October 11, 2017

4DX technology hits theatres in December

Filed under: Film,Technology by Orangemaster @ 1:13 pm

As of December, cinema theatres Pathé De Munt in Amsterdam and Pathé De Kuip in Rotterdam will open their first ever 4D cinema theatres, which include moving chairs, weather simulations like wind, and odours.

The 4DX technology that will be used adds 20 elements to films. Besides motion, weathers and smells, chairs can also move up and down, backwards and forwards, even left and right to get a feel for flying or diving, not unlike a rollercoaster ride, but more like a heavy duty video game.

Of course, you’ll have to pay extra for the fun, and although it hasn’t been determined yet, French cinemas that already offer the service charge an additional 6 euro, to give you an idea. The 4DX cinemas will only have about 150 seats available, with four seats next to each other, and will also have special seats for people with limited mobility.

(Link: bright.nl, tallfoot, some rights reserved)

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March 18, 2017

Dutchman proposes circular runway systems for airports

Filed under: Aviation by Orangemaster @ 10:07 am
airplane1.JPG

Aviation expert Henk Hesselink of the Netherlands Aerospace Centre believes that one day airports could be using circular runways instead of today’s straight runways. He claims his 3.5 kilometre wide runway systems would be safer, more efficient, and less noisy, with planes experiencing only headwind and no crosswind.

Crosswind is indeed the stuff that fuels scary YouTube videos, where planes experience lots of yaw, which is going side to side, given them that goose landing on water quality. I typed in ‘crosswind’ and picked the first video – have a look.

As planes could be able to fly from any direction, noise pollution could be reduced. As well, up to three planes could take off at the same time, while nowadays they taxi to the runway and then queue up to take off. Finally, part of me would love to roller skate on one of those runways and I’m sure some cyclists would love to join in as well.

(Links: bbc.com, fastcompany.com)

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January 20, 2016

Emmen plans world’s first wooden bike path

Filed under: Bicycles,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 3:46 pm

After solar-powered bike paths, heated bike paths and glow in the dark bike paths, the next trend in bike paths would be wooden ones. The city of Emmen, Drenthe has announced that it is planning to renovate a 200-metre stretch of bike path using a biocomposite material made from woodchips and bioresin for its robustness and resistance to wear. Any new material for something like a bike path needs to be able to also deal with vandalism, the weather and last a long time.

If the test goes well, it could lead to the manufacturing of these sustainable biocomposite plates in a factory that would employ 75 people in Emmen. The entire idea is part of getting more innovation going in the region.

(Link: www.dvhn.nl, Photo of a Schwinn Tailwind Electric Assist bike by Richard Masoner, some rights reserved)

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August 4, 2008

Medicine makers not innovative enough

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 9:06 am

Nefarma (the industry association for innovative medicine) and its members are found not innovative enough. In a study commissioned by Nefarma itself Amsterdam marketing research agency Motivaction further concludes that manufacturers shirk their social responsibility, and are not transparent about their price-making process. Nefarma itself is portrayed as a messenger boy for the industry, with lack of clout, and invisible in the public debate.

Motivaction came to its conclusions after holding fourteen interviews with politicians, civil servants, doctors and pharmacists. “A step-by-step improvement of existing drugs is generally not seen as real innovation, but rather as a clever marketing trick”, the report says.

An interesting aside: proponents of a (stronger) patent system have argued for years that patents—government granted monopolies on inventions—are important because they allow the pharmaceutical industry to come up with life-saving innovations. There goes that argument.

(Link: Trouw (Dutch). Photo by Tom Varco, published under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license)

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February 6, 2008

The Netherlands to become a floating waterworld

Filed under: Architecture,Design by Orangemaster @ 10:35 am
floatinghouse

Besides making the typical mistake of saying that Holland is a country (Holland refers to two provinces, North Holland and South Holland where people do live under sea level), this is what the future might look like.

The inevitable rise in sea level that comes with climate change is going to make it increasingly difficult to control flooding in low-lying Holland. But instead of cursing their fate, architects are designing a new Holland that will float on water, and the Dutch government seems willing to try out the scheme. Holland has made other countries begin to question, too. Who says you have to live on dry land?

Chris Zevenbergen work at the Dura Vermeer firm. “The whole idea is, in our designs, we should always take into account what will happen when there’s an extreme event,” Zevenbergen says. In the past, the Dutch only built homes in places where dikes made flooding unlikely. “The concept that in fact you build in an area where a flood may occur is completely new,” Zevenbergen says.

At his office in The Hague, Koen Olthuis drums his fingers on his desk while he is fielding calls from people all over the world interested in water architecture. Olthuis is bursting with energy. He’s the co-founder of a firm called Waterstudio, a small office with a dozen or so youngish employees.

Olthuis’ projects go beyond the idea of simply keeping the house and its contents dry.

“The next step: we not only make the house floating, but we make the complete garden floating,” Olthuis says.

Why not? Why lose all those pretty Dutch tulips just because it floods? After all, Olthuis says, building floating foundations is a snap. Just fill a concrete box with some kind of plastic foam, flip it over, and you’ve got a stable platform that’s ready to float. And the more of these platforms you join together, the more stable they are. So Olthuis doesn’t plan to stop at single family homes.

“You see a floating foundation, with a garden on top of it, a swimming pool on top of it, and a house on top of it. And you can fix those floating gardens to each other, and make a floating village of it,” he says.

(Link: npr.org)

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September 29, 2007

Colour code your first aid kit

Filed under: Dutch first,General,Science by Orangemaster @ 10:45 am
first aid

How does that Dutch advert go, “but the answer is allllllways simple?” Two entrepreneurs from Roosendaal and Oudenbosch came up with a colour-coded first aid kit. The code list describes what stuff is used for what. Simple. For the photo of the real thing, follow the link.

The inventors Dick van ‘t Hoff and Ronald Cleijsen have asked for a patent on the idea. They have also found a manufacturer ready to go to the market with them. The ESE in Veldhoven (aka buyers) will be buying their first aid kits. I love a good business story.

(Link: Omroep Brabant)

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