Next we met with the research and development team from Japan Rail. They showed us all the new technologies they were working on to improve the way their company does business. Among their experiments were a floor that absorbed the energy of peoples’ footsteps and turned it into usable electricity, an electronic paper ticket card, a multilingual hub for travelers and a flexible arm that will literally point you in the right direction.
Some concepts are practical upon realization and undergo further development before becoming usable for the public. However, some do not. After trying out the energy absorbing floor in an actual station to see how effective it would be, JR found that the floors could only generate enough power from a whole day of dense foot traffic to power one lightbulb for one minute. The electronic paper cards that can be used as a shinkansen ticket were about a quarter of an inch thick. When we asked if there was a chance that the technology would get thinner, JR told us that to make the cards smaller would be too expensive.
