A new kind of waterfall

August 3, 2008 8:23 AM

水の落ちる絵 (Pictures in Falling Water)

This is from a huge shopping/entertainment/hotel complex called "Canal City" in Hakata, Fukuoka Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan. Now, for all I know, this kind of thing is a feature in every shopping mall from Philadelphia to Salt Lake City, so forgive me if this is nothing new to you stateside Mefiers...

And while we're on the general subject of water, here's some underwater babies. Cute!

And, I'd like to dedicate this FPP to nickyskye.

posted by flapjax at midnite (38 comments total)

Heh, at first I thought these were going to be pictures taken through falling water: "Well, this is dumb, when's the water going to start to cascade, it's just dripping and dropping like an old man at a urinal- oh. Oh, wow. WOW."
Awesome, thanks!
And huzzah for AquaBabies!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:31 AM on August 3, 2008

That is amazing.
posted by nola at 8:40 AM on August 3, 2008

Very cool (and made me have to pee).
posted by figment of my conation at 8:42 AM on August 3, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

OK, that was brilliant. Very cool.

(Heck, I thought it was gonna be some art exhibit at Frank Lloyd Wright's place.)
posted by Ron Thanagar at 8:44 AM on August 3, 2008

Neat!
posted by tkolar at 8:46 AM on August 3, 2008

Happy Happy Happy Happy
Love Love Love Love

:)
posted by chihiro at 9:08 AM on August 3, 2008

Oh man! I wish there was one of these at the local mall. I guess we'll have to settle for performance artists building illegal apartments in it. Also, I hope they reuse the same water over and over again.

Water fountains are awesome.
posted by Kattullus at 9:17 AM on August 3, 2008

Also, I hope they reuse the same water over and over again.

This is Japan, it's almost certain that they do. Waste is considered anti-social in Japan.

This isn't actually new, I thought I saw it on the Blue before; MIT did this for the World's Fair a few years ago. Still, I enjoyed it!
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 9:31 AM on August 3, 2008

Wow, that is amazing. Thanks for posting this. (And for bringing my attention to the fact that Nickyskye is back!)
posted by msali at 9:43 AM on August 3, 2008

Pevnick Design, inc makes these things. Lots of pictures and videos on the the site.

Also, Jeep uses one at trade shows. Video with discussion of the functioning of the device at youtube.
posted by SemiSophos at 9:54 AM on August 3, 2008

Cool. Never seen that before.
posted by jayder at 10:10 AM on August 3, 2008

This is really cool - though I can't help but think that if it'd been built in an American mall, it'd be used for streaming advertisements.
posted by wanderingmind at 10:15 AM on August 3, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

I saw that at the Kitchen and Bath trade show a few years ago. Neat stuff. The floor near it was all wet though.
posted by Tacodog at 10:21 AM on August 3, 2008

I'm pretty sure this technology was meant to have colored lights and a late-night Pink Floyd show attached to it somehow.
posted by rikschell at 10:27 AM on August 3, 2008

though I can't help but think that if it'd been built in an American mall, it'd be used for streaming advertisements.

Thanks for the idea!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:24 AM on August 3, 2008

If they layered several of these, used strobe lights, and turned off the lights, they could run 3D movies.

And if they let you stand under it, they could shower the people with "love" and all sorts of other words.
posted by pracowity at 12:16 PM on August 3, 2008

I saw one of these at a tech conference a few years ago. The youtube doesn't do it justice; the resolution was impressively high.
posted by meta_eli at 12:20 PM on August 3, 2008

This is so amazing and intuitive that it doesn't surprise me at all that the Japanese did it.
posted by Liquidwolf at 12:54 PM on August 3, 2008

Except it wasn't the Japanese that invented it.
posted by empath at 1:18 PM on August 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

amazing, the guys up there have their peeing synchronized exactly.
posted by kliuless at 1:52 PM on August 3, 2008

Definately more pleasing when it's not in enlarged-prostate-mode.
posted by Artw at 2:13 PM on August 3, 2008

This is my gobsmacked face.

Wow.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 3:21 PM on August 3, 2008

I laughed. I cried. I wet myself.
posted by subgear at 6:15 PM on August 3, 2008

Wow. Definitely nothing like that here in Salt Lake City...
posted by mmoncur at 6:32 PM on August 3, 2008

Except it wasn't the Japanese that invented it.

Do you have info on this, empath? I'd love to know who invented this fountain, and where there might be others like it.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:57 PM on August 3, 2008

I really, really want to take a bucket and steal the letters from the middles of the circles at 2:30.
posted by darksasami at 6:58 PM on August 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

flapjax at midnite,
lupus_yonderboy's link says that MIT developed it for their exhibition which he says was several years ago, though perhaps a Japanese company or individual designed it independently.
posted by Sangermaine at 7:24 PM on August 3, 2008

Thanks Sangermaine. There it was, way upthread, staring me in the face, but did I notice it? NOOOOOO!

Like we used to say in Alabama, if it'd been a snake it woulda bit me.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:29 PM on August 3, 2008

This is really cool. Great post. Thanks.
posted by straight at 8:46 PM on August 3, 2008

made my day
posted by exlotuseater at 9:43 PM on August 3, 2008

omg that is so cool! What a neat idea and amazing it hasn't been done before. That was fun. Thanks flapjax.
posted by nickyskye at 12:09 AM on August 4, 2008

Hasn't been done before? They've been making them for almost 20 years.
posted by Fnarf at 5:42 AM on August 4, 2008

They've been making them for almost 20 years.

So we've discovered, in this thread, thanks to Semisopho's link above. But it would seem that none of the commenters here had seen these things before. Perhaps you've been seeing them for the past 20 years? It would appear so, from your comment. Anyway, that company site does indeed say "since 1989", but I have a feeling these waterfalls haven't been as polished and perfect, for the past 20 years, as what we're seeing in the linked video. I reckon if it had, we'd have all known about it by now.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:04 AM on August 4, 2008

Jeep had one of these for last year's (or was it two years ago) motor shows. It was all over the net.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:42 AM on August 4, 2008

Let me know when you can play Doom on it.
posted by bokeh at 7:51 AM on August 5, 2008

I dunno about playing Doom. The screen refresh rate is pretty miserable.
posted by five fresh fish at 5:02 PM on August 5, 2008

AWW!!! omg, Just discovered this wonderful post. Thank you sooo much dear flapjax at midnite. Am slow on the uptake these days. Sorry.
posted by nickyskye at 10:40 AM on August 13, 2008

*smacks forehead. What I meant to say was I just discovered that you dedicated this post to me.
posted by nickyskye at 10:42 AM on August 13, 2008