Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Hyperloop to Feature 'Augmented' and 'Interactive' Windows (inverse.com)

Posted by msmash on from the there-is-no-spoon dept.

An anonymous reader writes about the much-anticipated Hyperloop transportation system: Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, took to the stage at SXSW to announce that the Hyperloop will have "interactive panels" as windows. Through these "augmented windows," users will be able to "look out" at "motion capture technology." He added, "Based on your position, we're actually manipulating the image. [...] It's psychologically really important and great to have the possibility to look out the window."

42 comments

  1. At SXSW by tripleevenfall · · Score: 1

    At SXSW, motion captures you!

  2. Windows? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    The last thing we need is brakes.sys has caused a system error please hold down start to reboot the system.

    1. Re:Windows? by CanEHdian · · Score: 2

      I call bullsh1t! In Windows 10 build 293837 you will not get very detailed error messages like that, instead you will see a screen with a "frownie" and the words "oh-oh rebootie time!" beneath it.

      --
      When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
    2. Re:Windows? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The precise wording used in Windows 10 is "Something Happened" with the frownie. If you're extremely lucky, something might be logged for later viewing. ByeBye.

  3. First things first . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    How about an actual working prototype before you start working on the window treatments?

    1. Re:First things first . . . by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 2

      It's psychologically really important and great to have the possibility to look out the window."

      If by 'windows', they mean 'display', and if by 'motion capture' they mean 'show video', then I'd say the psychological need might not be met. But hey, I travel all night in a plane with the windows closed, the psychologically important thing to me is arriving on time. Show me a movie.

    2. Re:First things first . . . by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      But.... if they can create a window display that really looks like a true window scene and moves as your perspective does, then it might be more useful in places like cubes/office with no windows.

    3. Re:First things first . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Although it'll only move correctly from the perspective of the person it's paired to. That means your window will look fine but when you look around the cabin every other window will be showing a different angle. That could lead to an entirely new kind of motion sickness. :)

    4. Re:First things first . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I actually have something like this in my home office. I do have windows (not the OS), but they just face out towards other houses. On one of the walls I have an old 42" HDTV mounted that plays back various looping video clips of nature scenes (and some not so nature scenes like alien landscapes). I also use it as a digital picture frame, but usually it's displaying a tropical beach or rainy forest video.

    5. Re:First things first . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not if they use multi-view autostereoscopic displays.

  4. Uhmmmm by PinkyGigglebrain · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How about we get a Hyperloop system WORKING before we start talking about how passengers will be able to play with the windows.

    1. Re:Uhmmmm by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      You build the windows first, then build a house around them. At least that's what the marketing department wants me to do.

    2. Re:Uhmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lucky you, here in software we have to put up wallpaper first, then paint the walls, pick a nice door, build the second floor, install plumbing, put up siding, pour a foundation, then put on the shingles. All without a single nail because at any time someone could come along and decide they want different plumbing.

    3. Re:Uhmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well the windows are in fact just large television screens. They just let the people believe that they are in a hyperloop, but in reality they are just loaded on a truck and pulled to their destination while watching funny cat movies on the 'interactive windows'

    4. Re:Uhmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      See: Dilbert: "Gruntmaster 6000"

    5. Re:Uhmmmm by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      Sounds like the last development shop I was in except that would have been the last iteration.

      The project would have been to build a house so the first iteration would have built a grass hut. The client says "No, we need some bedrooms because it's for a family of four." Tear down the hut and build a bungalow cabin consisting of a main room and a three bedrooms in back. "Oh, I was thinking something with two stories." So, tear down the bungalow and ....

    6. Re:Uhmmmm by guruevi · · Score: 1

      It's kind of important to know whether or not windows are possible at all in these things before you build them. Some issues I might see is the weight of the windows or the issues when the windows fail (either by inherent forces of the system or internal/external damage (bird strike, crazy person)). Also it might be important to know what the physiological reactions of your passengers will be if they zoom by the countryside at Mach 1 (or eventually higher) speeds, I think motion sickness may be a big issue if you can look out the window but your eyes can't lock onto an object, so why bother with windows if half of your passengers puke with them, and how many people can or like sitting in a tin can for hours without any either real or simulated windows? How heavy will those displays be and their power requirements and what do we need to show so people still have a sense of location and time.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    7. Re:Uhmmmm by Teancum · · Score: 1

      Other than the fact that the test track is currently under construction and test vehicles are also being built by a dozen different teams including a couple of commercial enterprises that plan on installing them in the not too distant future. It isn't as if there is a lack of effort in trying to figure out how to build the capsules themselves.

