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Forget the bulb: world’s first illuminating glass

inhabitat.com — The world ’s first active light-emitting glass produces a soothing light that eliminates the need for lampshades, and is better for wellbeing. The average lifespan of a plate is 50,000 hours, which translates to 20 years of domestic use. And when it does cease to function, 90% of the design can be recycled, as it’s essentially based on glass.

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  • Salinesolucion, on 05/22/2008, -4/+13This is a very cool idea - why has no one thought of this until now?
    • jburka, on 05/22/2008, -1/+28I guess they said the same thing when the first wheel was invented!
    • thescimitar, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1They have, as, unless I misunderstand the company's website (the inhabitat site is down), it's essentially a gas discharge lamp.
      • KingVegas702, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Sorry... im slow :(
      • Amadeus2490, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Because scientists have been blinded with science for the past ~30 years.
        • VinceNoir, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2No. it's just that damn Ms. Sakamoto misplacing all the tubes, wires, careful notes and antiquated notions. But damn she's cute!
    • altrego99, on 05/22/2008, -1/+5A very bright idea indeed.
    • VinceNoir, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2I had the idea back in my teens in the 80s. Partially inspired by the opposite idea in the Blade Runner film with the window that can go dark at the push of a button (that should be easy to pull off with liquid crystals). Of course being a teen from a poor background at the time I had no way to make it a reality. No problem... I still have a lot of other inventions to work through.
    • Blitzenn, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2hmm. seems to me this has been around a long long time. Below is a quote on how it works from the company;
      "...form an internally sealed airspace inside of which is a mixture of rarefied gas that are subject to a(n)... ...alternating, high-frequency electric field..."

      Seems that it quite clearly describes what we know as 'neon' lighting technology. The ' rarified gas' is prolly just argon, a standard component in most 'neon' signs. Granted its in a slightly different package, but not really much new here. But its still pretty neat twist on old technology

      Great marketing ploy however!
  • staffell, on 05/22/2008, -13/+10Good idea until you realise you can't turn the lights out.
    • jmkiii, on 05/22/2008, -2/+21Yes, they will glow under their own power until the end of time. There is not a damn thing you or anyone else can do about it.
    • JorgeGT, on 05/22/2008, -0/+8In this website we obey the laws of thermodynamics.
    • staffell, on 05/22/2008, -1/+1my point was that if people are thinking of using this glass in replacement for lights, then there would be a need for 'turning them off' surely?
    • kaleesh, on 05/23/2008, -0/+3hmm what about places where you should not turn them off, like dark alleys or roads at night, we could def use more light there..
  • ritubpant, on 05/22/2008, -1/+3freaking cool
  • rawg, on 05/22/2008, -1/+20mmmm... glowing donuts
  • thestrongrope, on 05/22/2008, -2/+7If we start getting rid of all the bulbs I hope some ingenious person can come up with a way to up-cycle all those bulbs into something useful and cool.
    • tito13kfm, on 05/22/2008, -2/+8I buy a package of CFLs every week and feed them to kittens just to spite people like you.
      • thestrongrope, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5Wow, you are one twisted bastard. I hope someone takes those kitten pieces that you discard and up-cycles them into something useful and cool.
        • JBobtheGr8, on 05/23/2008, -1/+0I use the discarded kitten pieces as filaments for the CFLs tito13kfm buys and feeds to kittens, which I then use as filaments for the CFLs tito13kfm buys and feeds to kittens, which I then use as filaments for the CFLs tito13kfm buys and feeds to kittens, which I then use...
        • kaleesh, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1i can makez chezburger?
    • DiggzDE, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3I've got a crazy lightbulb suit drawn out. It will be the new fashion when we finally rid ourselves of them in our lamps.
  • ecomod, on 05/22/2008, -0/+8I'd like to see this used in windows - how cool would that be? Oh and 'staffeil' - i'm sure you can turn the lights out - its not perpetually glowing all the time....
    • tacojohn48, on 05/22/2008, -1/+11I hope it works in Linux.
      • halobender, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Only MS office compatible but if someone will write the drivers it will work with Linux.
        • JBobtheGr8, on 05/23/2008, -0/+0______________________
          | |
          | To turn off the lights, |
          | you must upgrade your |
          | free trial version to |
          | MSLight PRO |
          | _______ |
          | | OK | |
          --------------------------------------
  • Surferess, on 05/22/2008, -1/+4Huh, I was somehow expecting an actual glass glass. This is much better. I can see this could have some very useful applications.
  • moolaismyfriend, on 05/22/2008, -30/+8I thought MrBabyMan you were going to leave Digg cause you got your feelings hurt.

