電光天空、交通訊號燈設計以及其他值得關注的理由

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本文發表於《大眾科學》的前部落格網路,反映了作者的觀點,不一定代表《大眾科學》的觀點。


世界正在試圖提醒你保持警覺,不要認為一切理所當然。不要忽視日常事物:在那裡尋找突破。

考慮一下一家德國電氣工程公司創造的電光天空,它旨在模模擬實藍天下生活中不斷變化的雲景。根據Wired.co.uk 上的一篇文章,這個想法是透過讓他們感覺彷彿身處戶外來改善員工的幸福感。每塊天花板瓷磚都是 50 釐米見方,並使用 288 個 LED 燈在全光譜中產生數百萬種必要的顏色。漫射光柵——還記得舊的裝滿聖誕彩燈的揚聲器箱商店專案嗎?——賦予整個裝置朦朧、多雲的效果。

在 Wired 文章中,Matthias Bues 博士表示,波動的色彩“有助於集中注意力和提高警覺性”。志願者在面板下花費時間,當面板緩慢波動、快速波動或保持不變時,他們更喜歡快速波動,這似乎最像真實的戶外環境。


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當你真的在戶外時,注意一下像交通訊號燈這樣簡單的東西。Weburbanist.com 上的這篇文章調查了一些很棒的新設計,這些設計使訊號燈能夠給你更多資訊——例如,透過沙漏、倒計時、形狀或時鐘表面——透過讓你知道你需要等待多久來防止沮喪並使交通更順暢。異形燈也有助於色盲人士。在你真正關注之前,你不知道你能從你的交通訊號燈獲得多少更多資訊,對吧?

最後,對於一般的注意力培養,請檢視《城市工程觀察者指南》,這是一本介於袖珍便攜的《路邊技術野外指南》和不可替代但笨重的《基礎設施:工業景觀萬物手冊》之間的新書。《觀察者指南》有點像放在袖珍《野外指南》和百科全書式的《基礎設施》之間的廁所讀物。對於口袋來說太大,但又不是非常詳盡,它是一個很棒的入門之地——運河船閘是如何工作的?世界上最複雜的環形交叉路口?一種捲曲而不是升降或旋轉的活動橋樑?這一切都在這裡。

現在,請注意。

Scott Huler was born in 1959 in Cleveland and raised in that city's eastern suburbs. He graduated from Washington University in 1981; he was made a member of Phi Beta Kappa because of the breadth of his studies, and that breadth has been a signature of his writing work. He has written on everything from the death penalty to bikini waxing, from NASCAR racing to the stealth bomber, for such newspapers as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Los Angeles Times and such magazines as ESPN, Backpacker, and Fortune. His award-winning radio work has been heard on "All Things Considered" and "Day to Day" on National Public Radio and on "Marketplace" and "Splendid Table" on American Public Media. He has been a staff writer for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Raleigh News & Observer and a staff reporter and producer for Nashville Public Radio. He was the founding and managing editor of the Nashville City Paper. He has taught at such colleges as Berry College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

His books include Defining the Wind, about the Beaufort Scale of wind force, and No-Man's Lands, about retracing the journey of Odysseus.

His most recent book, On the Grid, was his sixth. His work has been included in such compilations as Appalachian Adventure and in such anthologies as Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont, The Appalachian Trail Reader and Speed: Stories of Survival from Behind the Wheel.

For 2014-2015 Scott is a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, which is funding his work on the Lawson Trek, an effort to retrace the journey of explorer John Lawson through the Carolinas in 1700-1701.

He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, the writer June Spence, and their two sons.

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