Check out this real-time portal that actually works

Cool new real-time portal that actually works. He is in Lithuania and gives a look at another city.

Yes yes, cornona won’t get us anywhere. Many people are of course tired of it and the relaxations are coming as called. The city of Vilnius in Lithuania goes one step further and has a real-time ‘portal’ to a closer city.

Real-time portal

The city has really gone all-in. Both for the idea, but also for the design. The portal looks like something out of an earlier sci-fi series (hello Stargate). That just makes it really greasy. The city put the portal, a sort of round door, near a train station. This connects to a portal in Lublin in Poland. That is a good 600 km away. Both portals have large screens and cameras that broadcast live images between the two cities. The makers themselves call it a kind of digital bridge, intended to encourage people to rethink the meaning of unity. Well okay. In any case, it looks nice.

Idea

The idea comes from Benediktas Gylys, president of the Benediktas Gylys Foundation. He has thought about it deeply, he tells the news site Leta: ‘Humanity faces many potentially deadly challenges; be it social polarization, climate change or economic problems. However, if we look closely, it is not a lack of brilliant scientists, activists, leaders, knowledge or technology that is causing these challenges. It’s tribalism, a lack of empathy and a narrow view of the world, which is often limited to our national borders.”

I doubt that this will solve the problem, but it is a first step. Let’s just put it that way.

Design real-time portal

Indeed, the inspiration for the design comes from well-known sci-fi symbols. It was designed by engineers from the Creativity and Innovation Center of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University. It took them five (!) years, but now it’s really there. There are plans to make several of these devices. Whether the Netherlands can welcome one is unknown.