Robert Bruninga via EV wrote:
here is a brilliant idea in Norway. Have the lights dim to 20% when no cars or people are driving by. Neat! Saves 80% of light power while still providing full illumination when someone needs it.
It *is* a good idea. Street lights are a good first application, because they are expensive enough to afford the extra hardware, and the "bean counters" that buy them are fanatically interested in minimizing operating cost.
I had an opportunity to work with the legendary Hans Camenzind (designer of the 555 timer, among other things). He felt we were going in the wrong direction with integrated circuits. We were making them ever more complicated, to do BIG things. What they *should* be doing is making them simpler, to do SMALL things very well. For example, a pocket calculator, which has exactly one chip. Thus they are produced by the billions, easy to use, run on solar power, sell for $1, and work for decades.
But today's designers aren't looking for such applications. They spend all their time designing smartphones and computers, massively complex devices that cost a lot, eat lots of power, are hard to learn, full of bugs, and only last a few years.
One of his "missing products" was the smart bulb. It basically detects people, and is on when they are near, and dims progressively as they move away. As you move about your house, the lights are only on where *you* are. Not like cheap motion-detecting lamps, these would smoothly dim and brighten so the illumination where you are says about the same.
Another was the smart doorknob. Grab it, and it recognizes you and lets you in (or locks if you're the wrong person).
Designers occasionally work on such devices, but wind up with massively complex expensive solutions. The key KISS -- Keep It Simple, Stupid. You don't want a light bulb that has an IP address, requires a network connection, needs a linux computer somewhere to run it, and an IT person to program it. You have to be able to just screw it in, and you're done.
Designing complex things is easy. Designing simple things is HARD! -- Whether we or our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do. -- Wendell Berry -- Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
