Posted on April 22nd, 2010 by Marcela.
Categories: not 24 hours, Blogroll.
The Level Rise City is designed with the goal to face the future environmental crisis of sea level rise for the Roosevelt Island in New York City.
This design suggests the area to be considered as a laboratory for the flooding future and has established a conditional prototype to activate the relation between the Queens Borough Bridge and its surroundings.
The deck of the bridge above 40 meters high from the ground along with the Skyline skyscraper has been envisioned as an alternative future development ground for the island.
This tower building features both the horizontal and vertical importance which turns the building less a tower than a suspended HUB with the square elevation that has been made possible through two logics of distribution, one is the building and another is the island itself.
This new city is equipped with offices and housings, innovative tram stations, outdoor sport fields, a couple of avenues of 40 and 46 meters high and other living essentials for the inhabitants.
Designer : Raphael Boursier Architect
Posted on December 2nd, 2009 by Marcela.
Categories: new, Products, Technology, useful technology, more, not 24 hours, corporative.
Solar forest charging station for electric vehicles
Designer neville mars has developed an electric vehicle charging station that takes
the form of an evergreen glade of solar trees. the photovoltaic grove serves a dual function,
acting as a go to source for clean renewable energy while providing a shady spot for cars
to park as they charge.
aspects of urban life are caused by cars, for both driver and the city itself. Large sweltering expanses of tarmac in cities contribute heavily to the urban heat island effect, whilst cars also become unbearably hot in summer sitting in these urban deserts.
Optimizing the heliostatic photovoltaic panels ultimately resulted in their leaflike shape. Although never intentionally conceived to mimic the form of a tree, the panels rotate to follow the path of the sun throughout the day – much like sunflowers – absorbing light whilst also providing optimal shading for cars. Although all parked cars can benefit from shading, electric vehicles can directly charge their batteries by plugging into the ‘solar trees.’
Solar Tree is unique among anti-auto pollution designs in that it empathizes with the anthropomorphized automobile, but particularly with the electric car, providing a place for overworked, spent cars to regain their lost torque, to relax beneath the trees, to gain back their juice in an optimal stress-free environment.
Video of the Solar Tree in motion on Youtube: SOLAR FOREST
Or as embedded movie SMALL or MEDIUM
http://burb.tv/view/Solar_forest
www.ecofriend.org/entry/eco-architecture-solar-forest-keeps-your-ev-cool-and-charges-it-as-well/
Posted on December 2nd, 2009 by Marcela.
Categories: new, Technology, useful technology, not 24 hours.
Italian doctor may have found surprisingly simple cure for Multiple Sclerosis
![escle [640x480]](http://visualtechnology.info/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/escle640x480.jpg)
An Italian doctor has been getting dramatic results with a new type of treatment for Multiple Sclerosis, or MS, which affects up to 2.5 million people worldwide. In an initial study, Dr. Paolo Zamboni took 65 patients with relapsing-remitting MS, performed a simple operation to unblock restricted bloodflow out of the brain - and two years after the surgery, 73% of the patients had no symptoms. Dr. Zamboni’s thinking could turn the current understanding of MS on its head, and offer many sufferers a complete cure.
Multiple sclerosis, or MS, has long been regarded as a life sentence of debilitating nerve degeneration. More common in females, the disease affects an estimated 2.5 million people around the world, causing physical and mental disabilities that can gradually destroy a patient’s quality of life.
It’s generally accepted that there’s no cure for MS, only treatments that mitigate the symptoms - but a new way of looking at the disease has opened the door to a simple treatment that is causing radical improvements in a small sample of sufferers.
Italian Dr. Paolo Zamboni has put forward the idea that many types of MS are actually caused by a blockage of the pathways that remove excess iron from the brain - and by simply clearing out a couple of major veins to reopen the blood flow, the root cause of the disease can be eliminated.
Dr. Zamboni’s revelations came as part of a very personal mission - to cure his wife as she began a downward spiral after diagnosis. Reading everything he could on the subject, Dr. Zamboni found a number of century-old sources citing excess iron as a possible cause of MS. It happened to dovetail with some research he had been doing previously on how a buildup of iron can damage blood vessels in the legs - could it be that a buildup of iron was somehow damaging blood vessels in the brain?
He immediately took to the ultrasound machine to see if the idea had any merit - and made a staggering discovery. More than 90% of people with MS have some sort of malformation or blockage in the veins that drain blood from the brain. Including, as it turned out, his wife.
