Virtual Plasma Crosswalks Will Protect Pedestrians
46 Comments By Eran Abramson on April 21st, 2008 in Lamps and Lights
On congested city streets with many pedestrians, couriers and drivers, it is often difficult to cross. Many things are going on the same time, and even the best of drivers make an error here and there. The pedestrian has his/her own responsibility as well, looking and making sure they are out of harm’s way, but still…accidents happen and should be prevented.
The Virtual Wall is envisioned to reduce the amount of hits (pedestrians or vehicles). It is a wall created with plasma laser beams, which is to be placed on congested streets.
Based on stoplight colors and both vehicle and pedestrian territories, the timing will turn this virtual wall on. As people pass on the crosswalk, the wall’s early presence will prompt drivers to stop early enough, no vehicle could break the laser beams, thereby decreasing casualties (hopefully).
A great concept by Hanyoung Lee which we may run across (or walk) in the near future.
Via: YankoDesign
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Related Tags: future sidewalk, lighting design, tech sidewalk, virtual plasma, virtual plasma sidewalk, virtual sidewalk
April 21st, 2008 at 9:47 pm
I know some cities which are in desperate need for this….
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 am
“As people pass on the crosswalk, no vehicle could break the laser beams, thereby decreasing casualties.”
Why can no vehicle break the laser beams?
Is this “hard light” laser technology, or is the system linked to some on-board sensors within each vehicle?
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:55 am
Hello Geegee and Wayne, thank you for your comments.
@Geegee: I hear you. I know many places that are in immediate need of such a crosswalk as well.
@Wayne: This is a concept, and the vision is to prevent casualties. The beam may not be strong enough to stop vehicles, but will help prompt them to stop early enough (Updated in the post).
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:01 pm
“The beam may not be strong enough to stop vehicles”
MAY not be strong enough?
LOL @ you, its LIGHT. are you special?
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Concepts like this really annoy me because this is impossible and shows a misunderstanding of how light works.
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
זה משהוׅ
cool concept.
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Notice the stopper near the bottom of the lasers thats how they dont get through
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Light needs to reflect off something into the viewer’s eyes in order to be visible. What will the that be in this case? The designer has been watching too many Star Wars movies.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Are any of you physicists?
I’m sure you think that walking on the moon is impossible too.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:58 pm
very good scientific knowledge with just 1 slight problem “how do you c a laser pen beam from the side???” thats not reaflecting off anything is it? well yes it is; the tiny dust particals in the air so if you can see a laser pen why not those things. however you wouldnt be able to see the people on it as picture just a solid beam. and if im wrong ( possible in a strange diluded dimension) meh i will probly never come back here ever again so say whatever you want about me.
WARNING _-_
April 24th, 2008 at 12:26 am
Well, its actually possible, with a few little details. 1 The light DOES need something to reflect off, so if the little gray box under the laser beams shoot dust particules, a little bit of steam of some simple smoke, we could see it. It would be shaky and not as clear as in picture, but wed be able to see it. As to stop a vehicule…well, thats just star wars fantasty, light can’t stop shit all.
April 24th, 2008 at 10:52 am
“Concepts like this really annoy me because this is impossible and shows a misunderstanding of how light works.”
People used to “know” the earth was flat…, Pluto used to be considered a planet… You know how many once “impossible” things are now possible you twit?
April 24th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
It seems that a lot of people have a “misunderstanding” of how to read AND comprehend.
The beams are made of plasma, which is a highly ionized gas, which means that it produces it’s own light.
A common application is fluorescent light bulbs, but I guess it’s all the dust particles in the tube that allow us to see the light.
April 24th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I’m afraid the ‘Star Wars’ people are right on the money. Lasers must be propagated through a diffuse scattering medium in order to be visible. Having the screen pump out huge, opaque clouds of steam to make this happen would make the problem worse than it already is.
Ionized gas (which isn’t the same as plasma, BTW) would need to be confined in tubes. And thank heavens for both, since if you used actual plasma at several thousand Kelvin your poor pedestrians would be showered with glass and nicely broiled shortly after the car rammed into them.
The screens would suck enormous amounts of power, cost enormous amounts of money to maintain, require enormous amounts of money to repair. For the money they would cost to implement, I suspect that you could install hundreds of green-light count-down timers, which are an effective way of reducing car-on-car and car-on-pedestrian collisions.
