New Florence. New Renaissance.

Aerial Cities

I recently binge-watched this Smithsonian Channel aerial coverage of 6 cities - Las Vegas, Chicago, Seattle, Miami, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. I have been to each city multiple times and still learned something new about each.

 

Something about the camerawork seemed familiar - it reminded me of coverage during the America's Cup so I researched the Smithsonian magazine

“Everyone can go on Google Earth these days and look down,” says Beach, whose previous work includes documentaries on wildlife and on film actors. The series offers a different perspective: “You’re neither on the ground nor looking from a satellite. You’re in three-dimensional space.”

The “three-dimensional space” Beach mentioned is a result of advances in high-definition videography and helicopter rigging that allow for degrees of depth, clarity, climbing, swooping and zooming that would have been unimaginable a few years ago.

For “Aerial America,” his crew uses a Cineflex system that consists of a 97-pound lens mounted to a gimbal at the helicopter’s nose and a set of controls operated from inside the cabin; the lens can tilt, roll and rotate 360 degrees, but its gyroscopic stabilizer can hold the image still even if the chopper is being buffeted by 30-knot winds. The system can produce close-up imagery of, say, antelope in New Mexico while the helicopter is flying so high the animals don’t know it’s there."

The sound of the helicopter is dubbed out and replaced by the soothing narration of Jim Conrad. Truly enjoyable. 

Here is the episode on Miami

 

High-tech hiking

Oxymoron?

At its heart, hiking is about getting away from technology. Stuffing everything you need to survive for a few days into a bag and disappearing into the woods is as much about breaking free of the daily Twitter grind as it is about pushing yourself physically and connecting with nature. And while there's certainly something to be said for really roughing it, there's no rule that demands you give up all the creature comforts of modern living to enjoy camping.

Engadget which showcases water purifier, headlamp, portable lantern, portable solar panel, rugged phone case, Swiss army knife, GPS and satellite communicator (in video), smartwatch, binocular, coffee mug gadgets

 

 

 

Airport of the Future

Seasoned airport designers caution that, while these technologies rapidly evolve, “the story of the next 20 years is likely to be automation, biometrics, and AI, but no one really knows,” says Andrew Thomas, a partner at Grimshaw Architects in London. Thomas, who led his firm’s team in designing the recently opened 11 million-square-foot terminal at the Istanbul New Airport—said to be the world’s largest—recommends against designing tightly to current tech requirements. Instead, he advocates for “deep floor plates and a loose fit.”

Building in such flexibility undeniably makes sense, especially for a greenfield facility well outside the city center, like the Istanbul airport. But projects at urban airports with little wiggle room are trickier. Some, like the new Terminal B now under way at New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA), require an almost surgical approach. In order to keep the maximum number of gates operational during construction, the facility is being built in phases, “alongside, around, and over” the existing 1964 terminal that it is replacing, says Peter Ruggiero, design principal in the Chicago office of HOK. As part of the consortium chosen to design, build, and operate the terminal through 2050, HOK and WSP have developed a scheme that has a headhouse connected to a pair of gate-concourse buildings via pedestrian bridges. These span over the plane taxi lanes. So far, 16 of the planned 35 gates are open, with completion slated for 2022.

Architectural Record

 

 

Self-healing Maps

Keeping maps updated in over 200 countries is hard—so the team had to pivot from just making maps to something more meta. “We needed to start making the machine that makes the map,” Lookingbill explains.

The way this is happening is through machine learning algorithms that are good enough to take imagery—like the pictures produced by those street view cars, or from satellites—extract the information they need from them, and then update the map. That information is likely data such as the name of a road, a house number, or the shape of a building seen from above. Google has boasted about this topic before: a 2017 blog post describes their efforts creating an algorithm that can read street names in France and mentions that algorithms like that could update addresses on the map.

Popular Science

another version of self-healing from Here HD for autonomous cars

 

 

The Beijing Daxing International Airport

The 7.5 million-square-foot Beijing Daxing International Airport, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) and airport specialist ADP Ingénierie, will include four runways (compared to three at the Capital) and serve 45 million passengers yearly when it opens this fall; by 2025, that capacity is expected to reach an annual 72 million. Built on a greenfield site in a rural area in Hebei province, the starfish-shaped terminal, with its glowing standing-seam aluminum roof and cluster of bulbous skylights, appears as an alien spacecraft—or, for some Chinese, as the auspicious mythological phoenix—when viewed from above.

