Elevators are dull, dull dullity dull.
To alleviate tedium, MaxCo. Elevation Inc. is proud to announce the Elevertiginator System.
The heavy-duty glass floor of the elevator protects a full-floor, high-resolution flatscreen display.
When on the ground floor, the screen displays, beneath your feet, a close-up image of a rocky canyon floor, or any other chosen scene. As you ascend, so the image of the ground beneath your feet recedes and falls away with alarming rapidity. As you approach the upper floors of the building, you find yourself staring down past your feet at distant floor of the Grand Canyon, or perhaps a receding Saturn V launch tower.
The apparent ascent can be scaled so that, for example, a 10-floor ascent looks, on the screen below you, like a thousand-foot climb, appropriately scaled for speed.
For a less economical price, the walls, doors and roof of the elevator cab can likewise carry flat screens, giving you the full-surround vertiginous experience.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 30 2009 Powers of Ten http://www.youtube....watch?v=1Z53wTtGGA0an essential classic [Laughs Last, Jul 30 2009] Mystery_20Train prior horizontal version [xenzag, Jul 30 2009] Marco Brambilla: Civilization http://motionograph...billa-civilization/An animated collage that riders ride past (on the side, not the floor), from hell through civilization to heaven. [jutta, Jul 30 2009] I think a Buchanan family trip to the CN Tower is called for... http://www.thestar.com/videozone/412938No virtuality here! [DrCurry, Jul 31 2009] Max's idea illustrated. https://www.dropbox...n3&st=52rwv4o1&dl=0 [doctorremulac3, Nov 14 2024] [+]-- 8th of 7, Jul 30 2009 |[+]| |_ _| |_ _| |_ _| |_ _| |_ _| |_ _| |_ _| |_ _| -- gnomethang, Jul 30 2009 Personally, I'm a big fan of unexciting elevator journeys. + though, nevertheless.-- DrBob, Jul 30 2009 At Rockefeller Center the elevator has a glass roof overhead and some interesting lighting effects through the shaft. Sortof interesting.-- RayfordSteele, Jul 30 2009 Everytime the elevator switches directions, it should change scenery +-- swimr, Jul 30 2009 Perhaps the _lift_ could be fitted with hydraulic jacks like one of those fairground "simulator" rides, and the screens could show a nauseating twisting turning dive past sharks and dinosaurs, dodging comets and machine gun fire (with quadrophonic sound effects) before screeching to a halt at the entrance to the Human Resources Dept.
edit: //Elevators are dull, dull dullity dull// have you considered using the stairs?-- pocmloc, Jul 30 2009 Good heavens jutta, I've watched that link 3 times now. So very neat. Thanks!-- blissmiss, Jul 30 2009 When I went there, the CN Tower in Toronto had glass doors on its elevators, so you could watch the city falling away beneath you as you rose. Now, apparently, they have glass floors, too. See link.-- DrCurry, Jul 31 2009 I could definitely see this in a museum or an theme park somewhere.-- Auxunauxia, Jan 22 2011 Maybe some sounds to go with it, at various heights?-- Ling, Jan 22 2011 Floors 1 to 10: Nervous giglling Floors 11 to 20: Tense silence Floors 21 to 30: Deep, controlled breathing Floors 31 to 40: Faint whimpering Floors 41 to 50: Retching Floors 51 to 60: Humming, while rocking backwards amd forwards with arms around body, eyes tightly closed Floors 61 to 70: Cheyne-Stokes breathing Floors 70 to 73: Silence Floor 74: Ominous heavy thud Floors 75 to 80: Silence-- 8th of 7, Jan 22 2011 Especially if the building is only 73 stories high.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 22 2011 Serves you right for visiting Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, then ...-- 8th of 7, Jan 22 2011 Nice, but I think you are going to have trouble keeping the floor from scuffing.
I would love to see an overhead screen, which would be easy to do and easier to see. (I used to ride in an elevator that was missing a cover over a vent. If I stood in just the right place and looked up, I could see the skylight at the top of the shaft. I loved that.)
I recall riding in a glass outside elevator as a small child. El Cortez Hotel in San Diego, I think it was.-- baconbrain, Jan 22 2011 A supprise unmarked basement floor or 2 could add to the fun. Perhaps with images of crashing through rock, some shaking and then the lights being cut.-- saedi, Jan 23 2011 Can I have a Star wars Death Star vent version?-- Voice, Jun 13 2015 //Nice, but I think you are going to have trouble keeping the floor from scuffing. //
Not really. The aim is to give the impression of being in a glass-floored list, so an scuffing or dirt on the glass floor above the screens wouldn't spoil the illusion.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 14 2015 /Except that when the lift goes up, the imagery shows it going down./
That is a fine idea for a ride! Myself I like a little screen with text news for my elevator ride. But the perception of motion is based on 2 things: what the ear tells you and what the eye tells you. Would it be possible to simulate going super fast on a ride by going pretty fast but then showing things flying by super fast and blowing wind in the face?
I am not sure what would happen if ear and eye gave contractidtory info. Dizziness is one example of that. I wonder what the elevator experiment would produce?-- bungston, Jun 14 2015 //when the lift goes up, the imagery shows it going down//
That would be interesting.
At work (OK, OK, at my former workplace) the lifts have glass walls and a mirror-finish ceiling. If you look up at the ceiling at the reflection of the side- view, you can convince yourself that you're going up when you're actually going down, and vice versa. If you do that, you get a weird feeling when the lift starts or stops.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 14 2015 This is brilliant! Miss ya Max.
See idea illustration. (link)-- doctorremulac3, Nov 14 2024 random, halfbakery