    What happened? Did you realize you had no life when you stopped submitting 130 articles a day to a website?
    • fatlip, on 05/22/2008, -4/+3you should be talking about not having a life.


      go get one.
      • moolaismyfriend, on 05/22/2008, -12/+2I know you are but what am I?
        • Diderotten, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3You're the worst troll I've ever seen. Seriously. Up your game.
        • moolaismyfriend, on 05/22/2008, -4/+3Ohh please I was referring the the twitter message MrBabyMan posted a few days ago that was submitted to Digg in which he said if you guys don't like me anymore then I am gonna leave wah wah wah

          I am just ***** around, jeez.
    • VinceNoir, on 05/22/2008, -1/+1Lame. Buried. And ***** upon as well.
  • SgtSchizoid, on 05/22/2008, -6/+7Petty cool, but I'll be impressed when I can run my car off water.
  • Frecklefoot, on 05/22/2008, -0/+7One thing the photos don't show are the powercords needed. The glass look cool until you realize you have to figure out how to snake the wire to your table (or shelves) in an aesthetic manner.
    • bxblox, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4what lamp doesnt need a powercord?
      • WasabiBomb, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5Well, Frecklefoot does have a point. We're always shown these neat images of how the appliance is supposed to look, but when you actually buy the thing, you find that you've got cords ruining the look.

        It's a minor thing, as we all know that cords are necessary... still, it's annoying.
        • vashxstampede, on 05/22/2008, -0/+0THAT WAS THE FIRST THOUGHT I HAD, WHERE ARE THE POWER CORDS?
      • zeabu, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1Leds could be powered by batteries. Plug the table in once every month.
  • jmkiii, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5Glowing slices of pineapple
    MMMMM!
  • Jovensdesciple, on 05/22/2008, -3/+4I smoked illuminating glass years ago so yours can't be the first. Get with the times guy.
  • DDBdestroyer, on 05/22/2008, -0/+37lol - LEDs are still the way to go - better effiency - and brighter for less watts - you should see how bright the 1/2 watts go - an also they are 100% environmentally friendly
    • RxDaniel, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5But they don't look like radioactive pineapple slices all over your table, so ***** LEDs.
      • elementop, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1You can do some cool things with a router, LEDs and three sheets of acrylic sandwiched together. If you want radioactive pineapple slices/glowing donuts, you could do it.

        Personally, I think it would be cool to make a green glowing circuitboard....but I'm a geek, lol.
  • mpdickso, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5Company site
    http://www.saazs.com/
    • bstew22, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5ugh, i have to chase the damn menu options around the screen....
    • wezman2, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4Cool look, but impossible to navigate
    • Konrad9, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2Very peculiar advertising pictures...
    • lewhich, on 05/22/2008, -2/+1is the company's website stuck in 1999?

      BTW: Rare gas! how expesive will 1 buld be?
  • Merendino, on 05/22/2008, -2/+7Says its 100w though... doesn't seem very eco friendly to me. My compact florescents and very few LED lights COMBINED barely make it to 100w. I have like 7 12w compact florescents and 2 5w LED's. ***** LED light bulbs are EXPENSIVE!
    • tito13kfm, on 05/22/2008, -9/+3And your computer uses more than that while idle. Do the environment a favor, go kill yourself.
      • khail250, on 05/22/2008, -0/+6would you ever say that in person? why do you have so much hate?
        • tito13kfm, on 05/22/2008, -5/+1Because Merendino was obviously looking for some sort of validation for his "eco friendliness" when in all actuality he made himself look like a self absorbed douche.
        • rustintable, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3Really not your problem. Youve got serious issues.

          I enjoyed his commentary.....
        • VinceNoir, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2@tito13kfm

          I think the only self-absorbed douche is you. He wasn't looking for validation, he was simply sharing his experience. I've been using CFLs myself but only for limited application because the light from them is so godawful bad. The fact that he shared his experience with people is INTERESTING. Unlike your stupid brainfart. Think before you type.

