Virgin Hyperloop One and BIG have revealed videos demonstrating how hyperloop passengers will have the illusion they are travelling in a transparent tube (video contains flashing images).
The high-speed transportation system's tubes will full-length small circular windows that work in the style of a zoetrope — a device popular in the 19th century, which creates the illusion of motion.
When hyperloop pods move at fast unbearable speeds views through the windows will merge to create the impression of a continuous view.
Video shared on Twitter by Virgin Hyperloop One's senior technology officer Josh Giegel, and on Vimeo by Hugo Sou, diamond lead at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), show how the effect would work.
How slotted ‘zoetrope’ windows could turn both sides of a hyperloop tube transparent, permitting views outside the pod. #BiennaleArchitettura2018 @BjarkeIngels pic.twitter.com/2aGGnMJgqv
— Josh Giegel (@jgiegel) June 4, 2018
"How slotted 'zoetrope' windows could turn both sides of a hyperloop tube transparent, permitting views outside the pod," explained Giegel in the tweet.
The system would see the hyperloop tube dotted with small circular portholes spaced 10 metres apart. When the hyperloop pod inside travels at low speed, it's nonflexible to fathom the view, which only transiently interrupts the darkness. However, as the pod speeds up, the windows tousle together, permitting longer glimpses of the environment outside.
At top speeds whilom 680 miles per hour (1,100 kilometres per hour), the tube walls melt yonder altogether, creating an uninterrupted panorama.
The zoetrope windows provide a possible rebuttal to hyperloop critics who oppose that passengers would not embrace the idea of travelling at upper speeds through visionless and claustrophobic tubes.
Virgin Hyperloop One has not confirmed whether the windows will full-length in its first fully realised system, which is stuff designed by the BIG. The studio's designs are currently on exhibit within the Danish pavilion at the architecture biennale in Venice.
Launching the designs in 2016, Ingels described Hyperloop One as "collective commuting with individual self-rule at near supersonic speed."
Virgin Hyperloop One aims to have three systems in service by 2021, with Estonia, India and the United Arab Emirates among the potential locations.
The concept for a form of high-speed travel within reduced-pressure tubes was first proposed by entrepreneur Elon Musk in 2013 and ripened at his companies Tesla and SpaceX.
Musk made these designs open-source, and they have been picked up and honed by a number of companies since. Hyperloop One — which was renamed Virgin Hyperloop One late in 2017 without a major investment from Richard Branson — is one front runner in the race to bring a version of the concept to fruition.
In 2016, the visitor revealed designs for a Hyperloop system connecting Dubai and Abu Dhabi in 12 minutes, and designs for its motel interiors were revealed older this year.
The visitor has an ongoing partnership with the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority to explore the minutiae of a Hyperloop network there. It has moreover ripened a cargo-focused version of the Hyperloop concept, dubbed DP World Cargospeed, together with architects Foster Partners.
The post Zoetrope windows turn hyperloop tubes "transparent" appeared first on Dezeen.
