Monday, October 6, 2008

Virtual Wall










Virtual Wall could protect pedestrians with plasma lasers.


We expected that the first practical application for plasma laser technology would be a death ray gun, but Hanyoung Lee had another thought. He designed what's called the Virtual Wall using plasma lasers to make it safer for legal jay walkers to cross the street. The system displays a giant virtual wall right where the crosswalk begins and displays images of people walking to get the point across to pointy-headed drivers. We're all for getting drivers to stop before the white line at a red light so their front bumpers don't bogart the walking path, but we imagine municipalities might have a hard time stomaching the cost of four plasma laser walls at every intersection. We'd like to see a working Virtual Wall do its thing, as all we've got are these renderings below that show what the wall would look like if it were real. We've seen renderings of death ray guns too, however, and still don't have one in our hands.






Outer Airbags to Protect Pedestrians?






Toyoda Gosei (an offshoot of Toyota) prototypes:

they’ve equipped cars with camera and radar sensors to detect pedestrians and (presumably) activate the outer airbags to protect anyone within range of the car. The hood airbag is supposed to cushion your head while the grill airbag cushions your waist, making the fact that you are getting run over a teensy bit more comfy.

I know that this will not help our group, but it was very interesting.

Skype Conclusions (Oct 6th)

Jenny and I will come up with more concepts for Friday and prepare for class presentation to Lyn.

Andreas, Tobi, and Jenni will send images of intersection research.

Andreas will post his concepts.

We will meet on Monday on Skype; Jenny and I will update about Fridays meeting with Lyn.

Tobi's Concept Skype (Oct 6)

Attached:
http://kisd.de/~tobi/philips/week6/

Topic - what do you think?

Looking how to improve right turns in URBAN intersections?

Looking how to improve URBAN intersections?

By Friday - PARSONS (OCT 6)

Focus topic
  • define
  • discuss
  • prove
  • look at
    • physical
    • psychological
    • environment
Keep in Mind
  • simple - not more stuff
  • do not try to change behavior, only work with it
10 Concepts Due by Friday

Illuminated Paving Stones by KANN





















This paving stone consists of concrete and an illuminating crystal. The stone saves the normal daylight and releases it bit by bit during ten hours. This innovation do not need any additional technology like batteries or solar cell.

Company KANN