing as the effect.