LED-C turns Lite-Brite green with envy

It's getting hard to distinguish all the different LED technologies out there from one another, but Light Beam Industries' so-called LED-C system looks like it may have a shot at standing out from the crowd, with it promising to let you create any color LED you like. Light Beam managed that feat by creating a "monolithic component" that combines a standard monochromatic or white LED with a "solid state lighting source" that re-emits the light in the color of your choice. The system also promises to let you generate white light from 3000K to 6000K, and a broader light spectrum than other materials allow, including, as LightBeam points out, the deep red that "Coca-Cola and Budweiser require for their signage." That should also tell you something about the technology's target market although, from the looks of it, it seems like it could also find its way into an updated version of a certain childhood favorite "signage" system.

[Preston @ Oct 29th 2007 12:45PM]

"Coca-Coca and Budeweiser"? Is it just me or is Engadget just off lately?

[Johnathon Zirkle @ Oct 29th 2007 12:47PM]

Coca-Coca? wtfbbq

kthnxbi

[aoeu00 @ Oct 29th 2007 12:51PM]

Both brands spelllt wrong :P

[Jason @ Oct 29th 2007 1:18PM]

Is this new?

White LEDs are actually mostly ultraviolet LEDs. A (monolithic?) material absorbs the ultraviolet light then re-emits (less) in the visible spectrum as white.

[DWells55 @ Oct 29th 2007 1:24PM]

I think that's one way, but the method I was familiar with involved the mixing of blue and yellow light.

[paloooz @ Oct 29th 2007 1:22PM]

Glowing butt plugs.

Nice.

[HineyWipe @ Oct 29th 2007 1:57PM]

Not my first thought. More like "Nipples, taste the rainbow".

[jason @ Oct 29th 2007 1:59PM]

Just make sure they don't ship them to Boston!

(Nope, not old yet)

[Jon @ Oct 29th 2007 2:11PM]

S'funny, I'm old enough to remember when "the deep red" was the ONLY colour you could get an LED in!

Not really an issue though - I'd rather drink Pepsi than Coke and I'd rather die than drink Budweiser.

[Chris D @ Oct 29th 2007 6:32PM]

I dunno about deep red LEDs already existing- it's the first time in my life I've been able to see a red LED. I'm red-green color-blind and red LEDs normally look orangey-yellow to me, and difficult to tell from the green ones, but that one is strong enough red for me to see it as red.

[kP @ Oct 29th 2007 3:13PM]

Maybe I don't understand, but unless the LED is producing eaxctly the color desired, a white LED will be producing colors that are not desired, and must instead be bled off as heat, reducing efficiency.

[paul.davis @ Oct 29th 2007 3:18PM]

Strap this stuff to the next line up of Victoria Secrets lingerie collection and prostitution profits will go up 10x.

[hh83917 @ Oct 29th 2007 4:02PM]

Not to be disrespectful and I'm sorry to say this, but they look like glowing condoms...

[Matthew Hilario @ Oct 29th 2007 4:10PM]

pawns for homosexual chess?

[Eric Fetcho @ Oct 29th 2007 5:23PM]

"promising to let you create any color LED you like." ---that sounds like a dare.... I would like a BROWN one. (its impossible to make the color brown with any light.)

[JD @ Oct 29th 2007 6:04PM]

I can see brown on my monitor right now.

[Eric Fetcho @ Oct 29th 2007 6:16PM]

Go out and find any LED, incandescent, or any "projecting" light and make brown... you let me know. It can't be done.

[Blue @ Oct 30th 2007 6:19AM]

Pfft, brown.. I wanna black one !

[Laserjock @ Nov 2nd 2007 8:48PM]

"Light Beam managed that feat by creating a "monolithic component" that combines a standard monochromatic or white LED"

*Incorrect statement*

White LEDs are polychromatic not monochromatic. Whitelight is made up of all colors not just one color.

-Laserjock-