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Shuji Nakamura Awarded the 2006 Millennium Prize
Mictian writes "University of California professor Shuji Nakamura, the japanese inventor of the bright green, white and blue GaN LEDs and a blue laser, has been awarded the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize. While blue LEDs are considered cool and thus needful things by most nerds, Nakamura adapted his blue LEDs to make a blue laser in the mid 90s. The next generation optical storage formats, HD-DVD and BluRay, are of course both based on blue laser. Also, his white LEDS need far less energy than normal incandescent lamps and can thus provide plenty of opportunity for energy-saving in the industrialized world. But probably the most significant future application for Shuji Nakamura's invention comes in the form of sterilizing drinking water, since the the water purification process can be made cheaper and more efficient with the use of ultraviolet LEDs. This can improve the lives and health of tens of millions people in developing countries."
...which is phenomenal and well-deserving of the prize, but why the comparison to incandescent bulbs for large-scale energy savings? Flourescent lightss, including full-spectrum lights that produce better quality light than most incadescent bulbs, are much more efficient than incandescents, too, for their output; my understanding is that White LED lights are now somewhat more efficient even than flourescents, which is the real reason they offer a big step forward in terms of large-scale energy savings (plus, they are much easier to make very small, which is good for lots of applications where flourescent lights aren't really well suited, but that's not going to be the source of enormous energy savings.)
A few years ago I invested in a white LED headlight/torch for when I would go camping.
I got almost 2 years out of a set of 3 AAA batteries, the light itself provided excellent light at night and stayed bright up until the batteries were noticably dying.
It was one of the most practical investments I ever made.
All the new traffic lights in Victoria (Aus) are built with LED's now. You can tell the difference -- because they use the same switch gear as before, the time lag built in to the control systems to let the incandescents glow down manifests as a few milliseconds of all-lamps-off. Takes a moment to get used to it, but you're very aware of lights changing -- I think it's safer that way, myself. I think it's done with filters over those brilliant white LEDs. We also use variable speed limit signs built with switching arrays of LEDs in crowded shopping areas, used to switch speeds according to traffic conditions & time of day. So there's a good application in use today -- lowering road aggro and maybe even saving a life or two, while lowering energy costs at the same time. High-class geekery, that, and one worth the round of applause.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
This was a real invention, and that's indeed what the patent system is for.
The way it worked in this case was ugly, though. I won't try to describe the patent litigation over the blue LED, but it sure doesn't encourage me to go out and invent things.
Heh, in this case the company he worked for had patents.
He had shit-all, which is why he sued them for extra compensation.
What makes it even worse is the company actively tried to block him from continuing with the line of research that led to his breakthrough, and made the company a Metric Shitload(tm) of cash.