4 ms·
Does this "landscraper" have the horizontal equivalent of an elevator (i.e. something where you push a button and it moves you anywhere horizontally in ~20 seco
by ukulele 9y ago
Does this "landscraper" have the horizontal equivalent of an elevator (i.e. something where you push a button and it moves you anywhere horizontally in ~20 seconds)?
It seems like that might knock you over, but maybe there's a fun workaround (or just seats I guess).
- MikeTheGreat 9y agoFrom the article: "Future employees might move around landscrapers on elevators that zoom back and forth laterally, not only up and down, she notes. That technology already exists in Germany, where ThyssenKrupp has recently sold the first elevator that can move up, down, sideways and diagonally—controlled by magnetic levitation—to a residential building in Berlin."
- dsr_ 9y agoWhy would you do something so bizarre when we have perfectly good conveyor belts, as used in most major airports?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- flukus 9y agoConveyor belts are slow. They realized long ago that you can't accelerate a standing human too fast and that stepping on to a conveyor belt takes you to max speed nearly instantly. Any faster and people need a running start to jump on.
- yorwba 9y agoYou could have multiple conveyor belts in parallel, running at different speeds, so that the difference between them is not too much.
- sls 9y agoThis is an old science-fiction idea, Robert Heinlein's _The Roads Must Roll_ was published in 1940. When I looked this up to get a date for the citation, I found that H. G. Wells used the idea in 1910 as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_walkway#Slidewalk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_walkway#Slidewalk
- lostapathy 9y agoSolved problem. There are actually moving sidewalks that accelerate you as they go, see https://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/accel-moving-sidewalk-thyssenkrupp-dream-come-true.html https://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/accel-moving-sidewal... Somewhere I saw a prototype of a multi-belt system as well. You get on a shorter one at normal speed, and you can either transition to one moving twice as fast as the first, or you can step off completely. The speed difference from stationary to slow is the same as from slow to fast - you just accelerate by shifting belts.
- flukus 9y agoThe link shows the "fast" speed as being 2m/s, which is still just a brisk walk. You'd be better off with bicycles or segways.
- dsr_ 9y agoElevators have better latency, but conveyor belts have much better bandwidth.
- apocalyptic0n3 9y agoCould always use something like Multi. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdTsbFS4xmI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdTsbFS4xmI
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]