He formed a hypothesis on how this could lead to MS: iron builds up in the brain, blocking and damaging these crucial blood vessels. As the vessels rupture, they allow both the iron itself, and immune cells from the bloodstream, to cross the blood-brain barrier into the cerebro-spinal fluid. Once the immune cells have direct access to the immune system, they begin to attack the myelin sheathing of the cerebral nerves - Multiple Sclerosis develops.
He named the problem Chronic Cerebro-Spinal Venous Insufficiency, or CCSVI.
Zamboni immediately scheduled his wife for a simple operation to unblock the veins - a catheter was threaded up through blood vessels in the groin area, all the way up to the effected area, and then a small balloon was inflated to clear out the blockage. It’s a standard and relatively risk-free operation - and the results were immediate. In the three years since the surgery, Dr. Zamboni’s wife has not had an attack.
Widening out his study, Dr. Zamboni then tried the same operation on a group of 65 MS-sufferers, identifying blood drainage blockages in the brain and unblocking them - and more than 73% of the patients are completely free of the symptoms of MS, two years after the operation.
In some cases, a balloon is not enough to fully open the vein channel, which collapses either as soon as the balloon is removed, or sometime later. In these cases, a metal stent can easily be used, which remains in place holding the vein open permanently.
Dr. Zamboni’s lucky find is yet to be accepted by the medical community, which is traditionally slow to accept revolutionary ideas. Still, most agree that while further study needs to be undertaken before this is looked upon as a cure for MS, the results thus far have been very positive.
Naturally, support groups for MS sufferers are buzzing with the news that a simple operation could free patients from what they have always been told would be a lifelong affliction, and further studies are being undertaken by researchers around the world hoping to confirm the link between CCSVI and MS, and open the door for the treatment to become available for sufferers worldwide.
It’s certainly a very exciting find for MS sufferers, as it represents a possible complete cure, as opposed to an ongoing treatment of symptoms. We wish Dr. Zamboni and the various teams looking further into this issue the best of luck.
Via The Globe and Mail.
Posted on December 2nd, 2009 by Marcela.
Categories: new, Products, Technology, not 24 hours.
One of the most common ways to turn the sun’s energy into electricity is by persuading silicon to give up some of its electrons. But it’s also quite expensive, so any innovation that helps reduce the cost of solar cell production is welcome. Researchers in Israel have come up with a cell that uses only 20% of the silicon in a standard cell yet yields similar amounts of electricity. It does this by diffusing any light that falls on its surface and sends it off to photovoltaic collector strips on each of its sides. And it doesn’t even need bright sunlight to operate.
![green0 [640x480]](http://visualtechnology.info/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/green0640x480.jpg)
In a nutshell, traditional solar collectors are made of thin strips of silicon covered by transparent plates. As the sun hits the plate, electrons are knocked out of the silicon atom producing current. A team of researchers led by internationally-renowned solar guru Prof Renata Reisfeld have taken a glass plate, given it light diffusing properties and attached strips of silicon to its edges.![green2 [640x480]](http://visualtechnology.info/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/green2640x480.jpg)
![green1 [640x480]](http://visualtechnology.info/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/green1640x480.jpg)
According to the researchers, a mixture of different flourescent dyes concentrates visible and UV light (but not heat) onto the surface of the plate. Rather than simply passing through the plate, the light is persuaded to flow to the sides by metal nanoparticles, where thin strips of photovoltaic silicon wait to surrender their electrons. The interaction of the dyes and the nanoparticles helps ensure that just the right amount of energy hits the silicon to knock out the electrons, leading to improved cell efficiency.
This effectively means that as a cell doesn’t need direct sunlight to operate - it can go on producing power long after traditional full silicon cells have stopped, albeit less efficiently under cloud or partial shade conditions. As you can see in this video, no matter where the light source comes from, the colored glass disperses it to the edge where photovoltaic collectors wait to convert it into electricity.
Even if a plate is cracked or chipped, light should still get dispersed to the edges without significant loss of efficiency. It also means that panels need not track the sun as it crosses the sky or be restricted to domestic roof applications - windows and walls could also house solar collecting panels.
![green3 [640x480]](http://visualtechnology.info/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/green3640x480.jpg)
The researchers are currently working on a cell capable of achieving 20% conversion efficiency (traditional silicon cells tend to be about 12-17% efficient, although some have recorded much higher rates). So not only could the new colorful innovation be more efficient than existing technology but, as less silicon is needed, it can be manufactured for about a fifth of the cost.
