# What movie or show is the "typetypetype...Enhance!" video enhancement thing from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833 "2013-09-27T20:13:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/1 "2013-09-27T20:13:53Z")
[Here it’s being used as a joke in Super Troopers.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiqkclCJsZs) But this used to be played straight in detective, spy and sci fy films. A bunch of law enforcement or agency types gather around a computer screen showing a video of a crime or something suspicious. Then the tech will keep zooming in and “enhancing” until the object in question was clear enough to see. Sometimes the computer would say “enhance” while other times the head investigator would tell the tech “enhance sector whatever”. I recall it was used in Clear and Present Danger (or maybe Patriot Games…or both), as well as Blade Runner. Anyone remember any earlier instances? On as side note, I actually got to use this joke IRL with real cops. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/2 "2013-09-27T20:17:11Z")
I can’t beat _Blade Runner_, if it’s really in there (don’t remember it), but Captain Picard used it in the STNG episode arc with Spock. He tells the computer to ‘zoom and visually enhance’ in on a Romulan in a crowd, who turns out to be Spock. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/3 "2013-09-27T20:21:41Z")
BR is pretty much the original, even if the Esper doesn’t do quite what Deckard tells it to do. I’ve seen it in a half dozen shows and films (at least) - a late season Fringe was one. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/4 "2013-09-27T20:50:13Z")
It’s not entirely bogus, just poorly understood by Hollywood scriptwriters and hence often portrayed in ways that really are bogus. NonBogus example a: from a color photo, examine each color channel separately. Some may have less noise than the others, hence allowing one to see detail otherwise not apparent. NonBogus example b: from a video stream, interpolate from a sequence of still frames, retaining image data that appears to be present in most still frames, discarding image data that is present in only a few. This was used (to give one example) on the magruder footage of the kennedy assassination, interpolating the footage that had the repository window in the frame. NonBogus example c: from a photo, scan it at high resolution and play with contrast and brightness values. No, it won’t create detail that wasn’t in the original, but it can make detail that the human eye didn’t previously see very well before pop out much more vividly. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/5 "2013-09-27T20:50:48Z")
It was also parodied in the second episode of Red Dwarf - Back to Earth - probably specifically parodying the Blade Runner usage, since BtE references Blade Runner a LOT (the character they’re using the trick to track down was based on Hannibal Chew, for instance). By the time they’re finished uncropping, zooming, rotating, and enhancing, they’re looking at a reflection in Chris Barrie’s H of a reflection in a water droplet of a reflection on a glass door at a card that has the address they’re looking for on it. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/6 "2013-09-27T20:52:59Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Vxq9yj2pVWk/hqdefault.jpg "Let's Enhance") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxq9yj2pVWk) ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/7 "2013-09-27T20:58:52Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > [Here it’s being used as a joke in Super Troopers.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiqkclCJsZs) Also being used as a joke in Red Dwarf: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Xm0CruhJ7Lk/hqdefault.jpg "How To Properly Digitally Enhance A Photo") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm0CruhJ7Lk) Loved Super Troopers btw > [@msmith537](#): > > On as side note, I actually got to use this joke IRL with real cops. 😃 What’s the story behind that? Meow ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/8 "2013-09-27T21:02:40Z")
One of the earliest movies I can recall using this trope was _No Way Out_ in 1987. It was presented as it being possible for a computer to “enhance” an illegible picture but the process took hours to complete. Which was a plot point in the movie because Kevin Costner was the investigator in a case and knew that a piece of evidence was a photo of him and he would be implicated when the enhancement was completed. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/9 "2013-09-27T21:07:33Z")
Mel Brooks _High Anxiety_ had a lo-fi version of this gag, where a guy takes a photo and keeps blowing it up bigger and bigger, trying to see a small detail in the background. He ends up standing on a step ladder in front of a gigantic, twenty-foot tall poster of the photo, starring at it with a magnifying glass. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/10 "2013-09-27T21:10:27Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > NonBogus example b: from a video stream, interpolate from a sequence of still frames, retaining image data that appears to be present in most still frames, discarding image data that is present in only a few. This was used (to give one example) on the magruder footage of the kennedy assassination, interpolating the footage that had the repository window in the frame. Nitpick - I assume you mean the _Robert Hughes_ video of the repository. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/11 "2013-09-27T21:11:18Z")
> [@yoyodyne](#): > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxq9yj2pVWk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxq9yj2pVWk) Oh my. 1:10 is all kinds of retarded. Here is a classic “writers don’t understand basic computer skills” link: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8qgehH3kEQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8qgehH3kEQ) And [here’s the TVTropes](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EnhanceButton) page. I suppose one could try to find a date earlier than 1982 in there. The earliest I see is _High Anxiety_ (1977), but I haven’t seen it to know how “orthodox” it is actually vs. the description. The actual use of the word “enhance” is likely inspired by the CSI/NCIS/L&O/etc. shows, not that one of them necessarily was the first. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/12 "2013-09-27T21:15:27Z")
I had to check this to verify it, but there was a TV series from 1972 called [Search](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068131/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_35), where the agents were equipped with cameras in their rings and microphones in their tie tacks, that sort of thing. The sounds and images were beamed back to headquarters, where everything was zoomed and enhanced. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/13 "2013-09-27T21:17:37Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Mel Brooks _High Anxiety_ had a lo-fi version of this gag, where a guy takes a photo and keeps blowing it up bigger and bigger, trying to see a small detail in the background. He ends up standing on a step ladder in front of a gigantic, twenty-foot tall poster of the photo, starring at it with a magnifying glass. Which is a spoof of a sequence in _Blow-Up_. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/14 "2013-09-27T21:18:07Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > The actual use of the word “enhance” is likely inspired by the CSI/NCIS/L&O/etc. shows, not that one of them necessarily was the first. [Nope.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHepKd38pr0) ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/15 "2013-09-28T02:31:21Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > NonBogus example b: from a video stream, interpolate from a sequence of still frames, retaining image data that appears to be present in most still frames, discarding image data that is present in only a few. This was used (to give one example) on the magruder footage of the kennedy assassination, interpolating the footage that had the repository window in the frame. From what I remember, the first software to do that was invented by NASA scientists to analyze the video footage of the _Challenger_ disaster. And unlike most other NASA stuff, some bunch of jerks in Boston called Salient Stills bought exclusive rights to the technology and are selling this taxpayer-developed software back to the taxpayers by selling workstations equipped with it to various law enforcement organizations. It really rankles. I don’t know how many times I’ve been asked to extract a still from video, and have had to tell my client “Got $50,000?” ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/16 "2013-09-28T03:04:11Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > [Nope.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHepKd38pr0) Right, but do you think that _Super Troopers_ is making fun of that specifically and not more likely cop-type shows? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/17 "2013-09-28T03:15:43Z")
The 1993 movie _Rising Sun_ has an implausible image enhancing scene, but I don’t remember exactly what happens. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-or-show-is-the-typetypetype-enhance-video-enhancement-thing-from/669833/18 "2013-09-28T03:40:52Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > The 1993 movie _Rising Sun_ has an implausible image enhancing scene, but I don’t remember exactly what happens. Well, try harder. And then – try harder. And then – try harder.