|
My web log of NBI2003
Table of Contents:
As an engineer, I was truly fascinated and impressed with the range of technology I saw as part of everyday life in Japan. There were some very low tech toilets (the hole and foot pad style), as well as combined function toilets the like of which I have never seen before. I am disappointed that this range of bathroom hardware is not available in the US in home centers. The vending machines were beautiful pieces of mechanical art, with motorized doors that opened when your drink was ready. Many features on Japanese vending machines would never be implemented on US vending machines because they would be too delicate or readily destroyed. Apparently, vending machines in Japan do not live the hard life they do on US streets.
The conference was held in Building 4, a building that had received an award for good design. It deserved it. The building was beautiful. The first set of pictures are from Building 4, the last two I took in the dorm just before I left.
Please click on the thumbnails to get an expanded image.
This machine was just outside the conference room. It dispensed hot or cold drinks in paper cups. There was a sequence of pictures that lit as the drink pouring progressed inside the machine. When the drink was ready, the motorized door opened and waited for you to remove the drink. I tried almost everything in this machine and thought it was all tasty.
This wall faced the conference room doors. Several stories high, it portrays particle tracks from a bubble chamber photo (highly magnified). Very pleasant to look at and to run my fingers over the texture in the carved pockets in the face.
What caught my attention about this staircase were the thin almost horizontal struts connecting the stairway to the wall. Because they are angled down, they can take part of the weight of the stairs, as well as providing horizontal stabilization of the stairway. It was the angle that caught my eye. The angle is very shallow for a lifting device, so if there is a significant amount of weight being transferred to the strut, the angle is magnifying it so that the tension in the strut is higher than it would be if the strut were more vertical. It would be interesting to know the civil engineer's thoughts on this design, and whether it was installed specifically as earthquake protection. There are no columns in this stair design other than the side plates of the stair that hold the tread plates.
This is one of the "high-tech" toilets in Building 4. It has a very accurate water nozzle for washing one's bottom. I'm not sure, but I think the water temperature is controlled by the buttons on the far right of the console. The seat is heated, and the other set of buttons probably controls the seat heat. Spray strength can be controlled. When we called it the "high-tech" toilet, our hosts pointed out that it was becoming older technology. They now have a completely paper-less toilet that uses a blast of air after the water jet for drying. As I discovered in taking these pictures, the water cannot be turned on unless one is actually sitting on the seat.
I never got a chance to try this vending machine. It made complete microwaved meals. Some of our party thought it was quite acceptable as machine food went.
This is a combined washer and dryer. Gordon tells me that they are common in England, and I guess they can be had in the US, but I had never seen one before. You just throw your clothes in, add soap, and come back in a while after all the washing and drying is done. Their only drawback may be a smaller capacity than single function machines. I definitely needed help with the instructions.
Back to the MiniBooNE Horn Main Menu
Back to the Bartoszek Engineering Home Page
|
