The idea behind Hanyoung Lee’s Virtual Wall concept is that plasma laser beams would assist pedestrians while they cross from one side to another, so they don’t have to worry about being run over. The light-formed force-field type barrier would keep cars and humans apart.

Many questions remain, like what happens if your car runs into it? Will you get a flat? Will it kill your engine like a UFO? Despite our lingering questions, we can’t wait for something like this to become reality. Mostly because we like shiny red plasma laser beams.

The students at Virginia Tech are a pretty intelligent bunch. They’ve come up with a new system for automobile braking lights that will indicate whether you are stopping, or just slowing down, based on how quickly you put your foot down on the brake. The solution for a better brake, as it turns out is really pretty simple.

The concept uses an array of horizontal LED lights. When you start to slow down, the center lights will glow orange and after a pre-programmed time, the side lights will turn red. If you slam on the emergency brake, then all the lights turn red instantly. If we could just get it to flash the finger for those people who stay way too close behind you, I’d be happy. They think these will be easier to add as additional indicators on commercial vehicles at first, but who knows, one day soon all cars may sport these.

Now you can play Mario Kart in the real world away from your screen and in slot car form. The set includes 2 cars, a transformer, straights, curves, narrowing set, 2 hand controllers, guardrails and spare contact brushes, guide keels plus a track link.

Race Mario’s B-Dasher against Wario’s Brute on twenty feet of track. This should be a fun way to enjoy the classic game in a whole different way. I can only assume that more cars are forthcoming, since racing Mario against Wario could get boring after awhile. Some of us prefer Toad’s well balanced ride. This is a great fun concept. I’m surprised it’s taken them this long to bring it to market.

Volkswagen has developed its latest vehicle concept for an electric car of the future. Designed in collaboration with German design student Marc Kirsch for his diploma project, the Volkswagen Viseo is a three-seater that produces zero carbon emissions. Created to show that being environmentally friendly doesn’t mean that you don’t look sexy, the Viseo has that streamlined look that screams sports car sex appeal. Unfortunately we don’t know what kind of miles per charge the electric cars in the future will get so while the Viseo looks great it’s still an unknown performer.

One novel new feature about the Viseo is that the back-end of the car can detach and becomes a suitcase that you can wheel around. Something like this sounds great if you need to fly a lot and park your car longterm at the airport but as an everyday idea, it’s not so hot.

Later this week SlipperyBrick will be blogging live from the 2007 LA Auto Show Press Days bringing you up to the minute coverage and photos of the latest model debuts, hybrids, some cool concepts, electric vehicle technology and more. At this year’s show we’ve been invited as a guest of GM’s and are expecting to see as many as 10 models making their world-wide debut and in total over 20 new models making their first appearance North America. Some of the more notable debuts include the 2009 Pontiac Vibe, 2008 Mustang Bullitt, and the Honda FCX to name a few. The coverage starts Wednesday morning and continues through Thursday.

We will also have the opportunity to talk one-on-one with a couple folks from GM, namely Bob Boniface, Director of Design for EFlex and Denise Gray, Director of Hybrid Energy Storage Systems (batteries). Feel free to drop us a comment with any questions you have for these two and I’ll do my best to fit them in as both of these individuals are key players in bringing on the electric car revolution.

The Nissan NV200 concept vehicle gets you from your home to the office in under 10 seconds flat. That’s because your entire office IS the van. Instead of driving to work, you will instead, drive your work everywhere. It’s obviously designed for those people that work literally, all over the map. The entire back end of the van slides out, which gives you a nice roomy office inside, while exposing the exterior storage areas that are fully customizable.

For the 2007 Tokyo Motor show, they decked it out as if it belonged to an ocean photographer, complete with the storage area full of various tools of that trade. They even put in an editing station and a remote control panel for a spider camera. I think I’ve found my new office. Next time you read me, I’ll be on the road…

Mitsubishi took the wraps off of a new zero-emission, all-electric concept car called the e MIEV Sport. Aside from having a pretty cool look to it, the i MIEV Sport features a couple less-common additions to add juice back to the battery while driving.

As with many other electric and hybrid cars, this one uses a regenerative braking system, but also adds a solar roof and small wind turbines built into the front grill. Additions like these aren’t going to make a drastic difference in the range, but adding a convex solar roof was found to bring as much as an additional 20 mile range to a Prius. The turbines would likely be less, but certainly can’t hurt.

When I’m riding in a plane I love to see those little LCD’s in the seat that show you exactly where the plane is at as it follows it’s flight path, and just how much further we have to go. So it makes sense to me that kids would appreciate that as well, not to mention the chance that it might cut down on some of the repeated questions regarding our ETA.

For this device, Popular Mechanics got a …