Windowless Jet Will Let You Virtually Ride on Top of Clouds

If you've ever wondered what it's like to fly in Wonder Woman's invisible jet, you may soon get a chance to find out.

Spike Aerospace announced plans to launch a windowless supersonic business jet that will feature video displays that take up most of the interior wall space. Outside of the aircraft, an array of cameras will send a live video feed of the exterior to the interior wall screens, giving passengers the experience of riding right on top of clouds.

And while some passengers might be uncomfortable seeing visuals of high-altitude travel from such an immersive perspective, many others will likely jump at the chance to get a never-before-possible window-seat view of the clouds.

Adding to the surreal nature of the experience will be the fact that the flights will travel at supersonic speeds of Mach 1.6 to 1.8. According to Spike Aerospace, this means the company's aircrafts will be able to travel from Los Angeles to Tokyo in just five hours, and New York City to London in just three.

In the concept illustrations depicting what the aircraft's interior will look like, the company also shows off a PowerPoint-style presentation superimposed on top of the outside scenery. Spike Aerospace hasn't gone into great detail on this point, but the graphic (above) indicates that the displays will be somewhat interactive, possibly allowing activities that range from gaming to working on spreadsheets.

But as amazing as that all sounds, consider the virtual-experience possibilities: Imagine the plane's display panels showing the aircraft gradually ascending into space in concert with the aircraft's real-life movements.

Sure, you wouldn't get to experience the weightlessness that a company such as Zero-G offers (and soon, Virgin Galactic, too) with its space-tourism service, but aside from that detail, such a scenario could become a popular way to mix virtual tourism with real-world travel.

According to Wired, the Spike S-512 supersonic jet will cost about $80 million to be ready for its public debut in December 2018.

IMAGE: SPIKE AEROSPACE

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Renault Concept Car Packs a Flying Drone in Its Roof

Renault's new concept car, the Kwid, is chock-full of futuristic ideas, including a flying quadrocopter drone that would launch from the car's roof.

The "flying companion," as Renault calls it, could be controlled manually (from a tablet on the car's dashboard) or fly autonomously in order to warn about traffic jams and other problems on the road ahead. It could also relay live video back to the car.

Kwid, first shown at the 2014 New Dehli Auto Expo, is a small SUV vehicle with a very modern design, which Renault thinks would fit in great into India's roads.

Its little flying buddy is not the only fun thing about the Kwid, though. The car's interior is unapologetically modern, with a centrally positioned wheel and a tablet on the left. Renault envisions a front-wheel drive and a 1.2-liter turbocharged engine for Kwid, but there's no word on when such a vehicle could actually hit the market.

Check out an additional video showing Kwid's flying drone in more detail, below.

Image: Renualt

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Samsung Smart Display Concept Reveals a World Dominated By Screens

Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch and its rumored Galaxy Glass device indicate that the company plans to rely heavily on experimentation as it innovates its way into the future. The true passion and excitement behind Samsung’s vision of the future is on full display in a concept video quietly released during the company’s most recent Analyst Day in Seoul, Korea. 

“Display Centric World” (see video above) offers a glimpse at a world full of interactive displays in which nearly every surface, window and tabletop has the ability to show the user video content and context-specific data.

One of the first concept devices to make an appearance is an interactive coffee cup embedded with a fingerprint scanner that enables the cup to display the drinker’s health information directly on the cup's surface via an imagined program called "My House Doctor." The wrap-around cup display includes a diagram of the human anatomy as well as a real-time heart monitor.

Next we’re shown display that takes up an entire wall designed to look as though it’s part of the user's real world environment. Shortly after, we see an ultra-thin translucent alarm clock about the height and width of an iPad that folds in half when the user turns off the alarm.

Of course, the use case for such a device might seem like something out of science fiction, that is, until you remember that Samsung has devoted a great deal of its resources toward delivering curved and foldable displays.

Perhaps one of the most immediately realizable concept devices shown in the video is a display-enabled kitchen cutting board that delivers information about the food the user is preparing right under her fingertips. While in use, the display can also be turned into a recipe display panel that lists the nutritional and caloric properties of all the ingredients currently being prepared.

In the area of mobile display concept solutions, the video then puts us inside a car in which the passenger has the ability to control various functions through the car’s interactive display. The window not only shows the current time and temperature, but it also allows direct manipulation of the vehicle’s heating and cooling system controls.

Later, the video puts us in the middle of the classroom of the future, where a teacher uses a transparent interactive blackboard display and children have the ability to play with each other from classrooms in two different remote locations.

Finally, back in the personal use arena, the concept video shows us what at first looks like a purse, but then the object folds out into a fully interactive display unit. That same user then uses her smart bracelet (which looks a lot like a Nike FuelBand) to interact with a nearby smart window display that does everything from show retail items for sale to allowing the wearer of the bracelet to call a family member.

These visions of a display-centric future might have been seen as overly ambitious just a few years ago, but as many of the evolution of display technology from Samsung and many others continues apace, videos like this one are increasingly looking more like a forecast rather than an optimistic prediction.

Image: SAMSUNG DISPLAY

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