Super Door of the Future

romka1 writes "Japanese scientists came up with a new automatic sliding door that opens to the approximate shape of the person or object passing through, minimizing entry of dust, pollen, and bugs while keeping precious air-conditioning in. Here is a Real Demo Video"

Comments

Uh-huh.

[blair1q]

So while you get maybe 2% more insulating efficiency than a regular door when it's open, you get 500% less insulating efficiency when it's closed.

A doorway with hanging vinyl slats would work far better.

Oh wait. Those have been around for 30 years.

Re:Uh-huh.

[LurkerXXX]

Don't forget you also get 100+ times as many moving parts that can fail and require repair. I'll pass.

Re:Uh-huh.

[deglr6328]

Could be useful for extremely clean (class 1) cleanrooms where particle contamination is always an issue. With vinyl curtains, they are always open a little and have to be touched in order to move them aside to moving through. This contaminates them and they are not very easily cleaned. With a conventional door, even sliding ones, it has to be opened very wide, allowing lots of contamination to enter everytime someone uses it. This would be an elegant solution to both problems. I think it is a mistake however, to make each slat have its own detector. It should instead use a simple, single, (low power) scanning laser a foot or two before the door to quickly characterize the size and shape of the person about to pass through.

Re:Uh-huh.

[ultranova]

Could be useful for extremely clean (class 1) cleanrooms where particle contamination is always an issue. With vinyl curtains, they are always open a little and have to be touched in order to move them aside to moving through. This contaminates them and they are not very easily cleaned. With a conventional door, even sliding ones, it has to be opened very wide, allowing lots of contamination to enter everytime someone uses it. This would be an elegant solution to both problems.

No. The elegant solution to the "always open a little" problem is to have the air exchange system to put a small overpressure into the room, making any leaks blow dust outward, not inward - of course you need to clean replacement air, but you'd need to do that anyway.

The touching problem is not a problem - if someone contaminates the vinyl on their way in, then he will contaminate everything else on the room anyway, and if someone contaminates vinyl on their way out, the contamination of the room already happened.

If you're worried about the particles escaping the room (it's a bioweapon lab, for example), just make the next chamber have an underpressure, and suck the particles into filters.

Real?

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone got a copy of the video in a free format?

nice demonstration

[theskeptic]

but I think it would be too weird for many public places that employ automatic doors. There are two sensors on each panel. When the engineer was demonstrating it, part of his head was still being obstructed by one panel.

Maybe the sensors on the panel should be at a 45 degree angle to leave some margin of safety. I'm guessing the speed of the panels will probably to be improved to bring them in line with automatic doors.

This door sucks.

[Khyber]

With all those independent moving parts, I can imagine maintenance is a pain in the ass. Not to mention the energy required to move all those parts, then the power for the computer, sensors, etc. I also imagine this isnt' very insulating, either. The article mentions it preserves air-conditioning? With that many parts I fail to see any reliable method of sealing the door off, I can imagine there's a lot of gaps for 'necessary movement.' While thinking of minimizing the entry of pollen/mold/allergens is nice as well, you could do just as easy with one of those air barriers we use at the loading bays that keeps someone cool with air, but it's strong enough of a barrier that it keeps flies and bugs out, and actually does keep the AC more than just leaving a door open.

Reliability

[Ed Almos]

The conventional door has one thing in its favor, reliability. The electronics controlling this beast had better be 100% reliable because a malfunction could take one of two possible forms:

1) Door fails to open. Having expected the door to open you then walk around with a nose like Mike Tyson for a few weeks.

2) Door closes early. Nasty, very nasty.

Call me old fashioned, but first thing tomorrow I want to see a real door on my office.

Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary

Re:Reliability

[binaryspiral]

Before discounting this as a joke... think about elevators that people made fun of for centuries because the technology at the time made them deathtraps.

Now we hit a button and rise 40 stories to a cubicle that we WISH had a door on it. :(

Re:Seems to be working real well..? Or not.

[Anonymous Coward]

this is about inovation and ideas.
it doesnt matter that this is a piece of crap, its a building block.
its sad you dont see more of this in america anymore.

Re:What are we supposed to view the video in?

[ScrewMaster]

Yes, but Xtra Problems will arise.

Re:Imagine this in 3-D

[silentbozo]

You end up in a moving bubble. That would be cool.
 
Depends on how airtight the slats are. I wouldn't want to run out of oxygen before I got to where I was going...

Re:Super door of the future?

[Sparr0]

Slashdot is not about the news. It is about discussing the news. And until I find another forum with the level of customized viewing (I read at +3, but my custom filters include -3 Funny and +1 Freak) that Slash offers it will continue to be the best place to find thoughtful discussion of the topics we cover here.

we already have a solution

[Anonymous Coward]

We already have a solution for keeping doors sealed for AC purposes, it's called a revolving door. They've only been around for 100 years or so

may not break-even

[Ancient_Hacker]

One tends to forget that a sliding door needs a lot of open space inside the wall. That space ends up being uninsulated, so it's gonna one cold and warm wall on either side of this door. Plus that section of wall can't have any supporting columns, so some much stronger columns and a stronger crossbeam have to be used. It's not something easily retrofitted into a house not already designd for it. Also the first time somebody gets pinched by the door all their profits are going to go *poof* to handle that lawsuit. And does the door come with a full-time person to keep all the mechanicals clean and lubed? Looks like a very high-maintenance gadget. Otherwise it looks cool.

What happens if shape not constant?

[Bad to the Ben]

What would happen if say, I was talking and expressing myself by moving my hands and arms as I was walking through the door? My shape would not be constant, so would the door have to continuously adjust? If it wasn't fast enough, would I end up bashing it?

Having the sliding parts so close to the body leaves very little room for error.