Traffic Lights of the Future

An interesting concept for safeguarding pedestrians crossing the road, consists of two plasma lasers erected just in front of each other at both sides of the road. When the traffic lights turn red, the laser screen will display the virtual wall that “stays in the way” of drivers. This wall will show moving images of pedestrians crossing the road and will be clearly seen even in daylight. The real pedestrians will be seen too, as the "wall" is transparent.

The virtual wall designed by Hanyoung Lee provides a strong visual barrier, although it also demands discipline of the drivers and that might be a problem as a blogger at the internet expressed the feelings of many a driver: “This makes me want to drive through it… not exactly the effect that a stop light should evoke.”

The lasers in this concept are simple ones, so they will not flat tires or stall the engine if crossed, but apparently, this system can pass information about the car and its owner, which drives through it to the police.
Unfortunately at this stage it is only a concept and no information is available about the costs. The plasma lasers might consume large amounts of energy, but, in our commercialised world there is still the possibility to show advertising on this "walls" to compensate for the costs.

via yanko design