          As an aside, the problem I have with CFLs is that their color rendering index (CRI) is too low. The CRI unit is based on natural sunlight with a rating of 100 being perfect. If you were to run light from a bulb with a CRI of 100 (as far as I'm aware there are none) you would get a perfect spectrum. This would mean that the appearance of objects under that light would look quite normal.

          However, the typical CFLs have CRI ratings of 75-85 which is pretty damn bad. For my kitchen I went with standard tubes over the sink area and specifically sought out the highest quality fluorescent tubes I could find. The CRI is 95. Not perfect, but better than CFLs. The only place I'm using CFLs is in the basement and the large multibulbed ceiling fan in the middle of the kitche (which I plan to replace someday in the near future).

          I should note that the biggest problem with "daylight" CFLs is that while they might resemble daylight, the color rendering is completely off. Way too blue. I think the only way they can be considered daylight quality is if you're thinking about a cloudy fall or winter day. If you want high noon in the month of June, fluorescents cannot offer that.
  • jmkiii, on 05/22/2008, -0/+35How is neon toxic? It is a noble gas!
    • tito13kfm, on 05/22/2008, -1/+6Well played sir.
    • etx313, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2Check
    • samcrut, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2I suppose if you flooded a room with it and tried to breathe it would suffocate you, but short of working in the neon tube filling room of a neon sign factory, I don't see that being possible.
      • zeabu, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1It's the lack of oxygen that kills you, not the neon.
    • vintagegeek, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2It's not the neon that is toxic, but the mercury infused glass they use in making neon lights...that....oh, wait...that wasn't a real question, was it?
  • userperson, on 05/22/2008, -0/+7Now if they can only make servers that resist the digg effect.
  • Narrwald, on 05/22/2008, -1/+2mee-roar?
  • malcolmlo, on 05/22/2008, -1/+2mirror or we cant view it.
  • hfswagon, on 05/22/2008, -0/+10http://gizmodo.com/392490/planilum-light-emitting- ...
  • jonamerica, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2http://duggmirror.com
  • macgecko, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4Looks like a very interesting idea that would be good for display cases or a number of architectural uses.
  • ecomod, on 05/22/2008, -1/+2site is back up - sorry people!
    • tito13kfm, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2Redirect the page to a static copy of the article. dynamically generated pages + digg = server death.
    • ljmunz, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1not so much

      Error establishing a database connection
  • khail250, on 05/22/2008, -2/+3100watts! hmm with oil at 130/barrel it doesnt seem like a great idea
    • Karkian, on 05/22/2008, -2/+3Why, you planning to have it in your car?
      • lazn, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3electricity comes from somewhere.. and when oil goes up so do all energy costs, directly or indirectly..

        http://www.powerscorecard.org/tech_detail.cfm?reso ...
      • khail250, on 05/22/2008, -1/+1yes I will drive this thing...
        hmm, where does electricity come from? Jesus? wrong, Coal, oil, etc... oil is getting more expensive, this will NOT make electricity cheaper. can't believe i actually need to explain this, but seeing as how i am getting dugg down, it's rather sad :(
        • VinceNoir, on 05/22/2008, -2/+4Because you're a ***** IDIOT!!! No one and I mean NOT A ***** HUMAN ON THE PLANET makes electricity for distribution on the power grid with petroleum. DO YOU HEAR ME *****?!!! NO ONE! ZERO! ZILCH! Electricity largely comes from coal (which has NOTHING to do with petroleum), solar, nuclear, and in some RARE cases methane gas. But there is NO petroleum involved in the production of electricity except for maybe a few drops for lubrication of the turbines. But that's NOT direct energy production so it counts for *****!!! Now go ***** off and let me get back to the blowjob I was getting before you so idiotically interrupted me.
        • khail250, on 05/22/2008, -1/+1I dugg your comment up because it looks like you could use a motivational boost.

          no oil power plants? woops, guess I am living in a dream world
    • samcrut, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2Unless your electricity is from a gas generator, you're mixing your issues.

      Electricity is from coal mostly.
      • andy314159pi, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2Unfortunately energy futures markets are using the oil demand situation to inflate all fuel commodities.
      • elementop, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Mostly, but not exclusively.