Architectural Record

 

The latest US National Park

We looked west and saw a series of industrial buildings and piers from Gary, Indiana, and the Port of Indiana. In the distance, about 30 miles northwest, we could see Chicago’s skyline, a floating silhouette on the lake’s horizon. To the east, an excavator worked along the beach near a handful of sunbathers. We had heard its mechanical churning while we hiked, along with the hum of trains and traffic in the distance.

But directly in front of us, the yellow sand beach stretched untouched, a sliver of wild backed by marram grass and spindly oaks on steep dunes. Water from Lake Michigan lapped lazily against the sandy shore, and a refreshing breeze cooled my face.

“Here we are, this ecologically diverse place, where you can literally see Chicago from the beach, this juxtaposition of this great natural place in the midst of this giant city infrastructure is mind-boggling,” Paul Labovitz, the park’s superintendent, said over the phone later as he surveyed the same scene.

Chicago Sun Times

Here is a video on the history to make this a National Park

 

 

 

The digital Emirates Airlines CX

I spent two whole days in the last month on Emirates planes, in their lounges and their airport transfers. While it is a noticeably high-touch airline, I was especially impressed with the digital aspects of the CX   

They offer 4,000 channels of movies, TV shows, music and podcasts at your seat. And you can create your own playlist in their app before you fly.

Personally, I ignored those channels. I stayed connected with my iPad on the SITA OnAir WiFi. Even better, it was complimentary. We briefly lost connectivity over Greenland.

My other entertainment came from displays of its navigation system and streams from 3 cameras - one in the nose, one in the belly, one on the tail.

The Emirates airport lounges at JFK and Dubai have plenty of technology of their own. Espresso machines. Spa equipment. All kinds of scanning technology - you board directly from the lounge in many airports. The negative of such big, wide open lounges is more frequent security checks. There is an opportunity to digitally streamline that. 

The airport transfers themselves had plenty of nav and safety technology including the proximity sensors and display the driver had in the clogged roads of Mumbai. 

The planes have plenty of sleep aids - digital controls for your seat, mood lighting, automated drapes for your window, Bowers & Wilkins noise-canceling headsets.

It starts with the Emirates app which allows you to select your seats. Not just select them - view them in 3D and virtual reality. View your menu in multiple languages depending on your route - here's one in Hindi. Book your airport transfers. Get notified of your driver info from its transfer partners, Blacklane and Addison Lee by text and email (I did have to call once to move forward a scheduled ride).  

The real difference is the blend of human and digital touch. I got a good example of that while Julie from Cork, Ireland poured me a tawny port with a smile in the lounge on the A380. Right behind me was a 55 inch display streaming live sports. I could have spent hours in those sky lounges. But there was so much else to experience right at my seat. 

I hope and pray other airlines start to improve their own CX by offering even a fraction of what Emirates offers its passengers.

Evolving the rubber tire

This summer Michelin and General Motors will begin testing a prototype airless tyre on a fleet of Chevrolet Bolt electric cars. Although it does not need to be inflated, the self-supporting tyre is said to produce the ride and handling of a standard pneumatic tyre. And being airless, it is thus immune from punctures. The French tyremaker and the American car giant call the tyre Uptis (for “unique puncture-proof tyre system). Provided the trials in Michigan go well, the two partners reckon Uptis tyres could be available for cars by 2024.

Economist

 

 

 

The accidental birder

Margaret and I have enjoyed bird feeders (and so have the squirrels) and our periodic birding trips with the local Audubon Society, so I thought I would share this Conde Nast Traveler primer on birding. It is a very relaxing and rewarding activity and make you discover places near and far.

 

"Soon after, I ordered myself a guide to the birds of North America, and quickly found that my photographic outings in Colorado became more and more focused around birds. Bison are nice and all, but have you ever stopped to watch a meadowlark sing or a bald eagle swoop down to catch a fish? The next time a bird flies overhead, take a moment to watch. Whether it’s a humble pigeon at the foot of the Sacré-Cœur in Paris or a brilliant quetzal in the rainforests of Costa Rica, you’ll find that there are living, breathing sights to be excited about—even in the slow moments."

Plenty of birding resources on the web like this from National Geographic

Mobility trends

Highly recommend this issue. The cover itself gives you an idea on how we will move around in the future - the last mile and much farther.