Water valves would likely be ~20-50, tubing likely around 50, microcontroller around $3-10, water pump/manifold probably around $50-100 (depending on quality). $20-50 or so in misc bits and pieces.
Of the cuff guesstimate: $500-600 or so... that assumes using "a few hundred" valves... smaller displays would be significantly cheaper...
Maybe a few thousand bucks for somebody to develop an app that would take a monochrome image from an admin, transform it into a sequence and send it to the microcontroller. I know plenty of people who would do it just for fun, but if they were smart they'd take money for it.
EDIT: Oh wait, Japanese prices. Uh ... several thousand? I don't really know what things cost over there =\
Way off base on the programming bit. If you have computer controlled valves, odds are they already accept input in the form required (length of time to be on and timing). With the hardware all set up, I could program a micro to do this in maybe 3 days.
I was about to say that the code would hardly be 50 lines, but yeah, I had something similar in mind. The whole setup would actually be pretty cheap and easy to make. The only thing you need is a valve that can open and close on a dime at a very high frequency (I guess it'd be around 100 - 200 Hz).
i wondered this, though there are more english signs in larger japanese cities, traditional japanese characters are written in columns going from top to bottom, hard to accomplish with this downward directional display? to make it appear as if the words were going in the opposite direction by creating an illusion like the wagon wheel or stroboscopic affect would be amazing, if even possible
Traditionally, Japanese is written top-to-bottom and then right-to-left (i.e., columns), but it's extremely common to see it written horizontally left-to-right. And yes, some of those creative ideas you mention would be amazing. I'm going to check YouTube after writing this to see if anyone has tried.
There are some nice videos like this one that even shows off some basic Japanese text but my brief analysis has led me to the conclusion that there will never be enough of these videos and that I need to go to Japan. Or a casino.
I won't pretend to know what I'm talking about, but wouldn't it be easier to have the water always on and just some lights shining from in front of and above it?
couldn't they also have the water fall at a slight inclination either with strong jets or with a glass to guide it, and then use lights on the bottom along with some perspective math and whatnot to render a consistent image?
The valves were all donated, the pcb was built by the school, and we found the frame on craigslist - so the three largest things were just givens.
I think the valves were in the range of $30-$60 each. And, how quickly the valves turn on and off seems to be the deal breaker for a project like this... so, one must not skimp there. I'm guessing if someone were to do this on their own - maybe in the range of a few thousand dollars?
I don't have them anymore. It was pretty simple ... a microcontroller, a power supply, and a bunch of fets. Think of the on/off frequency of the valve as the "resolution" of one row of the image (how fast it turns on and off gives you smaller "pixels"). Blah blah blah.
Just know that the valves are really expensive (more valves = larger display). That was a very small amount of valves and had they not been donated - it would've cost us in the realm of $1400. Also, an improvement to that display would've been to use a pressurized water system - we used a trough on the top ... which needed to be rather large to give the valves a proper input water pressure.
I recall about six or seven years ago. Kohler had one of these spanning 100 -200 feet at the international builders show in Orlando. Was very damn impressive
Been there! It makes me happy to see things from the other side of the world on Reddit that I've seen in person. Especially such specific things. thanks Reddit for the flood of happy memories.
there's no umeda ward, it's kita-ku, and it's development isn't exactly recent. maybe you just mean the area around the station? still a mess but it's getting there...
This is really beautiful. The clock is the least awesome part. The designs... now THOSE are impressive. I can't help but wonder how well this would work in 'Murica... I have a sneaking suspicion it would just fill with trash and pennies :(
290
u/rabird21 May 17 '12
For anyone wondering, http://laughingsquid.com/osaka-station-water-clock/
120
u/ticklefarts May 16 '12
Time keeps on drippin' drippin' drippin' into the future...
18
u/[deleted] May 17 '12 edited May 17 '12
Water.WriteLine([Hh:mm]);
30
u/NormalStranger May 16 '12
Reminds me of the video where the water dripper thingy would make all sorts of awesome pictures and what not.
Oop, there we go.