        Chugach Electric's Beluga power plant, which provides a lot of the electricity for Anchorage, is run on natural gas which I believe is a petroleum product?
  • WasabiBomb, on 05/22/2008, -0/+7That's pretty neat, but I was really hoping the entire sheet of glass would illuminate. It also bugs me that the "donuts" are all of different sizes.
  • bombula, on 05/22/2008, -1/+3Nothing new, it's just tritium lighting - check wikipedia or google for more info. Same gas-imbedded-in-glass that makes the hands on your watch glow permanently. Tritium is a fissile material (radioactive, can be used in nuclear applications include weapons) and is banned in almost all products in the US, with the exception of watch hands a few other things where the amounts used are extremely tiny. Not likely to see these in North America any time soon.
    • Zomgondo, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Uh, RTFA much? Tritium lighting doesn't consume electricity like this does. Also, the glowing stuff on watch hands is zinc phosphate.
  • dmadip, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2and back down again
  • rob3, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5"Currently, each 100W plate lights 40 square meters of space" - So it magically manages to light up a 2D shape but it doesn't quite stretch into the 3rd dimension?
  • OffPiste, on 05/22/2008, -4/+1No thanks, I think I'll stick to incandescent lighting.
  • jetblackz4, on 05/22/2008, -1/+1They look like little donuts, MMMMMMMMM donuts
  • skinturtle, on 05/22/2008, -1/+1Ok..here's an idea. Why not have one central light bulb...that's really not visible in the house but is enclosed in a device which has some sort of reflective tubing coming from it into each room. The light from one light bulb is reflected down the tubes to light each individual rooms. Each outlet could have a simple dimmer or a aperture of some sort to shut the light off.

    May sound a little futuristic..but I bet someone could do it with the technology we have now. I should patent the idea..lol.
    • samcrut, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Instead of "central light bulb," make it the sun. This is already being done. Light concentrators are on the roof feeding light into fiber optics that spread throughout an office building. When the sun is shining, the building needs no lighting. When the clouds roll in, the system detects it and adds supplemental lighting to keep light levels relatively even.
  • COINTELPRO, on 05/22/2008, -4/+1What is the point of hacking into my computer? I know you are there, you are wasting you time. I left you some cheese to nibble on. Hah, Hah, anticipating job , taking notes, interpersonal skills (B.S.)...

    Quit trying to be me, I recognize my own tactic.

  • Blakechi, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2Cost: $1,000 per sheet
    • xdeitenx, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1yeah but you can use it for 20 years, right? so that's about 13c or 14c a day.
    • Gemfinder, on 05/23/2008, -0/+113 or 14¢/day, yeah, but who has a G-note to throw down at any given moment?
      May be okay when you're buying or building a new house and it's a semi-permanent fixture, like a water heater.
  • SpallettaAC1041, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Now every time I have an idea an illuminating slab of glass will pop above my head instead of a light bulb; it just doesn't seem to have enough metaphorical value.
  • HubbertWins, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2...and it cures cancer, and it makes rainbows, and it tastes like...chocolate...and it is only 5-10 years away. It should come out the same time that cost effective solar panels come out and batteries that make electric cars cheap and right before everyone gets their flying car.
  • jerbaker, on 05/23/2008, -1/+1That the author of the article is apparently unaware of the difference between neon tubes and fluorescent lights leads me to have serious doubts about their credibility.
  • ChrisshEnzo, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1eco-friendly and appealing look
    good lookin out Saaz
  • Ghostalker, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1GE Made illuminating plastic YEARS ago, nobody cared then; nobody cares about illiminating glass now.
  • dawnmathews, on 05/24/2008, -0/+0they will be great! Light bulbs have been around for donkey's years, it's about time they were replaced with something better.
  • joe8pack, on 05/27/2008, -0/+1Yeah the glass is interesting but where do you get the polygon shaped logs at? Thats one weird ass tree I'd like to see.
  • Merendino, on 06/02/2008, -0/+1Truth be told, no i wasn't looking for validation, I was just pointing out that the article talked about how eco-friendly the glass panes were when in reality, I can get more lumens of light from a much less wattage bulb. So, aside from what you think of me touting my "eco-friendliness" I was in fact doing no such thing. But man you're an ass dude... should really think about relaxing once every couple of days. You're wound a bit tight.
  •  

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