Background
A wall can be many things. When it is opaque, bare, and impenetrable, its a barrier hiding the activities behind it. With the addition of doors and windows, it becomes a portal to the activities inside. With proper decoration the wall becomes a screen capable of portraying the character of what lies behind it. Currently the wall at eastern end of Elings is none of that, it lacks windows and its current decoration does not capture the character and depth of the activities inside. This is why I propose to turn the wall into a microscope, exposing nanoscopic detail the function and character of the work that goes on inside the building
The field of Nanosystems owes its existence to the ability to finally see and manipulate objects on the nanoscale. Prior to the development of the atomic force microscope scientists could only theorize about about rearranging the atomic world and could only querie a material's rough composition through mass spectrometers, or other crystalographic techniques. Elings hall owes its existance to Virgil Elings. Without his donations to science through his work in microscopy and his later donations to University through the financial success of his company Digital Systems, Inc., the California Nanosystems institute would not exist as it does today.
Conceptt
In my scenerio the wall will be configured with a 32x32 array of horizontally actuated color changing square blocks, resulting in a surface capable of reconfiguring itself to display low resolution topological surfaces and an associated color map. The resultant surface will be configured to to transition slowly between states. Each state is a keyframe in a procedurally produced animation or slideshow of topographical images. Each block will be capable of changing colors and holding its color information indefinetely after a state change in the wall. Because the primary viewers of the wall will be drivers on their commute into campus, the wall will remain in a static state for most of the time, updating at a more rapid rate during hours of high bandwidth through the eastern entrance (the commuter hours). The wall would be configured to run in two modes, an energy data visualization mode and microscope data visualization mode.
The Energy Mode
Because a central function of the California Nanosystem Institute at Elings is to develope new low cost techniques for harvesting power from the sun, the wall will be configured to remind the users of the Santa Barbara campus that their activities there consume energy. The energy mode would be designed to propogate an abstract representation of the building's energy usage and harvesting horizontally across the screen as a function of time. Although the solar harvesting technologies being developed by the Nanosystems group cannot be readily mass produced, Elings roof is a blank slate for testing of advanced commercial solar technologies which can be readily deployed across campus. The energy display mode will be configured to make energy harvesting an explicite feature in the visualization. A procedurally generated animation will be derived from the buildings interior energy usage data and external harvesting data. The animation form is undetermined at this time but will probably be in the form of a heat transfer visualization.
The Microscope Mode
The first floor of Elings hall is dedicated to different techniques of microscopy. Thousands of glimpses of the atomic world are produced every year that never make it through the walls of the building for the public to see. The microscopic mode would take those images and project them as low resolution sculptures with both height and color information intact. As a microscope views only a very small section of the specimin it is trained on, the topographic wall will only display a small but very important aspect of the research within the building. The goal of this mode is to add transparancy into a building which is currently very opaque. The two modes, energy and microscope, combined should remind viewers of the wall as they drive by that though energy is being spent (and harvested) on campus, meaningful information is being produced.
Implimentation
Mechanical System
The horizontal actuation of the display will be driven by an array of hydraulically connected oil driven pistons. Each block will be manipulated by a piston and connected to the system with a gate valve controlling the flow to the piston. The pistons will be initially configured in a neutral position, any positive or negative change in system pressure will push or pull the blocks depending on their valve configuration. This allows the wall to hold its state, as overall pressure within the system will remain constant, but as the valve behing the blocks allow fluid to shift, the pistons will contract and expand to maintain pressure. The display will be controlled by a micro-controller connected to a computer. The computer will compute the necessary state of each of the 1024 valves to achieve the next configuration. Due to instabilities that may arise in the system, an additional 1024 "on/off" valves will be positioned between each piston in the grid allowing the system to update on a row by row or column by column basis in order to calibrate itself.
Materials
Because the wall is to remain static most of the time, its operation should be passive. It should be able to change state, then hold its configuration indefinitely without any input of additional power. Therefore, active display technologies such as LCD are not an option. For handling color information the display would utilize E-ink technology which is a bistable, meaning it can hold its configuration after it stops receiving power. New filter technologies have allowed E-Ink to show color as well. Each block will have a one pixel E-ink display laminated to their face. The blocks themselves will be created from recycled wood harvested from the local demolition industry or from wood salvaged after a forest fire. A heavy smooth lacquer will be applied. The block carriage frame will be made from local aluminum. The movement of the blocks will be aided by smooth bearing rollers to minimize friction loss within the system. The grid is intentionally low resolution and made from aesthetically pleasing materials. If it starts out low tech and obsolete the focus is on the form the grid takes rather than the technology behind it.
Conclusion
By turning the eastern wall of Elings hall into a microscope magnifying the interior activities within, it becomes a tribute to Virgil Elings and the Nanosystems research being conducted there. The explosion of the nanotechnology field was dependent on the development of better microscopes. By providing a magnifying lense into the building, we are honoring the researchers inside and providing a transparent link to the public who pass by the currently ambiguous building every day.
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