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.
[Source: Concept Trends via Winding Road]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Yar @ Apr 24th 2008 5:35PM
Oh this isn't dangerous or anything...
Michael @ Apr 24th 2008 5:48PM
Hahahahaha oh wow
capt kirk @ Apr 24th 2008 5:58PM
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.
Kevin @ Apr 24th 2008 5:58PM
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.
Derek @ Apr 24th 2008 11:01PM
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 @ Apr 24th 2008 11:32PM
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 @ Apr 25th 2008 8:31AM
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 @ Apr 24th 2008 6:05PM
Use high powered lasers to cut the nose off any car that crosses them, I suspect offenses will drop to near zero pretty quick.
speedball3 @ Apr 24th 2008 6:48PM
If the wall will cut off the nose of a car, what happens when grandma trips into the wall?
tankd0g @ Apr 24th 2008 11:07PM
Social security crisis solved...with lasers!
Aprime @ Apr 24th 2008 6:11PM
Hate the driver in front of you? Ram him and his car into the barrier!
integradude @ Apr 24th 2008 6:25PM
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
Jrejre @ Apr 24th 2008 6:41PM
You're probably right. This will be used for ads to distract drivers before anyone uses it to protect pedestrians.
Rick @ Apr 24th 2008 7:00PM
Won't work. But if they want to try, I can sell them the lasers. How many do you need?
Manny @ Apr 24th 2008 7:43PM
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? @ Apr 24th 2008 8:54PM
plasma lasers?
Wow, this just needs some anti-matter and it's pretty much got all the Sci-Fi bases covered.
sitruc @ Apr 24th 2008 10:49PM
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?
turbo-quattro @ Apr 25th 2008 12:02AM
they could have tried to make the renderings look a bit more realistic.
tubular_smells @ Apr 25th 2008 1:46AM
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 @ Apr 25th 2008 9:56AM
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.