Filed under: Gadgets, Safety, Tech
Virtual Wall could protect pedestrians with plasma lasers
Click above for more renderings of the Virtual Wall
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.
Gallery: Virtual Wall
[Source: Concept Trends via Winding Road]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Yar 5:35PM (4/24/2008)
Oh this isn't dangerous or anything...
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Michael 5:48PM (4/24/2008)
Hahahahaha oh wow
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capt kirk 5:58PM (4/24/2008)
I am or arming everyone with death ray guns. There is nothing like knowing you can be cut in half by a death ray gun to improve a person's willingness to treat their fellow humans in a more civil manner at all times, except maybe bicycle riders in Portland, Oregon.
They have bicycles, so they do not need death ray guns.
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Kevin 5:58PM (4/24/2008)
Dan @ Dansdata posted about this on his blog the other day:
'It’s a “barrier made up of plasma laser beams depicting pedestrians” to alert drivers to people crossing, more effectively than could a normal red light.
A magnificent idea, with only two minor drawbacks.
One, there’s no way to make lasers do this, and two, there’s no way to make lasers do this. I know that technically speaking that’s only one drawback, but I thought it was such a big one, it was worth mentioning twice.'
I'm inclined to think that he's right.
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Derek 11:01PM (4/24/2008)
Another minor technical problem: it's a laser. Try seeing the path that a laser pointer is shining in if you can't see the red dot. If you aren't in a very dusty room, you don't see it. So, unless the laser is pointed AT the driver (now that's safe) they won't see it until their car breaks the "barrier"
Kevin 11:32PM (4/24/2008)
True, unless you get up into very high (relatively speaking) power lasers-100-200mW+, from what I've been given to understand (your average laser pointer is 5mW or so). The kind of power where you need to wear protective eyewear because you will damage your eye faster than you can blink, and which will set stuff on fire...
Rocketboy 8:31AM (4/25/2008)
Derek, Umm, I think that's what Dan of Dan's Data was saying. You can't do that with a laser. Reading FTW!
tankd0g 6:05PM (4/24/2008)
Use high powered lasers to cut the nose off any car that crosses them, I suspect offenses will drop to near zero pretty quick.
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speedball3 6:48PM (4/24/2008)
If the wall will cut off the nose of a car, what happens when grandma trips into the wall?
tankd0g 11:07PM (4/24/2008)
Social security crisis solved...with lasers!
Aprime 6:11PM (4/24/2008)
Hate the driver in front of you? Ram him and his car into the barrier!
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integradude 6:25PM (4/24/2008)
I really could see this technology taken one step further... creating digital billbords displaing commercials
news/weather and traffic ahead wile drivers wait for the light to change might even reduce road rage as people will not be so angry to be waiting at a light might even recoop some of the cash for its installation
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Jrejre 6:41PM (4/24/2008)
You're probably right. This will be used for ads to distract drivers before anyone uses it to protect pedestrians.
Rick 7:00PM (4/24/2008)
Won't work. But if they want to try, I can sell them the lasers. How many do you need?
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Manny 7:43PM (4/24/2008)
Ya that is great but.................You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?
why not the LS2LS7? 8:54PM (4/24/2008)
plasma lasers?
Wow, this just needs some anti-matter and it's pretty much got all the Sci-Fi bases covered.
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sitruc 10:49PM (4/24/2008)
This seemed like a flawed idea when I read about it on Engadget yesterday. I'm not complaining, but have there been a few more crossover stories recently?
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turbo-quattro 12:02AM (4/25/2008)
they could have tried to make the renderings look a bit more realistic.
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tubular_smells 1:46AM (4/25/2008)
I think the rendering is about as realistic as it's ever going to get - anyways, being serious, if you're going to do something like this, wouldn't it just be cheaper to install half barriers like you get at railway crossings?
jv2k 9:56AM (4/25/2008)
Yea even if they could get lasers to do this they'd need to:
1.Find a way to make it so that they don't fry people.
2.Find a way to make it so that the guy who stopped for the yellow too late and ended up in the crosswalk doesn't fry.
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