impractical. people would be bumping their heads/ shoulders/ elbows all the time. inventing things that require people to not be stupid often goes bad.

Um. How do you lock it?

:>)

Ooh la love. The more I look at this, the more I'm convinced I need it.

Thanks for sharing, blogged about this post at www.thisnext.com/blog/

Gizmodo japan has a story, along with a link to a video (real audio, I haven't tried the link)

So what happens when the power goes out? People just walk into a wall, I guess?

HOLY SEVERAL-YEARS-OLD NEWS, BATMAN.

Here is a video of the door in action:
http://hackedgadgets.com/2006/05/16/automatic-form-fitting-door/

This is actually quite interesting news. I wonder if this might help with the pretty slow opening times of traditional sliding doors (mass and large surface area = lots of wear and stress for the motor). Building the door this way might let us use several small electrical motors instead of just one large one --> faster response times, less wear on single motor, saved energy.

Actually, this system would _require_ much faster function than traditional sliding doors.. Also, the margins (of safety) would require some thinking.

Cir: "... several small electrical motors ..."

With my luck, the one at about hip level would break down as I approached. I would then be faced with the decision: "Climb over in an undignified manner or limbo under in an even more undignified manner?"

It saves energy? Seems to me that this would use more energy than it saves, since it needs to be running the electronics to detect a person and motors to open and shut the bars. It's cool, but I think trying to sell it as energy efficient will require some proof on their part.

The first thing I thought when seeing this is, this is like the 21st century answer to hippie bead doors. You remember those doors from the 70s that were just several verticle strings of beads?

From the video Alan linked, it appears the door's sensors still need some fine-tuning, because I wasn't impressed with the speed or accuracy.

With a door like this, though, you wouldn't need to cut a hole and install a pet door, btw.

I love the idea of only letting small packages in, maybe I could finally get my UPS deliveries. Beyond that I guess it would let out less hot/cold air and make all fathers happy by not letting the kids "air condition" the whole yard.

Unless the door and sensor have super fast reaction times, it's probably too dangerous to be practical for commercial applications.

Picture "Bob" (weighing approximately 75kg) walking toward the door at a brisk pace. Just as he is about to pass completely through the door, someone in the parking lot calls out to him. As Bob begins to look over his shoulder, the soft tissue of his cheek (on his now slightly-out-of-position-head) snags the edge of this silhouette-hugging door while forward momentum keeps his 75kg of mass moving resolutely forward.

The guy who thinks the door would impact with the person walking through it hasn't studied NASA technology. Already they have developed sensors that practically "dance" with the astronauts -- swiftly moving out of the way when anything draws near enough. A door could easily be outfitted with these sensors. I can imagine Cleanroom applications for this invention. Very cool.

Bah!! the door doesn't even open properly.