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Philips Shows Light Emitting Clothing
Paul Cobbaut writes "From Physorg: Philips Research intends to impress the visitors at this year's IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung) with a world-first demonstration of promotional jackets and furniture featuring its innovative Lumalive technology. Lumalive textiles make it possible to create fabrics that carry dynamic advertisements, graphics and constantly changing color surfaces. Here is the Philips Press Release." Obviously, all Devo videos will need to be reshot using this valuabe new technology advance.
Like there is not already too much light pollution in the world. And advertisment .. and lightboards .. and .. and ...
Oooh, there is one big market waiting for this. Who cares about advertising, visibility is even more important. Dayling running can be made safer with clothing that shifts geometric patterns and shifting colors. Ads on the clothing could be used to reduce the price so people actually wear it... and if not ads then perhaps some customizable imagery would be good to.
Still, the safety aspects are hard to ignore with stuff like this. If the power use is low enough then self lighting (pulsing/blinking) emergency gear would be another great application (think of aircraft seats, lifevests, etc). Get lost in the woods then at night a tent or even your jacket if woven with this material could be set to flash etc.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
....I can finally get to work on my teletubbies Hallowe'en costume, complete with working belly screen?
Now, I wonder where I can find stock footage of that monk incinerating himself in protest from the Vietnam Conflict?
if you already use reflective vests and the strobe LED lights, it seems the problem is more with the attention span of the drivers than your visibility.
Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer
Leave it to Philips to invent some great technology and then blow the marketing. They have a great history of doing that.
Come on, if even slashdot can come up with applications that are far more marketable then "advertise on my back", why can't Philips ?
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My jeans cost £3. Look, no badge, no brand. Equivalent Levis, £40.
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I think the best use for this would be camouflage. Imagine a cloth equipped with a pocket cam and CPU that tries to mimick the enviroment. Of course it would work better if it had passive lighting (like electronic paper).
Yes, I am talking about the lights on the pedestrian sign. But these aren't the regular bulbs used in traffic lights - not the two alternately flashing yellow light bulbs. This is an array of ultra-bright yellow LEDs that go around the sign. Ultra-bright LEDs are nice in flashlights, on key chains, and at raves. They are not appropriate in a pitch-black environment where they go from all on to all off. It is like shining a flashlight straight in your eyes.
:-)
I don't have a problem with regular light bulbs. But over the past few years I've seen strobe lights and ultra-bright LEDs and halogen lights in places where it isn't appropriate. They seem really nifty until you are driving down a back-woodsy road and somebody's halogen headlights on high-beams hit you in the face.
My mother-in-law can't drive at night because she has night blindness due to cataracts. (She just had them removed, I should ask her if it has helped). But don't optimiize the lighting so that only people with good vision can see you. That kinda defeats the purpose.
Do you honestly think the idiot driving the Hummer way too fast cares whether she is tailgating you? If you stop in half the distance she can, she will just flatten you and she probably won't even notice.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
I agree with you to some extent however, there are some signs that merely use retrofreflectivity that can be too bright; No LED's required. It is not always the case that the signs are blindingly bright that you find yourself squinting, rather they are too bright for their surroundings. Like trying to find extrasolar planets. It's not that a particular star is blindingly bright to look at through a telescope, but it is too bright to see any surrounding objects.
In looking at the photo attached to the press release, the lighting scheme doesn't appear to be overly bright.
Once the fad dies down (recall all the neon clothing in the 80's?) it looks like there will be a huge market for it in safety gear. As a cyclist, I would certainly welcome it being built into my jerseys.
The article forgets to tell us WHAT KIND OF LED? I highly doubt it is an actual LED since they are to big. If it's fully integrated into the fabric then it could be a Organic LED or PLED (polymer led).
What do you think the LED is?
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Hm. The first thing I thought when I was the article was that this would be great for large-scale search & rescue operations. Piles of "plain vanilla" uniforms could be instantly programmed to display the rescue operative's name and unit on the back, color-coded. A flick of a switch could cause the uniform to blink an "I've found a survivor" pattern, to draw attention. Why are these guys only thinking of ad space?