Culture

Man-made meteor showers for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (Tomorrow Daily 228)

Ashley and Khail explain how a man-made meteor shower could make a big splash at the 2020 Summer Games, discuss a new full-body VR immersion system and wish they had enough money to afford a huge Lite-Brite for adults.

Ashley Esqueda Senior Video Producer

Ashley Esqueda is an award-winning video producer and on-air talent based in Los Angeles. She has been playing video games since she was 3 years old, and loves the history of television. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband Jimi, son Wolfgang, and two very squirrely Italian Greyhounds.

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Ashley Esqueda

Aug. 19, 2015 4:09 p.m. PT

2 min read

Ashley's back from her trip to NASA/JPL, and Khail's banana socks were a clear celebration of that fact. We've got some good stuff for you today, folks; however, a lot of it's gonna cost you some pretty pennies, so start saving up your paychecks, because you'll need them.

A few years ago, as she looked up at shooting stars in the sky, a Japanese astronomer wondered if meteor showers could be man-made. Now, she's the founder of ALE, a startup dedicated to creating on-demand, synthetic meteor showers. The rumored cost? In the neighborhood of $4 million, but the target customer isn't quite you and I. She hopes to pitch the concept to the Tokyo Olympic Committee as an element of the 2020 Olympic Games' opening ceremony, which would certainly be a showstopper.

Full-body immersion VR technology has been trying to keep up with VR headset development ever since the Oculus Rift launched its Kickstarter, and now, KatWalk is launching its crowdfunding effort in an attempt to remove the guardrails from this type of "treadmill" VR systems. It's a top-down harness that also supports a hanging seat for an additional fee, which hasn't been done before.

Lastly, we've always loved Lite-Brite, which was a hot toy in the 1980s, and now, there's a high-tech version for adults. It's called Everbright, measures around 4 feet tall by 8 feet wide, and features 464 individually controlled LED lights that can be tuned to every color in the rainbow, making it a gigantic version of the original toy. You'll have to have a pile of money laying around if you want one in your house, though: Everbright's standard model will set you back a cool $25,000 (but it includes tax and shipping, so we guess that's something).

Watch this: Man-made meteor showers for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (Tomorrow Daily 228)

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Podcast

Here are some links and notes for all the things on the show today:

Man-made meteor showers may take center stage at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games
KatWalk is a new full-body immersion VR system looking for crowdfunding
Everbright is easily the biggest, coolest take on a Lite-Brite we've ever seen
Mod Squad: Ferrolic desk clock manipulates ferrofluid into a mesmerizing timepiece
User Feedback: Your #TDTVVR feedback, and our Phonetographer of the Day

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