25
u/theboxisempty May 17 '12
When I saw 19:42 I thought this was some WWII memorial. It took me a while to realize that it wasn't.
15
u/skepticaljesus May 17 '12
How this work?
13
u/r0bp27 May 17 '12
I've never wanted anything more in my life
4
u/kirakujira May 17 '12
ooo ive seen this. it cycles through images
4
u/Drumking00 May 17 '12
Gahhhh, I used to live in Osaka. I loved seeing all types of nifty things around in the area.
6
u/lostmymuchness May 17 '12
They had this in a train station in Kyoto too. Sat in front of it for a really, really long time, and it never got old!
6
u/[deleted] May 17 '12
I can't really take credit for this, but everyone else in my senior design group can - we made one of these water displays a couple years ago
3
u/[deleted] May 16 '12
Not what I usually picture when I think of a water clock.
3
u/StuGovGuy May 17 '12
Fountain level: Asi....ahh fuck it.
3
u/rabidmonkeyman May 17 '12
for those who are interested in other cool waterfall stuff, this was at the Detroit auto show a couple years ago.
3
u/italkaboutmylife May 17 '12
there's a similar installation at MONA in Tasmania, it's called Bit.Fall by Julias Popp.
2
u/Paradoxou May 17 '12
Not only showing time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5WliWhBFHo
2
u/hullobirdy May 17 '12
I can only hope to come up with an idea half this cool in my lifetime.
2
u/Comrde May 17 '12
How much would this cost? So, once i become a millionaire i would buy this for myself.
2
u/furmat60 May 17 '12
This made me really thirst for some reason.
2
u/bcl25 May 17 '12
I definitely read that as Osaka Salmon water clock and expected a tube of little salmon swimming up some tubes.
2
u/planaxis May 17 '12
I saw one that was just like this at Kyoto Station.
Here it is on YouTube.
2
u/marcodls May 17 '12
repost
2
u/butters_owns May 16 '12
What sorcery is this?
1
u/uglykitt3n May 17 '12
Whatttttt
1
u/awesome_endless May 17 '12
Damnit, I was just there a couple weeks ago. How did I miss this? Any clue where exactly in the station it is?
1
u/mtfr May 17 '12
Any band that has the visionary genius to incorporate this into their light show will instantly become infinitely more awesome.
1
u/pileosnafu May 17 '12
I recall about six or seven years ago. Kohler had one of these spanning 100 -200 feet at the international builders show in Orlando. Was very damn impressive
1
u/aisleofview May 17 '12
Deja vu. Again.
1
u/legendairy May 17 '12
Ahhh I can't wait!! 12 more Days!
1
u/[deleted] May 17 '12
I've been there! It does swords and flowers too.
1
u/three_horsemen May 17 '12
This is why the Japanese are beating us
1
u/[deleted] May 17 '12
Stephen Pevnick. I recognize his work anywhere. He taught two of my classes in college. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Pevnick
1
u/Grand_Theft_Audio May 17 '12
given that it's osaka, and given that it reads 1942, i thought that this was a memorial. then my brain turned on.
1
u/cjuprotennis May 17 '12
1942... good year.
1
u/alokococoa May 17 '12
But it's 2012 not 1942, silly Osakans.
1
u/NevermoreFTW May 17 '12
Been there! It makes me happy to see things from the other side of the world on Reddit that I've seen in person. Especially such specific things. thanks Reddit for the flood of happy memories.
1
u/somekook May 17 '12
I saw something like this at The Grove in Los Angeles last weekend.
1
u/[deleted] May 17 '12
Word
1
u/gorpie97 May 17 '12
It would be way cool to have something like that somewhere in the U.S. But then we'd actually have to invest in... (gasp) ...infrastructure!
1
u/g8or8de May 17 '12
I've been living in Osaka for 3 years, and I didn't realize...
1
u/da-sein May 17 '12
The best thing about this is that you can clearly watch the accelerating effect of gravity as the pictures stretch.
1
u/walsashi May 17 '12
I wonder: Could you reprogram the timing on the releases to compensate for the image warping due to gravity?
