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Can’t Cross A Virtual Wall
The Virtual Wall provides a barrier made up of plasma laser beams depicting pedestrians doing what they do best and any car that crosses that barrier suffers the consequences. Okay so maybe those lasers aren’t powerful enough to do any harm but the effect is enough to make drivers and pedestrians alike follow crosswalk rules to the tee.
Designer: Hanyoung Lee
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170 Comments »
Hiphopopotamus says
This makes me want to drive through it… not exactly the effect that a stop light should evoke.
strider_mt2k says
Pedestrian impacts also cause unnecessary paint damage and may possibly void certain manufacturer warranties and/or service agreements.
Mazza says
This would be great until an emergency services vehicle such as an ambulance crashes because the driver’s vision was impaired.
joe says
Ambulances give off some sort of radio signal which can turn red lights into green lights; why shouldn’t this signal be able to turn off the wall as well?
Nacon says
it’s a fine idea….. but how are they plan on doing that? Using laser today is not possible to display such detail or image appearing in mid air.
So my question is…. why post such a faulty dream hope idea when it’s not possible?
Dovidl says
With an attitude like yours designers still would think about realizing the wheel…
crizzz says
They invented the wheel, because they didn’t waste time with useless things.
Hmmm.... says
thats a fantastic idea, you have no sense of creativity or what so ever.
je says
They invented the wheel because they need it!
Tomer Chachamu says
With an attitude like this designer, we would all be designing concept cars with wings before even inventing the wheel.
Kyran Cinflaria says
and would that be so bad? I like the idea of jumping development
See says
pretty cool what they can do dude, i think its possible but dont ask me how
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=-k5nt541SE0
tosika says
It is possible today. I have seen it in a doorway. Only it needs steam or fog for the laser to be visible on a bright day. don’t be so negative. we need to progress, and traffic lights are so old. Think about it…A rock still works fine as a hammer, but it didn’t stop somebody from inventing a new hammer. (P.S. and the hammer turned into a drill)
pat says
It’s just a concept man, it doesn’t have to come true in the slightest. If all of the designers had the same thought process that you do, there would be almost nothing on this website.
Lighten up.
GL says
Faulty Dream Hope ideas is a step that leads to Real Good Working ideas sometimes. Have you ever done any concept designs?
Posting is sharing and any idea no matter how faulty or dreamy it is can inspire other designers to create other great products.
Take your head out man.
Nacon says
Oh OH ohhh! got a better idea since those don’t really stop you from hitting anyone…. Let the computer drive the car for you. Duh.
Don’t need giant red people roaming all over the places. -_-;
Sean says
(posting from the year 2028)
Yes, I hate these laser walls that clog our every turn. It was ok in the 2010’s, when they were only used in dense urban areas. But, then the city of Houston made that deal with GoogleSoft to outsource their infrastructure development for a slice of advertising royalties. The new “adlights” spread everywhere as cities, towns, and truck stops tried to get in on the action.
If only we could simplify the design a bit. Focus the signal into a smaller visual footprint, perhaps with different colors for whether you should yield, stop, or go. It would be cheaper, more reliable, and easier to maintain. And no more ads.
I hate you, GoogleSoft.
wolfshades says
I like this idea. A lot.
But I agree with the first comment too: people (ME!) would be tempted just to drive through it. I would enhance it a bit: put in motion sensors too so that if the car crashes into the image, some huge speakers would blare out screams and cries of “KENNY! OH MY GOD - YOU KILLED KENNY!” and we would have visuals of big red people flying in different directions.
That’d learn them.
chetan sorab says
surely innovative. Impressive
arturo says
Must be a cool light show.. But I don’t see this working in high density urban areas where crosswalks are seldom used. I should know I never use the crosswalk her in ny.
igreenspot says
I love the idea, but I think certain cars need to get special exclusion, such as ambulance, police car …
Eric K says
This is ‘design’? You come up with something impossible with current technology, ignore the need to create technology to make it possible, photoshop a picture of it, then claim you ‘designed’ it?
I assumed that the idea of designing such technology involved creating a viable blueprint for the hardware and programming necessary to implement the idea. I was really looking forward to an explanation if how these ‘plasma lasers’ were going to make images hover in midair in broad daylight.
But if that’s not the case, I can see a career for myself designing flying saucers, killer robots, and rocket pants. It should be easy now that I don’t have to worry about such important things as how or why.
Nacon says
Amen!
Bill Vincent says
Eric K:
This is the kind of inventing that got us into modern civilization. Forward thinking, thinking outside the box. If nobody bothered to dream up anything new simply because it wasn’t possible yet, we’d all still be barbarians living in caves banging on rocks, instead of barbarians living in wooden houses banging on keyboards. Everything you have, everything you see, is possible because someone like Mr. Lee thought outside the bounds of the mundane and chose to look to the future. DaVinci invented hundreds of things that couldn’t be built in his lifetime, but it never stopped him. You should thank people like them instead of belittling them.
Furthermore, the invention as pictured is just a CONCEPT. While it may never be produced as such, a concept frequently opens discussion and research in the directions needed to devise other useful things.
frymaster says
This does not under any circumstances fall under the catorgory of “inventing”. Inventing implies something that HAS been built or IS POSSIBLE to build or MIGHT BE POSSIBLE TO BUILD WITH SOME DEVELOPMENT. You might as well “deisgn” a personal teleportation system to make cars obsolete and solve the problem that way.
contrast with someone like Johnny Chung Lee ( his videos are at http://www.youtube.com/user/jcl5m ). He has “thought outside the box” with such common things as the Wii controller or some fibre-optice cable and simple light sensors, and created stunning applications from them. That is innovation of the highest order. Simply letting your imagination run riot is not design, or invention.