And, alas, if force fields were magically to become a real technology, cars ploughing into them would likely cause just as many fatalities.
Other than its complete infeasibility and the fact that it would kill people, it’s a pretty neat idea, though.
April 24th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
How about a large automated machine-gun turret that opens fire upon you if you cross the border between the pedestrian’s territory and car’s territory?
April 24th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Hi,
And will it have Google Adsense commercials ?
Kind regards,
José
April 25th, 2008 at 12:11 am
OR HEARS AN IDEA it might just work if we work together wana know wot it is?….. do u ? of coarse u do. here it is
gt school tomorow
y dont we all….. just drive carefully and stick to the highway code??? huh isnt that a briliant idea?? and then we could use all that saved money to stop death in other places like animal testing labs etc
and yes.. i did bokmark this page so i cld c wot u ppl wrote xD anyway time to go to bed now
April 25th, 2008 at 12:32 am
‘magic’ or anything else that doesnt make sense are just things science doesnt have an explanation for YET
this in no way means they still arent possible ever seen a hallogram like on a base ball card possibly a similar effect or maybe scientists have found a way to bend light w/o much external aid
you guys are close-minded idiots that say impossible it was also impossible to fly 200 years ago and impossible to open a human chest and preform any kind of operation 500 years ago current laws of science are only infallible until someone creates a working proto-type to disprove them
April 25th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Does no one understand that this is simply an idea being put forth by people?
Since when do we scrutinize the perfection of something that is proposed for the future build with technology that doesn’t exist yet?
Why bring up so many moot points when the idea itself is a good one and it comes from a place where innovation is needed. Almost no one stops to look for pedestrians anymore, especially in crowded cities and even if they do they normally don’t even care if they hit someone.
I say, cheers to you sir and anyone who thinks like you do. Ideas spawn the technology of the future and the only way we can bring new tech into existence is for someone to think of a need that no one else has thought of yet.
Continue your thinking and think along with all the others who want to better this place in which we live!
April 25th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
“”Concepts like this really annoy me because this is impossible and shows a misunderstanding of how light works.†– People used to “know†the earth was flat…, Pluto used to be considered a planet… You know how many once “impossible†things are now possible you twit?”
Well, despite the bad examples you’ve given (people didn’t think the world was flat, and the pluto/planet thing was a semantic debate, not a scientific one) I guess your point is that you shouldn’t criticise innovative ideas, ever? Even if it is, say, physically impossible with current technology, not a great solution to the problem, inefficient and expensive, and only really being suggested for its coolness-factor?
April 25th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)
Here, edumacate yourselves on what plasma really is and then start shooting your comments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 26th, 2008 at 12:27 am
“Since when do we scrutinize the perfection of something that is proposed for the future build with technology that doesn’t exist yet?”
Since forever. It’s how the ‘bad’ ideas get weeded out from the ‘good’ ones. FYI: The ratio is about 400,000:1.
Perhaps I was being harsh. But I have this recurring nightmare where a city planner visits this page and says ‘Oh boy! Plasma lasers!’. The next day, I read that the city has commissioned a $200K feasibility study on the use of lasers in crosswalks.
April 26th, 2008 at 4:24 am
Wow,
This seems like a great way to increase the blind population.
April 26th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Oh! Wonderful job!
Very good and useful post.
Thx, your blog in my RSS reader now
April 27th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I would like to point out the following site to those that say it’s impossible to do this.
http://www.physorg.com/news11251.html
And that’s doing 3D images in mid-air, not 2D giant crosswalk symbols.
I don’t know a ton about this technology, but I’m pretty sure that there are a good few safety risks…after all, we’re talking about Igniting the Plasma…with Lasers. Each one of these has its own potential hazards.
April 28th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Damn thats going to get your attention, it’s right in your face.
April 28th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Increase safety – reduce motorists’ visibility today!
April 28th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Wow perfect technology but sure that will make world look more like sci-fi movies
April 30th, 2008 at 2:31 am
arnt all these sci-fi movies wot we are working towards though?? flying cars, teleporters, giant lasers to stop the flying cars decapitating ppl
very good link
im off to sleep AGAIN
sleep is so boring…
*hugs* enough for everyone
May 1st, 2008 at 10:04 pm
This is not possible with current technology. Yes, you can argue that images can be projected into thin air using state of the art tech, but how feasible is it really to install extrememly expensive and unreliable equipment (that could possibly harm people if it malfunctions) at every intersection with high pedestrian traffic. Besides, we already have that, it’s called a car.
