Thursday, April 4, 2013
April 3rd, 2013 at 11:22 am
Top 5 innovations that show libraries don’t have to disappear
in: Analysis,People Making a Difference,Science & Technology News
Despite the meaning of the name, library (derived from liber, which is literally a Latin word for “tree bark”), libraries insist that they are actually a hotbed of innovation. And surprisingly they are, to some extent, it’s true.
Yes, the “browsing” that libraries are constructed around is completely antithetical to how information is browsed on the Internet. But the existential threat posed by the web has driven libraries public and private to rethink how they can provide people with access not simply to dead trees, but to “information.” Here are five of the most interesting examples:
1. The Bookless Library
A judge in Bexar County, Texas made waves when he announced his intention to build a library without any books at all. That’s somewhat of an overstatement; there will be no paperbacks and no hardbacks, but BiblioTech will have a surplus of e-readers, making the text itself accessible to anyone with a library card.
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Sunday, June 24, 2012
June 4th, 2012 at 3:20 pm
32 technological innovations that will change your tomorrow
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6. The Congestion Killer
Traffic jams can form out of the simplest things. One driver gets too close to another and has to brake, as does the driver behind, as does the driver behind him — pretty soon, the first driver has sent a stop-and-go shock wave down the highway. One driving-simulator study found that nearly half the time one vehicle passed another, the lead vehicle had a faster average speed. All this leads to highway turbulence, which is why many traffic modelers see adaptive cruise control (A.C.C.) — which automatically maintains a set distance behind a car and the vehicle in front of it — as the key to congestion relief. Simulations have found that if some 20 percent of vehicles on a highway were equipped with advanced A.C.C., certain jams could be avoided simply through harmonizing speeds and smoothing driver reactions. One study shows that even a highway that is running at peak capacity has only 4.5 percent of its surface area occupied. More sophisticated adaptive cruse control systems could presumably fit more cars on the road.
When a quarter of the vehicles on a simulated highway had A.C.C., cumulative travel time dropped by 37.5 percent.
In another simulation, giving at least a quarter of the cars A.C.C. cut traffic delays by up to 20 percent.
By 2017, an estimated 6.9 million cars each year will come with A.C.C.
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