Rahul Somvanshi
Residents of a town in Lithuania, Vilnius and Lublin, a town in Poland, are now able to communicate with each other in real-time through a “Portal”. It is a futuristic installation that visually resembles large round orbs fit with screens and cameras. It is designed and constructed by engineers from the LinkMenų fabrikas center at Vilnius Tech. These devices were created to connect and unite people from different cities of the world during pandemic and increasing social isolation. It took five years for the making and was aimed for eventual installation in multiple cities.
The Design was focused on minimalism, with LED lights selected to display the image of a futuristic city. The orblike circular design was chosen as a symbol that will stand for an interactive bridge. Both portals are incorporated with large screens, high quality cameras, and an internet connection, which makes them stream in real-time at both the locations. Even if the residents can’t physically step through the portal, they can always interact with each other using the cameras.
Both Vilnius and Lublin are situated 376 miles away from each other. The futuristic portals in both the cities invite people to rise above any prejudices or frictions to unite together. Benediktas Gylys, who is the President of the Benediktas Gylys Foundation, believes that the project is a bridge to unity.
The task of constructing the portal was assigned to the Vilnius Technical University and it took 5 years for the completion. The project was unveiled by the end of a lengthy, stressful, divisive and isolating pandemic year. Ahead, the project team aims to build similar bridges connecting Reykjavik in Iceland, and London in England.
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The project obviously doesn’t work as the fictional portals that are presented in Sci Fi films, but does not fail to remind that many present day technologies were originally presented in Sci Fi works. After years of global collaborations we are able to see today a doctor perform surgery on a patient remotely in real-time. Similarly this might just be the first chapter in the ongoing story of the “Portal”.
