AMOEBA - water writing

[kurohinge1]

Just when you thought that the most exciting thing you could do in fluid dynamics was shouben-writing your name in the snow:

[SIZE="3"]Japanese scientists produce letters with water[/SIZE]

Researchers at Akishima Laboratories (Mitsui Zosen), working in conjunction with professor Shigeru Naito of Osaka University, have developed a device that uses waves to draw text and pictures on the surface of water.

The device, called AMOEBA (Advanced Multiple Organized Experimental Basin), consists of 50 water wave generators encircling a cylindrical tank 1.6 meters in diameter and 30 cm deep (about the size of a backyard kiddie pool). The wave generators move up and down in controlled motions to simultaneously produce a number of cylindrical waves that act as pixels. The pixels, which measure 10 cm in diameter and 4 cm in height, are combined to form lines and shapes. AMOEBA is capable of spelling out the entire roman alphabet, as well as some simple kanji characters. Each letter or picture remains on the water surface only for a moment, but they can be produced in succession on the surface every 3 seconds . . . more

[SIZE="6"]Why?[/SIZE]

Maybe they can fit them to ocean-going vessels so that as they sink, they can write "SOS" on the surface?

[Charles]

[SIZE="6"]Why?[/SIZE]

Because the math and physics are interesting.

This reminds me of a really good science fiction story I read, where this guy invents a surfboard with a dynamically powered underside. They hook it up to a neural interface, and the surfer just thinks of what waves he wants, and the surfboard vibrates and starts the water motion to generate them. Unfortunately, one day he's surfing in front of the San Onofre nuclear power plant, and the surfboard's neural interface picks it up when he thinks "I hate nuclear power plants" and it generates a wave that propagates up the power plant's cooling runoff pipes, up into the coolant, and BOOM. He surfs away on the edge of a nuclear powered tsunami.

[kurohinge1]

. . . This reminds me of a really good science fiction story I read, where this guy invents a surfboard with a dynamically powered underside. They hook it up to a neural interface, and the surfer just thinks of what waves he wants, and the surfboard vibrates and starts the water motion to generate them. Unfortunately, one day he's surfing in front of the San Onofre nuclear power plant, and the surfboard's neural interface picks it up when he thinks "I hate nuclear power plants" and it generates a wave that propagates up the power plant's cooling runoff pipes . . .

And in Japan, that's where the story would end - as the pipes would be blocked by killer kurage.

[Taro Toporific]

Just when you thought that the most exciting thing you could do in fluid dynamics was shouben-writing your name in the snow....

Google Earth reveals swastika water feature
Belgian town scrambles to dismantle fountain
The Register, Friday 28th July 2006 13:25 GMT
Google Earth aficionados have created a bonfire in the quiet town of Maasmechelen in Belgium, very close to the border with the Netherlands, by revealing that the fountain at the city council office looks like a swastika from the air.
The fountain has spouted happily for over 27 years, but now the mayor says he will replace it, fearing the town will otherwise be doomed...more...

[Socratesabroad]

[SIZE="6"]Why?[/SIZE]

Just off the top of my head, this tech. could have a number of worthwhile applications.

Water-based ads would be a boon.
Etch-a-sketch ads on water medium would eliminate the need for neon, billboards, and pased-over signs.

The ship sending SOS signals was proferred as a joke, but imagine friendly fire designation for surface craft instantly indicated (by scribbling a big USA, say, off the port or starboard) to a satellite without having to resort to an active FFI signal.

And last, even minute wave control would be a help in understanding how to control/counteract natural wave action.

[mr. sparkle]

Just off the top of my head, this tech. could have a number of worthwhile applications.

Water-based ads would be a boon.

No reason for that, I would use a simple displacement filter in After Effects to achieve that effect.

[kurohinge1]

Just off the top of my head, this tech. could have a number of worthwhile applications.

Water-based ads would be a boon.
Etch-a-sketch ads on water medium would eliminate the need for neon, billboards, and pased-over signs.

The ship sending SOS signals was proferred as a joke, but imagine friendly fire designation for surface craft instantly indicated (by scribbling a big USA, say, off the port or starboard) to a satellite without having to resort to an active FFI signal.

And last, even minute wave control would be a help in understanding how to control/counteract natural wave action.

Unfortunately, those suggestions (including mine about the "SOS") are all as unlikely as Charles' magic surfboard story. All this system can do, is combine standing waves (albeit many) in a small, 100% controlled environment, to make very simple shapes. They could increase the size, but you still need 100% control and can still only make basic shapes.

The best it can hope for, is to be an expensive water feature.

Theoretically, I guess, if there were ever enough gauges to measure and input all data from all the contributing sources to our oceans' waves (our planet's water being a closed environment but just a very, very, very big one), including currents, winds, tides, temperature changes, volcanic/seismic activity, etc., they would be able to predict every wave.

But, with that many instant calculations, not to mention the almost impossible number of real-time gauges required, only an omnipresent and omnipotent system could make sense of it, and I'm sure He has better things to do! ]letter-tub[/I] they made does give you some idea of how "rogue waves" can form. It is only in our lifetimes that science has discovered how common they are in oceans . . .

. . . Once thought to be only legendary, they are now known to be a natural ocean phenomenon, not rare, but rarely encountered. Anecdotal evidence from mariners' testimonies and damages inflicted on ships suggested they occurred]

Abstract from an article about it:

February 2000 those onboard a British oceanographic research vessel near Rockall, west of Scotland experienced the largest waves ever recorded by scientific instruments in the open ocean. Under severe gale force conditions with wind speeds averaging 21 ms−1 a shipborne wave recorder measured individual waves up to 29.1 m from crest to trough, and a maximum significant wave height of 18.5 m. The fully formed sea developed in unusual conditions as westerly winds blew across the North Atlantic for two days, during which time a frontal system propagated at a speed close to the group velocity of the peak waves. The measurements are compared to a wave hindcast (AES40, Swail and Cox, 2000) which successfully simulated the arrival of the wave group but underestimated the most extreme waves.

[Charles]

[quote="kurohinge1"]Theoretically, I guess, if there were ever enough gauges to measure and input all data from all the contributing sources to our oceans' waves (our planet's water being a closed environment but just a very, very, very big one), including currents, winds, tides, temperature changes, volcanic/seismic activity, etc., they would be able to predict every wave.

But, with that many instant calculations, not to mention the almost impossible number of real-time gauges required, only an omnipresent and omnipotent system could make sense of it, and I'm sure He has better things to do! ]
Well, that's what they used to say about computer simulations of fluid dynamics, it was beyond the theoretical limits of computing. But there have been mathematical breakthroughs that have made it much easier. This little wave toy is just a way of testing the math, to see if the real world behaves as predicted. You never know what will come of it. The "magic surfboard" is just a wild extrapolation of current math and computational theories, the SF story author is a mathematician and the theory doesn't sound THAT far fetched. At one time, moon rockets were merely the dreams of SF authors like Jules Verne.

[72hw]

I agree the math and physics are quite interesting regardless of real world application, though I am sure there will be at least one commercial opportunity born of the experiment.

For me the whole point of things like this comes back to the reason people climb Mt. Everest - simply because it's there.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but other times we can figure out ways to make the cigar more interesting and that alone makes it worth more to me.

EDIT: The rogue wave prediction model thought is compelling, there may be some benefit to the futre production of hydro-based power production too - but I lack the expertise to ponder how.