Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
SkyCeiling Big Indoor Sky
The SkyCeiling is a luminous virtual window that can transform interior spaces. SkyCeilings are particularly appreciated by patients in high tech healthcare settings, like radiology suites; patient stress is significantly reduced.
(SkyCeiling from the Sky Factory)
The SkyCeiling is the creation of businessman and artist Bill Witherspoon. While meeting with an orthodontist to talk about treatment for his children and how to pay for it, he thought of painting a sky on the dentist's ceiling. That was the start of The Sky Factory.
The high-resolution, large format photography of skies that The Sky Factory makes are the foundation of a SkyCeiling. The secret of SkyCeiling's realism lies in the 6500K daylight-balanced lighting, and the use of an ‘elevator’, their patent-pending aluminum frame that holds the translucent image tile above the ceiling grid. The overall effect is one of clarity and depth. SkyCeilings are so realistic that they produce a genuine relaxation response, just as if one were lying in a field beneath an open sky.
Science fiction readers are long familiar with this idea. Most readers have read about the magical ceiling in the dining hall at Hogwarts. However, long before Hogwarts there were the multilevel future cities in science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem's 1961 novel Return from the Stars. How can you brighten up these vast interior spaces?
"How do they work it so that the sky is visible at every level of the city?"She perked up.
"Very simple. Television - that is what they called it, long ago. On the ceilings are screens. They transmit what is above the Earth - the sky, the clouds..."
(Read more about Stanislaw Lem's sky ceilings)
See another cool SkyCeiling designed for a Star Wars fan; find out more about the SkyCeiling at The Sky Factory.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 10/11/2006)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 4 )
Related News Stories - (" Medical ")
3D Printed Organs From Space
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
Health Kiosk Has No Human Doctor
'The electronic body analyzer had been developed...' - Michael Crichton, 1969.
NEO Brain Computer Interface (BCI)
'The remains of the lace took on the rough shape of a brain...' - Iain Banks, 2010.
MIT Computerized Bionic Leg Is Part Of The User
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain, through the mediation of the electronic brain in the leg.' - Charles Recour, 1949.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
'If Anyone Is Watching Earth...'
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
Epirus High-Power Microwave Defeats Drones
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
Cloud Of Space Rubbish From China's Long March Rocket
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
Biomimetic Tendons From Rochu Robotics
'... the curious parallelism to animal motions.'
Living Human Neuron Biological Compute Rack
'And the lifter was being piloted by a large pizza with extra cheese...'
Martha Stewart Approves Ojai 'Living Room On Wheels'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
ESA's Draco To Study Heat Of Reentry
'...a synthetic which air-friction would erode.'
Buy A Galaxy? Maybe Start Smaller
'The sky is the limit' just got higher.
The United States Space Academy Is Official
'Is our orbit to Space Academy clear?'
Is There A Global Problem With Who Is Having Children?
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
You Will Eat The Cookies Made From Plastic...
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
It's A Giant Robot! You Reporters Have Been Warned!
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
Birds Learn To Sing Pictures ala Frank Herbert's Distrans
'We will fight in the time of fighting.'
ElectionSim: China's 'Ender's Game' Battle Sim, Or Lem's 'Kingdom In A Box'?
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
Flock Stymied By 'Adversarial Fashion'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
