日本的全自动自行车停车场

由. Ken Wong 将文章归档于 神乎科技

　　日本的机械技术早已令人惊叹，但你可别以为它只用来做机械人。事实上，日本的机械技术早就被大量应用于民用设备里，从马桶到停车场。说到停车场，之前 你或许听说过日本已经有全自动化的停车场，你只需要把车停在指定的位置，剩下的工作会由停车场自动操作完成。现在我们来看看日本的另一种全自动化停车场， 这一次不是汽车，而是自行车。

　　在日本要找个合法的自行车停车位可不容易，尤其是在车站里。很多骑自行车到车站的人常常会因为没有地方停车而苦恼。因此日本在东京的Kasai车站推 出了一种全自动化的自行车停车场，可停泊9400部自行车。这种停车场是全机械及自动化的，你所要做的只是将自行车放在指定位置，再按下按钮，停车场会自 动把你的自行车存放至空闲位置；当你取车时，也只需按一下按钮，你的自行车就会自动被传送至你面前：



　　不要以为这种如此先进的停车场收费很贵，事实上每天的停车费只需要1美元左右，包月也只需18美元左右。在全面禁摩的广州，何年何月才会有这种东西出 现？这可能近乎于幻想了，因为广州在禁摩后，连自行车道也没有划分，自行车往往要走机动车道或人行道，更不要说停车场了。囧

100 Gold Brooklyn Green Condos

Written by Preston Koerner | April 9, 2009 | read more: Condo, Residential

Green building is bursting at the seams in New York, and if you don’t believe me, just read Green Buildings NYC. The REDD Group shot us an email of a project they’re working on in Brooklyn (or more specifically, Vinegar Hill and Dumbo) called 100 Gold. They tell us 100 Gold is one of the first green residential developments in the area, which is surprising considering all the activity I read about on gbNYC. The 10-unit, condo building will open a model apartment on Earth Day, April 22, 2009. Here is what to expect from 100 Gold:

• Radiant floor heating
• Energy-efficient mechanical systems
• Operable floor-to-ceiling windows
• Abundant interior natural light
• Energy Star appliances
• Water-efficient dual-flush toilets
• Zero-VOC Ivy Coatings paints
• Recycled finishing materials
• Locally-made hand blown glass light fixtures
• Roof pavers made from 100% recycled tires
• Rooftop gardens with landscaping and deck

The place will have free storage, a 15-year tax abatement, and bicycle storage, etc. In total, 100 Gold comprises six one bedroom units, two duplex studios—one with a private yard, and two duplex apartments with one bedroom, loft, and private terraces. Current prices range from $525k - $935k.

Rendering credits: Redd Group.

Amazing Green Roof Art School in Singapore

January 23, 2008
by Ali Kriscenski

If art school was in our future we might opt to study under, or on top of, the amazing green roof at the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. This 5 story facility sweeps a wooded corner of the campus with an organic, vegetated form that blends landscape and structure, nature and high-tech and symbolizes the creativity it houses.

The glass façade provides a high performance building envelope that reduces solar gain and heat load while allowing the benefits of natural views and daylight into creative spaces. The glass walls provide a visual exchange between indoors and out allowing students and teachers to experience the building, the surrounding landscape and the interior plaza as fluid spaces. Diffused natural daylight is abundant throughout studios and classrooms, filtered through the surrounding foliage.

The curving green roofs distinguish the building from among the other structures on campus but the line between landscape and building is blurred. The roofs serve as informal gathering spaces challenging linear ideas and stirring perception. The roofs create open space, insulate the building, cool the surrounding air and harvest rainwater for landscaping irrigation. Planted grasses mix with native greenery to colonize the building and bond it to the setting.

Finishes are intentionally raw to act as a backdrop for the art, media and design projects. Concrete walls and columns, cement-sand screeded floors, timber railings and a neutral palette define the interior spaces which vary in shape and size. This amazing design seems to offer a new experience at every elevation or perspective fulfilling the intent that a school for art should inspire creativity.