Why not just build a small pedestrain overpass or tunnel for a fraction of the cost and ALLEVIATE traffic in the process by not forcing cars or pedestrians to stop for each other?
Or how about taking a minute to think INTELLIGENTLY about something before commenting about it.
May 5th, 2008 at 9:29 am
if it is made out of actual plasma beams… well to me that’s just asking for trouble with pedestrians.
plasma is dangerous, extremely high energy stuff.
one playful shove… and your walking partner may be missing a finger or an arm…
May 5th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Why not do it anyway? who cares about a few dead motorists it will look freaking awesome!
May 8th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Ya lets use lasers… that’s much more practical than just having some of those arms they use at train crossings or something.
June 10th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Morons, all of you… stomping on innovation is retarded. Ever hear of String Theory? or M theory? 50 years ago, the simple idea of more than 4 dimensions would have people saying you’re a moron. Yet today, we are getting ever closer to actually proving string theory with huge ass atom smashers, Satellites that are sensitive enough to detect gravity that comes from an unknown location (simplified version of how they work, and the unknown location, if going yb string theory, is parallel worlds)
June 12th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Great!
Will look pretty too 
I love this idea, but it will probably not be cheap. Like I know London, they’ll probably be vandalised in one way or another… it will also have to be kinda more stable — if they are run over by cars, the whole light will break (inside) and it will not be in use. Where if we run over a traffic light here, we just laugh at the massive dent. The light still works.
Can’t WAIT to see it in the streets of our cities
June 13th, 2008 at 12:48 am
I suppose a fog machine will be hooked up to this device so the laser light will have something to reflect off of and thus be seen?
June 30th, 2008 at 5:49 am
what if the car suddenly stop at the center of the virtual laser wall what would be the penalty will imposed.
July 19th, 2008 at 11:37 am
jay the penalty will be…… BOOOOOOOOM
:3
September 13th, 2008 at 7:25 am
WOW!! that is soo amazing!
October 14th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Good idea, I’d support it.
London would benift from it.
December 31st, 2008 at 10:10 pm
[...] Virtual Plasma Crosswalks Will Protect Pedestrians – A Virtual Plasma concept in hopes of reducing pedestrian [...]
January 9th, 2009 at 3:13 am
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January 9th, 2009 at 3:22 am
The initial idea of placing a crosswalk in a place were vehicles are turning is the most brutal thing in the world. A place where vehicles are turning is the most dangerous. A crosswalk should be placed in the middle of the street, equipped with a bump on the floor 15 ft. before. Every day many people get hit in crosswalks. Forget about the time it will consume, think of the life it will preserve.
January 22nd, 2009 at 3:44 pm
[...] friendly vehicles, some have taken up the baton of revolutionizing traffic management methods. The Virtual Plasma Crosswalk exemplifies a notable creation focusing on pedestrian safety. However, the LightLane Concept lets [...]
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:50 pm
[...] friendly vehicles, some have taken up the baton of revolutionizing traffic management methods. The Virtual Plasma Crosswalk exemplifies a notable creation focusing on pedestrian safety. However, the LightLane Concept lets [...]
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Can someone please explain the very scientific looking diagram midway through the article to me?
From what I can gather:
‘car’s territory’ divided by ‘paying attention squared’ = traffic safety over ‘pedestrians territory’ to the power of ‘traffic light awareness’
Anyway, Why don’t they just set up a teleportation portal on either side of the road or create cars that can pass through the human body?
because
‘this in no way means they still arent possible ever seen a hallogram like on a base ball card possibly’
- exactly idiots, I couldn’t have put it better myself.
‘Morons, all of you… stomping on innovation is retarded. Ever hear of String Theory? or M theory?’ -Satellites that are sensitive enough to detect gravity that comes from an unknown location (simplified version of how they work, and the unknown location, if going yb string theory, is parallel worlds)
OOOOH someone’s been watching HBO – now let’s have the non simplified version and an explanation as to how the f@ck that is relevent to this article.