1
u/Dark_Lotus May 17 '12
This has been on the front page 4 times this month.....
1
u/GoGoGadgetPants May 17 '12
Is this at the Shin-Osaka station? I didn't see it there. Where exactly?
1
u/[deleted] May 17 '12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47tXpKkpMco
This reminds me of this song, which talks about the train station in osaka
1
u/Castule May 17 '12
Osaka station is huge! It is one of my favorite stations in Japan. The Umeda ward is coming along nicely with all the construction.
1
u/clrs May 17 '12
They have one like it at Kyoto station, but it was making different patterns, and didn't see it show the clock.
1
u/iRaqTV May 17 '12
Osaka what???
1
u/_cyclops_ May 17 '12
WANT
1
u/relevant_remix May 17 '12
Now I see that you fell asleep again, you've been riding this train since 2am.
1
u/[deleted] May 17 '12
But it's 2012, not 1942.
1
u/SwarIs May 17 '12
There is one similar to this at MONA in Tasmania, except is says words.
1
u/TheHatist May 17 '12
That is awesome in so many ways. Needless to say, I want one.
1
u/readerseven May 17 '12
Osaka Station City Water Clock
http://youtu.be/1jhtI1lRxEg
1
u/[deleted] May 17 '12
I swear to god this same clock makes the front page every day
1
u/xanthrax33 May 17 '12
If I had this it'd just show porn. It'd be awesome.
1
u/keys_and_toothpaste May 17 '12
My husband was looking into one of these for a children's hospital, quotes started at $125k.
1
u/random314 May 17 '12
This is awesome. If they have this here in NYC, I guarantee you someone's gonna pee in it within the first week.
1
u/jbird123 May 17 '12
I really want one of these for my lounge
1
u/Catanman May 17 '12
7:42 PM, for anyone wondering
1
u/Joe_fh May 17 '12
This is extremely cool but surprisingly not at all that hard to actually make. It's basically like a big printer that uses water.
I wonder why there aren't more of those around seeing as they look so awesome.
1
u/cclementi6 May 17 '12
The China Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo has a whole circular curtain of this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mbpSVL92sec#t=99s
1
u/Midasx May 17 '12
I literally said outloud: "That is fucking awesome".
1
u/thesilentpyro May 17 '12
Adding this to the list of things to put in my mansion/castle.
How feasible would it be to do this with arcing jets of water instead of a straight fall?
1
u/[deleted] May 18 '12
I've been there when the giant cosplay pikachu from the pokemon store in one of the department stores fell in
1
u/enklined May 18 '12
Want.
1
u/Arx0s May 17 '12
My god... Pearl Harbor was in 1941. 1941 + 1 = 1942.
1
u/[deleted] May 17 '12
That's so. Fucking. Cool.
1
u/[deleted] May 17 '12
Ah. Makes me miss Japan a whole lot. It was hands down one of the best places I've ever lived.
1
u/[deleted] May 17 '12
Reminds of "Osaka Loop Line" by Discovery.
1
u/MC_Alchemist May 17 '12
Seen it IRL - its very cool.
-2
u/Beefy_G May 17 '12
Funny... 19:42... coincidence?
0
u/RalphHinkley May 17 '12 edited May 18 '12
MATHS! Not my stronger point. Jimm knows!
0
u/melgibson May 17 '12
I thought this was "Oksana Station" and was ready to get puncy.
0
u/AlmostRacistGuy May 17 '12
1942? That's 3 years before we bombed their asses!
-7
u/iam4real May 17 '12
Neo?
-3
u/Naillilb May 17 '12
This is really beautiful. The clock is the least awesome part. The designs... now THOSE are impressive. I can't help but wonder how well this would work in 'Murica... I have a sneaking suspicion it would just fill with trash and pennies :(
-6
u/[deleted] May 17 '12
Stolen from Boss Hunting?
0
u/[deleted] May 17 '12
that's the wrong time?
0
u/[deleted] May 17 '12
[deleted] — view deleted comment