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Launch ready Session 3 · Video Interactive

Metronome Frame-Scrubber

Video adds a dimension stills never had: time. Widen the machine's memory — how many past frames it gets to look at — and the flipping pancake stays a pancake; shrink it to one frame and the subject melts into nonsense.

tools/metronome-frame-scrubber/

Live preview · launch for the interactive version

§ A · What it makes visible

three hidden mechanisms
Fig. 01

Temporal window

Set how many past frames the model can attend to — its short-term memory.

Fig. 02

Onion-skin trail

Past frames ghost behind the current one, like an animator's light-box.

Fig. 03

Drift vs. coherence

At window 1 the subject morphs; widen it and the motion locks into a coherent flip.

§ B · How to investigate it

run it like an experiment, not a toy
01 · Predict

Before you widen

Predict what a one-frame memory does to a moving subject.

guess: it forgets and morphs
02 · Change one thing

Move the window

Change only the temporal window; keep playing.

1 frame → 24 frames
03 · Compare evidence

Read the trail

How do the onion-skin ghosts line up at each setting?

wide window → aligned ghosts
04 · Name it

Name the mechanism

Say it plainly: coherence over time is attention, not magic.

drift = narrow attention

§ C · Debrief questions

after the investigation
Why does a one-frame memory cause drift?
What is temporal attention actually tracking?
How much memory is 'enough' for coherent motion?
Where is the cost of a wider window paid?

§ D · Related

pairs well with · use in context