As Good As the Sun

Posted on July 24, 2007 by C Johnson
Culture, Design, Tech

It’s fun living in the future, eh? The age-old adage of ‘what they can’t do these days’ has never been more appropriate—a quick perusal of places like digg and boing-boing attest to the fact that the boundaries of design and technology are indeed truly limitless.

The Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design recently dissected UHP technology and came up with some experimental projects utilizing UHP technical properties and elements. UHP are ultra high performance lamps that are commonly used in digital projection, television and the like. The concepts that came out of this three-week study are, well, you’ve just got to see it to believe it. And the best thing is, unlike some high-concept studies, these applications are completely practical (and what’s more, useful) for daily activities!

For anyone that has ever worried about the dinner getting cold, one single UHP bulb can, not just light the table, but keep the food warm in the process. Office-dwellers should love the idea of a proposed UHP ‘sun window’ which would allow you to brighten up a dreary afternoon just as you would brighten your computer monitor. And then there’s my personal favorite: the on-demand crosswalk. Simply implementing a system of UHP-lit crosswalks would allow them to appear during the times of day when they are most needed, helping to reduce unnecessary slowing. (OK, maybe it’s not something that would thrive in an anti-pedestrian city like LA, but other metropolises around the world would surely love it!)

To see a video on UHP magic click here.

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