A 200 watt panel, for instance, can currently be manufactured for USD$189 but the researchers believe that even this is too high and are aiming for the solar nirvana of grid parity.
In 2006 Professor Reisfeld formed GreenSun Energy with her team to help bring the product to the marketplace. The company established a research laboratory in Jerusalem in 2007 and has been working to improve its model ever since. Professor Reisfeld told Gizmag that project funding will determine how long it will be before the technology reaches the marketplace, but is hopeful that it will be ready within the next year or two.
Posted on November 23rd, 2009 by Marcela.
Categories: new, Products, Technology, more, not 24 hours, Screens, rear projection, education, corporative, events, media.
E/T/C are specialists in high power projection both in slide and video format and provide support with image creation and programming.
With the PIGI and Onlyview systems E/T/C have been projecting on site during world class events such as the Asian Games, the Olympics and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee at Buckingham Palace.
ETC has been specialising in producing stunning, large format projections onto buildings, interesting spaces and structures since 1994. These images can be produced using either slide projection, video projection or a mix of the two.
ETC’s work has been seen around the world. We have supplied image projection solutions for a range of different clients from state occasions through theatre, rock and roll and corporate clients. A sample of the events that we have worked on would include the Doha Asian Games, The Edinburgh Military Tattoo, London’s Official New Years Eve events, The Queens Golden Jubilee, Ford, Liverpool Culture Company, Renault, the BBC and the MTV Europe Awards
There is literally no size barrier to the images we can produce. We keep adding projectors until we have achieved the size you require. For the Sultan of Oman, we created an image 400m wide by 200m tall onto a mountain. However we are just as at home creating a one or two projector backdrop to a Rock show, or a three or for projector Son et Lumière onto a stately home.
Video First for London
New Year’s Eve Projections
Video was used for the first time to project giant images onto the 353 ft high Shell Building on the South Bank of the River Thames for the Mayor of London’s 2008-09 New Year’s Eve celebrations.
E/T/C London created a projection concept and suggested that they harness the flexibility and power of video for the first time on this event, on which E/T/C has worked for producers Jack Morton Worldwide for the last 5 years. With LG Electronics coming onboard as a new sponsor, they really wanted to up the production values, making the show something extra special and more spectacular this year.
Says E/T/C’s Ross Ashton, “It was another milestone in giant video projection for E/T/C London, and probably the UK’s largest New Year video installation to date as well as a great opportunity for us to move the company forward.”
E/T/C’s Richard Porter designed the technical installation, which utilised 24 Christie S+20K projectors, all rigged vertically, and run in 12 overlaid pairs. These covered a 12 zone grid – 3 wide and 4 high – measuring 55 metres wide by 110 tall on the river facing fascia of the building.
At 2888 x 5184 pixels, this offered far higher resolution than HD.
The projectors were positioned 150 metres away from the Shell Tower in a 12 metre tall purpose built structure, together with a complex E/T/C OnlyView® control system that was set up in an adjacent cabin, and operated by Richard Porter for the show.
The 30 minute looped show was programmed by Porter, assisted by Karen Monid, onto 18 OnlyView® media servers. Sixteen servers were used for visuals, while two ran a bespoke soundtrack including sponsors messages which were then broadcast to the public via a Delta Sound PA system.
Ross Ashton collaborated closely with Jack Morton’s Kate MacKay on the creation of the artwork.
The image files involved were massive, and the handling of this aspect alone required E/T/C London’s detailed expertise. BBH created the LG branding and a series of celebrity ‘talking heads’ with New Year greetings, featuring the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, Dame Helen Mirren and others.
Another challenge was the installation of a preview monitor system, set up to show the client detailed and accurate show visualizations during the set up and programming period. E/T/C’s Paul Highfield came up with a very cost-effective video wall solution for this, using Dexion racking and bit of ingenuity!
The get-in commenced on the 27th December, with E/T/C engineers Robin Darraux, Patrice Lefevre and Glenn Jenkins. Jack Morton’s project manager was Jim Donald.
Projections kicked off at 8p.m. on New Year’s Eve as up to 400,000 revellers gathered in central London to await the rollover moment into 2009. A cool countdown clock comprising a burning fuse that snaked around the building as the minute-to-midnight moment approached was visualized by Ashton and produced in After Effects by Porter.
