Electroluminescent
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Robots could get soft, stretchable skin that changes colors
Researchers from Cornell University have developed a potential skin material that lights up and stretches to more than six times its original size. The so-called hyper-elastic, light-emitting capacitors (HLECs) are made from transparent hydrogel electrodes wrapped around an insulating dielectric sheet, allowing them to light up when stretched or rolled. Since the skin can handle twice as much strain as earlier materials, it could function as a skin for soft robots that light up to display "emotions."
Macintosh Plus celebrates 25 years by becoming ultimate DJ headgear (video)
Don't have $65,000 and / or seventeen months to build yourself a Daft Punk helmet? Here's the next best thing: crack open a Macintosh Plus, add an iPad, an old bicycle helmet and some electroluminescent gear, and get to soldering. Originally a school project for design student Terrence Scoville, this visualizer helmet now sits atop the cranium of DJ Kid Chameleon. Because there's nothing like a few digital fireworks to celebrate an old computer's birthday. Video after the break.
LG and QD Vision unite for QLEDs: the quantum dot displays of our power-efficient future
Seems like LG really has a thing for those quantum dot LEDs. After hooking up with Nanosys earlier this year, the Korean giant is now stretching out another of its tentacles -- LG Display, to be specific -- for a partnership with a competing QLED designer in QD Vision. What's being promised by this joint venture falls right in line with your generic pipe dream -- better color accuracy than OLEDs, up to twice the power efficiency at a given color purity, and a cheap and straightforward manufacturing process. In fact, because QLEDs do not require the same glass substrate as most current display technologies, they offer unmatched flexibility (olé!) in terms of how and where they may be used. The only downer, and you had to know there would be one, is that QD Vision describes its tech as still in the "development stage," but hey, at least we have another cool acronym to add to our library.
WiFi-detector T-shirt turned into a bumper sticker for the roadfaring nerd
We're not sure if an illuminated WiFi-detector window decal is more or less nerdy than the illuminated WiFi-detector T-shirt, but it's certainly cooler. The shirt costs about $20 now, and the mod to take the electroluminescent WiFi signal detector panel, add the necessary power converter and mount it all to the back your car of seems easy enough if you're the type to tinker. Now -- who's going to do this, set up a MiFi, and start charging fellow commuters for access? Video after the break. [Thanks, Jonathan]
Flexible organic display brings PIP-Boy one step closer to reality
We've seen the occasional PIP-Boy-esque wearable in the past, and now more details have emerged on this flexible OLED that we first peeped at CES in January. The 4-inch organic electroluminescent display sports up to 1.67 million colors, QVGA (320 x 240) 100ppi resolution, and can be bent to a curvature radius of about 2 inches. Hopefully, this doesn't become a must-have fashion accessory any time soon: while it's perfectly appropriate attire for post-apocalyptic wastelands, we don't know how well it'll fly at the sorts of high society social events we normally frequent. We got one more pic for you after the break. [Via Ideaity]
Daft Punk Homework: create your own EL suit
Good thing Halloween is months away. You'll need that time to hone your sewing skills in the noble quest to create a Daft Punk suit of your very own. Instructables has everything you need (except the electroluminescent wire, soldering iron, heat gun, and pleather tracksuit) to build an EL suit worthy of electronic celebration. Best of all, your tutor for the course is none other than the suits' creator for the duo's 2007 tour. Now get moving humans, it's time to let the robots rock the party.[Via Hack n Mod]
Planar intros transparent electroluminescent displays
While Planar was all about snazzy projectors and enviable plasmas at CEDIA, the firm is branching out a bit with its latest displays. The transparent and segment electroluminescent (TASEL) displays join the firm's family of EL displays and offer up the "added benefits of transparency and the ability to be cut or shaped." The units can also be transparent or mirrored, boast a viewing angle of 179-degrees, and feature "instant on" response times of under one-millisecond. Currently, only samples of Planar's TASEL displays are available, but hopefully these things will be going commercial real soon.[Via LetsGoDigital]
Electroluminescent displays hit jerseys, convey stats to fans
Although names, numbers, and logos are commonplace figures on your average sports jersey, electroluminescent displays could be the next big thing to hit professional sports. In what's sure to elicit drooling from advertising firms everywhere, the University of Australia's Mitchell Page and Andrew Vande Moere has developed a basketball "vest," more commonly known as a "singlet," which sports a number of light-up displays designed to convey a bevy of information to onlookers, teammates, and mascots opponents. Aside from resembling your average Laser Tag apparel, the vest receives communications via a wireless computer (about the size "of an iPod") which is strapped to the player's body; the device then channels information about their "points, fouls, and the amount of time left in the game" to the glowing panels. The technology, dubbed TeamAwear (for "team sports awareness wearable display"), has already been implemented on small two-on-two matchups with apparent success, but there's no word on when we'll see Kobe's jersey lighting up like the Las Vegas skyline.
Soner Ozenc's electroluminescent Time Curtain
Soner Ozenc, the design guru who brought us the Sajjadah 1426 Prayer Rug about this time last year, has wowed onlookers at the London Design Festival yet again with his electroluminescent style. Apparently Ozenc has been passing the time (ahem) by crafting a svelte room partitioner (or snazzy wall adornment, if you'd prefer) that helps keep your life on schedule. The Time Curtain utilizes a "transparent piece of hanging fabric that displays the current time in electroluminescent LED-style numbers" -- perfect for an overdramatic countdown to certain special days of the year. While details concerning future availability (and alarm functionality) haven't been made public just yet, this timekeeper is sure to get its 15 minutes of fame while on display, and would probably look mighty sweet down the hall from your Digital Stag, yeah?[Via Core77]