  5. So all other issues are already solved? by ffkom · · Score: 2

    They haven't built a single track or vehicle yet but discuss how cool the window-displays might look. Maybe one or the other potential investor would rather like to know how they could make building Hyperloop tracks at all affordable in comparison to conventional high-speed railways, and other mundane stuff...

    1. Re:So all other issues are already solved? by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      If you don't have a track, vehicle, or approval to build a route, WTF else are you going to be able to work on right now?!

      The first ones would be only for the rich, and you can't have real windows for technical reasons relating to the nature of the whole idea. So you have to overcome that if you want any early adopters. Getting the right features into the public mindset might be the only useful thing for many of them to be doing right now, and until other more physical steps get completed.

    2. Re:So all other issues are already solved? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice to know what colors they're going to paint the cars- I think red makes them look faster.
      The point, and you make it so nicely, is that there is a TON of hard world problems that need to be solved, and here he is talking about creature comforts.
      Personally, I want to know who's going to pay for the infrastructure (hint: every American who pays taxes) and up keep.

    3. Re:So all other issues are already solved? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you don't have a track, vehicle, or approval to build a route, WTF else are you going to be able to work on right now?!

      Your day job?

    4. Re:So all other issues are already solved? by DrXym · · Score: 1

      A wild guess but I expect the people designing the interiors and passenger experience are not the same people who are designing the actual tubes, control systems or pods. There is no reason that these activities can't happen concurrently like they do for aircraft, trains etc.

  6. Generated Content by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 1

    Hopefully they'll make the visuals as cool and disturbing as the tunnel boat ride in the original Willy Wonka film.

    1. Re:Generated Content by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      Or the trip through the monolith in 2001.

      Or keep it simple - just abstract shapes and lines moving smoothly past. Then, every few minutes, just to screw with everyone, make it all twist through 180 degrees.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    2. Re:Generated Content by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about the starfield screensaver, sideways? :D

  7. Let's build the thing first by barc0001 · · Score: 1

    Before we worry about the creature comforts. Personally I wouldn't care if there weren't any, it's supposed to be a car in a vacuum tube that goes supersonic speeds. I'll trade off not looking out a window for a faster trip, personally.

  8. They're creating a new market by mykepredko · · Score: 1

    Imagine that instead of watching California go by, you could see... Barsoom or a land of dinosaurs or an alien landscape?

    Would certainly provide some interesting entertainment to the hyperloop experience.

    --
    Mimetics Inc. Twitter
  9. why not on airplanes by tomhath · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe you could look out the window and see a gremlin messing with the engines, or something like that. Anyone get the reference?

