Japan's Melody Roads Play Music as You Drive

Krishna Dagli writes "The road works by using grooves, which are cut at very specific intervals in the surface. Just as traveling over small speed bumps or road markings can emit a rumbling tone throughout a vehicle, the melody road uses the spaces between to create different notes."

Comments

Disney beat them by years.

[Anonymous Coward]

Disney beat them to it. There was pavement that played zip-a-dee-doo-dah.

http://www.allearsnet.com/aa/aa100807.htm#ques5

Old Japanese Dup?

[Phrogz]

From over 2 years ago on slashdot.jp: http://slashdot.jp/article.pl?sid=05/02/02/0340256 (pseudo-english translation)

Re:Whimsy

[Anonymous Coward]

That platform is in Nagoya. It's called the "Area 21". The glass "pool" on the top collects rain water to nourish the grass areas around the area.

The area beneath is used for a lot of purposes, from concerts to street soccer championships.

Nagoya (and Japan) has a huge number of projects with the sole purpose of making the city life more fun and less stressful. Like the lamp posts playing smooth jazz in the evenings, or the carousel attached to a building close to Area 21.

There are virtually no street vandalism, so they can put a lot of statues and art on the streets, and it stays untouched and unharmed.

Of course it's not heaven on earth, there are problems, but in the lat 2 years it became my most favorite city.

I lived in many places, Midwest, west coast, east coast, europe, singapore, new zealand, but so far, the city life in Japan is the best I have ever experienced.

Youtube link

[1u3hr]

See & hear it in action: Video here

Not RIAA, RIAJ

[enoz]

This may come as a shock, USA is not the World.

Many other countries have their own recording industry associations that are perfectly good at collecting royalties and prosecuting file sharers.

Re:You mean like...

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember when Great Britain ruled the world? Things change buster and the US will be the Canadians' future Mexico; demograpically as well as metaphorically.

Re:Whimsy

[kisielk]

That's "Oasis 21". Man I miss Nagoya..

Re:Potential for abuse?

[Tuoqui]

Unfortunately the Mythbusters busted the brown note otherwise it would be a truly epic prank to pull off if you could do it to say one of the roads leading to the professors parking lots.

Re:Tire wear? And more importantly, road wear?

[Nimey]

I'm told by someone who works in Oklahoma's DOT that the tension between concrete and asphalt roads is this:

Asphalt roads are pushed by human-factors people because they're softer and less fatiguing to drive on. Obviously this is more a factor with highways. Concrete roads are pushed by engineers because they last longer. However, they're a pain to resurface because great chunks must be pulled up ('crete is laid in large rectangles), while with asphalt you can just pull up the bits that need to be redone, say the area around a pothole.