Sanyo Solar Ark and Giant LED Display

shokk writes "Those of us who have played with CrystalFontz and Matrix Orbital serial LCD displays for geeky messaging will get a kick out of the 77k+ LED Solar Ark by Sanyo (only 21k of which are using as red/green/blue combinations for the presentation display). Not only does this behemoth show off its fantastically huge array of solar panels generating 530,000kWh/year and its high efficiency white LED technology, but it also sports a non-chemical water purification system in a very Feng Shui way. Lighting to restrooms underneath is provided by fiber optic paths from the white LEDs in the giant display above." It's a small plant as power plants go (600 kilowatts, when many plants are hundreds or thousands of megawatts) but it was cheap to produce, aesthetically pleasing, and of course, non-polluting, so that Godzilla won't visit.

Comments

Japanese may be down but they will be back

[asmithmd1]

Their enconomy has been in the doldrums for 10 years but long term thinking and a relentless focus on the customer will bring them around. Check out this quote from the web page:

All of the Solar Batteries used in the Solar Ark where collected from customers who had solar cell modules that did not meet standard output requirements discovered last year. The "Solar Ark" represents SANYO employee's commitment to not forget the lesson learned from the power deficient module incident that occurred last year. Furthermore the system will serve as a useful device to actively test the basic performance of the modules in order to regain customers confidence in using SANYO Solar Batteries.

Compare that attitude with Firestone's policy of deny and cover-up when people's lives were at stake

Speaking of Feng Shui...

[Reality Master 101]

Something I've been thinking about lately...

When I was growing up (born in '64), superstition was still pretty widespread in mainstream society, such as rabbit's feet, black cat's crossing your path, "bread and butter", salt over the shoulder, knock on wood, etc. There were people who really took these things seriously: in fact, you might remember a twilight zone episode where some guy speaking about superstition matter-of-factly noted that many people believed in rabbit's feet (and then some guy piped up with "darn right" or something like that).

It occurred to me that these sort of things are almost totally dead, most likely caused by the homogenization of society caused by television and mass media.

Even astrology seems to have taken some big hits. I'm sure there are still some nutcases that follow it, but nothing like it once was.

One superstition, however, seems to be actually gaining prominence: Feng Shui. There are people who actually take it seriously. My wife has a friend (who's Asian) whose mother actually made her not buy a particular condo she was looking at because some Feng Shui witch doctor didn't like it. I've even heard some stories about dot-com idiots in the Silicon Valley who felt the need to blow big $$$ on Feng Shui analyses of their office spaces.

Not sure what the point of all this is, but I found it interesting.

[of course, I'm leaving out religion from this discussion of superstition, but that's another subject entirely. :)]

Re:Speaking of Feng Shui...

[vyin]

One superstition, however, seems to be actually gaining prominence: Feng Shui. There are people who actually take it seriously.

Well, the difference between feng shui and some of the other superstitions you mentioned is that some feng shui is actually real, meaning that it works. The real problem is that some people have taken what used to be a highly local practice and over generalized it.

For some very simple examples:

- You don't situate a house on a "dragon's tail" because the dragon will become angry or stir in his sleep. A dragon's tail in this context means a certain shape of hill; this obviously comes from earthquake country.

- In Hong Kong, face your windows to the south east. This is probably because if you face east, you avoid the afternoon sun so your home will be cooler when you get back home after work. If you face south, you can catch the breeze off the ocean, again cooling you down. You don't want to face north because the winter wind will make your (unheated) home too cold in the winter. This probably dates from times when whites lived on Hong Kong Island and chinese lived in Kowloon.

- There is some rule about not living in a certain kind of valley; unfortunately I've forgotten exactly what it said. The point of it was to avoid swamps that lay in the bottom of valleys because they were mosquito breeding grounds.

Just because a bunch of con men have taken over the name, doesn't mean that all of feng shui is bogus...

So, what is it?

[baudbarf]

As usual, the corporate website reveals little about its function, purpose, or use. It shows lots of pictures and a pretty little flash movie with writing all in japanese.

From the writing in the Slashdot article, I've gathered the following:

It has solar panels.
It has an LED display.
It has bathrooms "under" it.

So based on this information, the "ark" is a solar-powered advertising sign with bathrooms under it which are lit by LEDs. Are the bathrooms underground? Are they porta-potties? Why were bathrooms part of the design when they seem rather unrelated to the concept of advertising? Is the "ark" a prototype for a whole bunch of "arks" which are to be produced and distributed for home use? Or for commercial use? Or are they too huge/expensive for more than a few organizations in the world to use? OR, is it a one-of-a-kind tourist destination somewhere in Tokyo? Will it fit on your computer desk, or is it the size of a couple football fields? (I got a small incling of scale in the flash animation, because little flowers were growing on the ground below the picture of the ark, but you never know)

Is this another example of the increasingly-common marketing mimimalism that companies like to use to infuse an annoying hybrid emotion (composited from annoyance and curiosity) into their victims in order to spur them to voraciously seek out all information available on the product just to find out what it IS?

Or was there some hidden screen on the website somwhere that said, in plain english, "The Ark is a ______, built for ______, it will probably be used for the purpose of __________ by _______ or _________."?

Re:530,000kWh/year

[Midnight Thunder]

The joke about the solar powered torch was also funny until some bright spark decided that putting a battery between the solar cell and the bulb would make a practical device. So there you have it one battery and you get to charge during the day and use at night.

Incomprehensible

[bperkins]

I spent a good minute reading this story before I had any idea of what they were talking about.

Could he have at least said 77kw+? Solar Ark isn't very discriptive.

The use of the term "Feng Shui" is not necessary, and prettry much improper in this context.

Sheesh. Can't we do better than this?