+ CPG Consultants
+ Nanyang Technical University
+ Design Share Honor Award 2007

Via DesignFlute

Singapore’s Stunning Digital Cloud Skyscraper

Singapore’s Stunning Digital Cloud Skyscraper
by sharn

This incredible pixelated skyscraper by Singapore-based Design Act was a finalist in a competition to design a pavilion for the World Expo 2010. Entitled “My Dream, Our Vision”, the project uses permutated cubes to generate a spectacular modular sculpture that perfectly encapsulates the spirit of Singapore as an efficient, dynamic, cosmopolitan, and forward-looking nation.

Simultaneously futuristic and traditional, the Singapore spirit 新 (xin, mandarin word for “new”) serves as a key metaphor for Design Act’s entry, which envisions Singapore as a progressive, re-inventive and innovative place.

The pavilion takes the form of an illuminated digital cloud hovering over an ever-changing “green” pasture. It invites you to enter a dark underground space with audio feeds alluding to the background services which serve the city, and catapults you into the bright and white digital cloud, where you are encouraged to post your dreams. Made of 3866 cubes of modular sizes with varying levels of transparency, the pavilion makes excellent use of natural light and is strategically sloped at the base to give visitors full view of the sights on display.

+ Design Act

+ World Expo 2010

M2E Charges Your Cell Phone With Kinetic Energy!

M2E Charges Your Cell Phone With Kinetic Energy!
by Adrianne Jeffries

Earlier this year we highlighted Idaho startup M2E Power’s push to develop motion-powered electronics for the military. Now M2E is emphasizing the commercial applications for their technology, with a specific goal: revolutionizing cell phone batteries. M2E will announce the development of an external charger later this month that will generate between 300 and 700 percent more energy than current kinetic energy technologies, and may eventually replace cell phone batteries altogether.

M2E’s technology is founded on the Faraday principle, wherein energy is produced from the motion of a magnet passing through a coil. M2E says they have designed a system that will generate between 300 percent and 700 percent more power than kinetic energy technologies currently available.

Their design consists of a tiny coil/magnet generator combined with traditional battery storage that will capture even low frequency kinetic energy, so that most daily human motion will be converted into electricity sufficient to power electronic devices like cell phones, PDAs or MP3 players.

M2E is looking to incorporate their technology into a variety of fields - their web site teases that “The impending impact of MEMS (MicroElectroMechanical Systems) will be both exciting and far ranging” and hints at applications for wind power, automotive power and small generators. M2E also hopes to eventually create motion-powered batteries that rival consumer-sized ones – D, AA and even AAA cells.

The company is planning to get its first motion-powered military product into the field before 2009, but it’ll take two or three years before we can expect our cell phones to charge themselves simply by being transferred from our pockets to our ears.

+ M2E Power

Via Earth2Tech

BLOOD POWER? Piezoelectric Nanowires Could Turn Your Body Into a Battery

BLOOD POWER? Piezoelectric Nanowires Could Turn Your Body Into a Battery
by Mike Chino

We’ve seen piezoelectric systems that harvest energy from roads, subways, and even umbrella— now researchers have announced that they are on the brink of unlocking an energy grid composed of capillaries, arteries, and veins. Heralded by advancements in piezoelectric nanowires, the development may one day harness the flow of blood to power ipods, cellphones and other portable electronics. How’s that for an alternative take on plasma power?

Developed by a research team headed by Zhong Lin Wang, the technique utilizes zinc oxide piezoelectric nanowires that generate an electric current when subjected to mechanical stress. The wires measure 1/5,000th to 1/25th the diameter of a human hair and are capable of harvesting energy from low-frequency vibrations such as the wind or the flow of currents. Although similar kinetic energy generators have been developed in the past, the miniscule size of nanowires may one day lend them to applications in subdermal implants - imagine biosensors and portable electronics that are powered by simple movements such as walking, or the beating of a heart.

Zhong Lin Wang has stated that “This research will have a major impact on defense technology, environmental monitoring, biomedical sciences, and even personal electronics.” Skin crawling yet? Although certainly a novel idea, implementation is still a long way off.

+ Zong L Wang’s Nano Research Group

Via Engadget and Livescience