Da Vinci produced concepts for things that could not yet be built, and the problems were obvious - “Can’t spin this fast enough at this time” or “we can’t make this material strong enough at this time” - because Da Vinci’s work was underpinned by a real knowledge of how the world works. Hanyoung Lee’s design does not have practical problems because it is not a practical solution. For a start, what on earth is a “plasma laser beam” in this context? He went to the trouble of being that specific…
This isn’t design, it’s sci-fi fiction. And _BAD_ sci-fi at that - most fiction these days tries not to make such basic errors.
jrbarnes says
“Frymaster”…
Given the amount of steam blowing out of your ass - the opacity will be sufficient enough for the lasers to be visible. Perhaps you can reside on the road so that this visionaries concept can be fully realized.
Stick with what you know and best wishes with starting your camp fires by banging rocks together.
JR
wSer says
frymaster, did you search ‘Plasma-Laser’ on Google? Maybe you could have saved a lot of words. And
Look at this: http://www.physorg.com/news11251.html
Kyran Cinflaria says
We’re coming out with the technology to build this right now. Check out the holocube on this site. Apparently this is possible.
Eric K says
Another question:
If you have lasers powerful enough to be seen in daytime, they’re certainly not going to be eye-safe. How do you create this impossible technology in such a way as to be eye-safe?
newnickname says
You just need to clap a bunch of chalk board erasers around the laser.
Dovidl says
A variant a the design could be to show the wall in a height of 4 or 5 meters.
This idea wouldn’t make it necessary to make the lasers eye-safe and also could show other signs like arrows / stop- or other signs.
Ok this exists already - but without laser.
Austin says
Wow… a lot of you people are incredibly ignorant and close minded. as wSer states, stick to things you actually know about, rather than just guessing because you’ve never personally seen the technology yourself.
There are situations that prevent inventors from divulging too much public information for fear of competition and other scientists from stealing the ideas.
If you do some websearching you can find thinks like:
German Patent (2006) on “high color fidelity can be projected onto video screen holograms even in a daylight environment. ” http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6982817-description.html
Holography has been around since 1947, however, it’s only until now, volumetric displays of such technology are becoming a reality, although still mostly available to academics and the military (this is why the lay person hasn’t been educated on this technology).
~~~~~~
I do agree, the impracticality of this will be a factor in it’s application. I didn’t realize pedestrians were such a problem in urban areas, I’ve been living in NY for years and have not been struck by a car… as long as you’re paying attention, you should be find and the practical application of this seems an expense a city planner can avoid at this time.
Gavin Greenwalt says
Looks cool but wildly impractical even beyond the technological hurdles of creating a wall of light in thin air.
- Right hand turns on red are legal… so you could have trouble seeing pedestrians. Through any kind of ‘wall’.
- How do we have plasma walls but not cars that can manage to not hit a pedestrian? If I have plasma fences I expect automatic cars or at least some sort of cool down town pod train system.
chuck says
i think ppl will spoil it in my country XD
the cost not low right !
Mr. Peepers says
It’s impossible, and can’t possibly work (without photoshop). Other than that, it’s quite nice
chris says
Where’s the problem…? You simply slide up a big windowpane out of the ground and use it as a projection surface. If the glass is thick enough it really protects the pedestrians behind it.
Lone says
Or we could finally get automated traffic/roadways going after the last 60 years of speculation and development, and do away with hopelessly bad drivers and traffic lights (or walls) altogether.
However impractical the design is, if mostly technical, its still a positive reinterpretation of an every day fixture and thats what matters. One things leads to another and all ends are unknown.
Eric K, you should have just said you didn’t agree with the use of the word designer in this case and left it at that. Otherwise you sound like you believe every rough concept out there needs to be backed up by a million dollar development grant or fleshed out by one person who’s a ‘ conceptual designer’ but also a competent professional in engineering (of several kinds in this case), physics, city planning, and psychology. Thats not the way it works.
Baron Mercury says
There’s two things wrong with this “design”:
1. It is not physically possible.
2. It’s not his bloody Idea, clearly the man just read Transmetropolitan and copied the (wholly fictional) traffic lights of the future.
DG says
How about cross it and your license plate gets a photo.
riscy says
It is a wonderful idea, but laser is well established hazardous for anyone eye, if use at a powerful level.
I propose using LED light beam might be safer than laser. The light intensity of LED is much less and less chance of blindness, especially if children is playing with the beam.
One problem with this idea that it prone to abuse by children or other punks. Simple tape cover it up and cease to works correctly.
It may be better to use over head system rather than side street bars or emitted from the road surface, so it out of reach.
Good luck, I believe this is very good ides, far better than traffic light system.
R.
Rix says
Fake pictures!
Dani2202 says
Uhhmmmmm… I think both people and car driver will be tempted to go trough it , crashing together!!
jiri says
super!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anonymous says
There’s a word for people like Eric K: TROLL. Even if the idea lacks merit or viability, being an idea-bashing bully doesn’t change the idea. Doing so only proves you’re a troll, Eric K.
Instead of bashing the idea, try offering helpful suggestions or alternatives.
Those who offer constructive criticism of others advance society.
Those who offer only abuse, destroy it.
Below is a non-troll constructive criticism:
The plasma/laser grid offers only a signal mechanism, consumes power continuously while lit, and cannot prevent people from driving right through. While admittedly not as “flashy” or “high-tech” in appearance, mechanical engineering should not be discarded. Try using a simple mechanical system that raises and lowers steel reinforced concrete barricades. The barricades would also help stop people from running red-lights, too. While this could prevent “right turn on red” for those places where it is legal, the increase in public safety would be well worth the 15-40 second wait for pedestrians to cross.
Be helpful, or shut the fuck up.
Kyran Cinflaria says
the energy required to lower concrete beams is less than that required of the lasers?