  10. Don't fall for Musk's bullshit! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hyperloop is Musk psyops, intended to boost publicity and public image. Literally nothing about it makes sense unless you treat it as such, when suddenly it makes perfect sense.
    Like they the hell does it use a steel tube?? That would crush under its own weight unless they added some sort of isogrid reinforcement (expensive, especially compared to the oil pipeline Musk suggests, which is a simple helixal resistance welded COTS product).
    Meanwhile suitable concrete sewer pipe rated to 2bar compressive strength is available off the shelf at less that $1k per meter... seriously Musk what the hell were you thinking?
    Also the much trumpeted air system uses water->steam for cooling... anyone see the issue here? Like where the hell do you store >100 cubic meters of steam on a space constrained mobile system.
    Then we get to the use of batteries. The batteries will be toast after around 1000 journeys or 500 round trips. How long will that take? About 5 months! Uh oh we have a financial viability and environmental impact problem!
    Also the fan is said to be essential for the oh-so-amazing air/hovercraft part... anyone who knows anything about jet engines would be able to tell you that the fan system is going to be anything but cheap (its basically jet engine territory in terms of size and pressure ratio, although admittedly with approaching 2 orders of magnitude less power input). Meanwhile a cursory glance at existing rail infrastructure would quickly demonstrate that something is amiss. We regularly run high speed trains in tight tunnels without all hell breaking out.
    Why is this? Well mainly due to the use of interconnects on longer tunnels. This allows air built up in front of the train to spill off without causing massive drag.
    At a ~10mBar or lower tunnel pressure some basic modelling suggests the total air drag losses at a slightly reduced 550km/h speed are lower than the power input to Musks fan.
    Finally we get to the obsession with "hover" be in air levitation or maglev (both active and passive). Is this really needed? China high speed rail has found pantograph issues limit conventional electric rail to 300km/h. A second issue that is much discussed in the context of very high speed rail is wheel and axel stability, but if we are going to try hair brained schemes, then active or semi bogie suspension seems like a good starting point (and this has been demonstrated in published studies to massively increase the steel wheel on steel rail speed limit). Also observe that until very recently TGV held the absolute train speed record, not maglev! In a reduced pressure tube the environment is tightly controlled, so it would be possible to run DC down the rails (maybe +-20kV in the 1.5m diameter tube, as higher would produce arcing in the low pressure environment). With a 1kA current that 40MW total power, easily enough to run several vehicles between HV interconnects to external cabling.
    So if we ignore Musk's insanity and start from scratch, what do we end up with? A conventional (but scaled down a lot in terms of vehicle size and mass) very high speed rail type system running at around 600km/h in a reduced pressure tube, and using active or semi active suspension and DC rails at around 20kV.
    The two tubes are interconnected every 50 to 100m allowing exchange of air, and the tubes themselves are formed from only slightly modified sewer pipe (sealed on the inside with a polymer coating).
    Is this not massively cheaper and simpler than the idea Musk proposes? Yet at the same time achieves lower environmental impact and equivalent user experience?

  11. Twilight Zone isn't obscure. THIS is obscure. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The trip will take precisely 53 minutes.

  12. Focus. by westlake · · Score: 2

    I like to see a little more attention paid to problems like evacuation from the tunnel. The HyperLoop is, after all, essentially a more or less airless pipe mounted high on pylons.

    1. Re:Focus. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I like to see a little more attention paid to problems like evacuation from the tunnel. The HyperLoop is, after all, essentially a more or less airless pipe mounted high on pylons.

      As opposed to the air-tight tin cans attached to engines that fly at 40,000 feet over your head.

    2. Re:Focus. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about something that looks like escape hatches?

  13. Disapointment from the hype machine. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When I first heard the word Hyperloop, I had hoped it had something to do with Rotating space teathers and momentum exchange.

    Its quite clear now its a Martian train system. Quite disapointing really. Why anyone would want to get from LA to San Fran in 40 minutes by land transport only is beyond me. Its not even a long drive with a conventional car. Obviously on Mars planes aren't really going to work. So it would be good for Mars. Too bad no one currently lives there. Or has ever been there.

  14. Windows on Hyperloop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know it's going to crash if it has Windows on it. Won't catch me dead on that thing. Upgrade to a UNIX based system, and I'll consider it. :)

  15. So basically like a theme park ride by DrXym · · Score: 1

    Anyone who has been on the Hogwart's Express in Universal Studios will know what I mean - it has train compartments with "windows" but the windows are just screens playing a movie in sequence with the journey. So you get to see countryside, flying cars etc instead of the far less impressive sight of the park's backlot.

  16. Blane? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does this remind anyone else of Blane the Mono from "The Dark Tower" series?

  17. Who cares? by wezelboy · · Score: 1

    This is the kind of douchebag bullshit I expect from SXSW.

    Who cares about interactive screens? I have one that fits in the palm of my hand. Get the other shit done.

  18. Monorail! by jonhorvath · · Score: 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  19. Maybe a furry ape-guy in a suit? by gerald.edward.butler · · Score: 1

    Get that reference?

  20. Airbus by JohnStock · · Score: 1

    Airbus proposed this a couple of years ago for planes and I'm sure it even featured on /.