Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.
Just like every other gadget, light bulbs go flat
blog.scifi.com — If you've got a room in your house that never seems to get enough light, has CeeLite got the wallpaper for you. The company's Light Emitting Capacitor (LEC) panels are flexible, paper-thin light bulbs that you can hang on a wall, coming in sizes as large as 3 x 6 feet.
fatmike- 1075 diggs
- digg it
- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+25Would be interesting to make one of these the backlight for an LCD. Even backlighting without needing reflectors or nasty mercury lamps.
- junkmail02, on 10/12/2007, -114/+3cover up my desk with this while i work on my macbook pro
-z00k - junkmail02, on 10/12/2007, -113/+2$20 says the great Kevin Rose will digg this when he wakes up
-z00k - junkmail02, on 10/12/2007, -111/+2why the hell do you guys always digg me down. i think it's cause my screen name. gonna change it later today.
-z00k - Klarth, on 10/12/2007, -6/+61I dugg you down because you're ***** annoying
- SuperSloth, on 10/12/2007, -6/+41"why the hell do you guys always digg me down."
Because orange squares are annoying. - renegadeafk, on 10/12/2007, -7/+37Because you're too ignorant to know why you're being dugg down
-renegadeafk - neutrascrub, on 10/12/2007, -6/+45i digg you down because everything you say ends like this:
-z00k - junkmail02, on 10/12/2007, -87/+8they have these lights at the W hotel in NYC
-z00k - SPThom, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15I wonder what the life span for one of these lights is... That'd seem to me to be the only major point of hesitation in using them for monitors.
- junkmail02, on 10/12/2007, -105/+3OK ENOUGH. this is absolutely ridiculous. I post something up and before i can edit it i'm -5 diggs. I am going to report the following people to digg for violating the digg TOS: neutrascrub, Klarth, SuperSloth, and renegadeafk. Digg will kick you guys off the site and get rid of all your digg history (i.e. diggs, comments, friends etc...) Good luck starting all over. pwned!
-z00k - Klarth, on 10/12/2007, -4/+27Last I checked the idea of member moderation was that, you know, the memberbase makes the decision themselves. Perhaps you ought to read up on the terms of service yourself.
Stop digging your own grave, kiddo (pun unintended). - junkmail02, on 10/12/2007, -102/+2klarth-
you are an internet goblin/troll/bully. I suggest you unregister yourself from digg (before you get kicked) and go back to slashdot or netscape
-z00k - junkmail02, on 10/12/2007, -96/+1@neutrascrub
Wow. You are digging me down because of my signature? Who is the ignorant one here. z00k is my hack3r name, I sign everything so my clan would recognize me if needed. Of course you wouldn't know anything about hacking cause according to your IP address you are sitting at home using AOL (aohell). You might wanna cover up that webcam of yours cause I can totally see your filthy room. loser.
pwned by:
-z00k - R4000, on 10/12/2007, -8/+40Your all being pathetic, including you z00k-boy, shut the ***** up... ALL OF YOU, your making digg annoying for all of us..
Digg me down for this, if you want.
But your just covering the truth...
Btw, junkmail... your stupid hacker threats are LAME... i was laughing my ass off listening to them. get a life, i dugg you all down.
-- R4000 - Klarth, on 10/12/2007, -3/+64"z00k is my hack3r name, I sign everything so my clan would recognize me if needed"
ahaha hahahahahaha ahahahaha oh wow - b3mus3d, on 10/12/2007, -5/+23Zook is obviously just taking the mickey. Nobody actually acts like that in seriousness, surely.
-z00k
(HA, now what is your hacker clan going to do?) - zweben, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21How to deal with junkmail02:
1) Click the block button
2) Done!
He's obviously 12 and feeds off attention so don't give him it. Next topic! - PowerCow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3looks cool besides for that huge cord hanging off it.
- iamshades, on 10/12/2007, -10/+31337 |-|4XxX0|2 z00|<
hahaha nub. i bet you don't even know the architecture in the TCP/IP protocol.
z00k ==> n00b effect != digg effect - tasadar24, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5In answer to your idea about backlighting an LCD screen with one of these.... no. From what I've heard, the next generation of LCD screens are gonna have multiple LED's inside them arranged in a grid so that the LED's can be turned off in sequence with the LCD screen, giving you a contrast ratio of over 100,000. Backlighting an LCD screen with one of these light-emitting capacitors would give you an incredibly low contrast ratio(your blacks would be hardly black).
- pvtjohndoe, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6Junkmail... You got knocked the ***** out!
Sorry, someone had to do it. - caffeinejunkiex, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Wow Junkmail, I was just looking at some of the comments you made from other diggs. Wow, I have yet to see one that isn't dugg down.
- gfixler, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Some info:
These panels have been sold for years in kits, or as raw material under the generic name EL panels, electroluminescent panels, and sometimes as EL sheet, or EL foil.
The technology uses a capacitive powder that works on high voltage AC, which is why even the small kits require inverters, which make a very quiet, but high pitch whining noise that you can't get out of your head. I have 2 or 3 varieties, some small enough to hide in a closed hand, and they're all quite annoying. They'd make good torture devices.
The flexible wire form of the same technology, sold as EL wire has been used for quite a while in the case-mod community to add what looks like mini neon tubing to their case designs (http://www.overclockers.com/articles867/). I gave it a shot 3 years ago, too, with EL wire, but it wasn't very bright at all: http://www.garyfixler.com/ELXKeys/
The panels are already used as backlights for all kinds of screens, and have been for many years, including watches (remember the Timex Indiglo?), calculators, displays on things like photocopiers, and sometimes monitors, especially for harsh environments, like medical/military.
Timex Indiglo on HSW: http://science.howstuffworks.com/question296.htm
tough monitor example: http://www.planarembedded.com/el_advantage/
Kits have been around for years:
http://www.e-clec-tech.com/panels.html
http://www.electrolamp.com/elpanel.html
etc...
People have been making cooler stuff than flat wall "bulbs." Minor example:
http://www.instructables.com/id/ESEENXNN6GEP287490/
Probably the coolest thing about EL paneling, since it works with sandwiched layers, is that you can cut the panel into any shape you want. You can x-acto out holes to fit over knob rods, or buttons, or cut it into fancy lettering to use as a sign - and this is common usage, too. In fact, at a local toy train shop, I found a wall of EL panel signage for O and HO scale trains, and e-clec-tech has them, too:
http://www.e-clec-tech.com/anbihosc.html
They're very tiny, and they animate! They come with a little circuit that makes them light up in sequences, and chase, like their full-size counterparts, and they have a similarly rich glow to neon.
I did a test with 100' of blue EL wire (from www.coolneon.com - nice folks - no affiliation) 2 Halloweens ago (didn't end up using it) to see if the 9V battery w/ inverter combo would lose brightness, but being inverted to high voltage AC, it never did. I actually put a mini DV camera on it in a dark, walk-in closet, and the first and last fully-lit frames - about 2 hours apart were identical. The camera was set to a locked brightness level, so it wasn't auto-adjusting. It just went for almost 2 hours, and then all of a sudden, just faded completely out in about 3 seconds. Very cool.
100' of EL wire looks like this:
http://www.garyfixler.com/elWire01.jpg
size-wise, the inverter is on-par with a 9V:
http://www.garyfixler.com/elWire02.jpg
it came in a kit like this (4 inverters visible):
http://www.garyfixler.com/elWire03.jpg
which looks like this lit up:
http://www.garyfixler.com/elWire04.jpg
it can bend to crazy angles:
http://www.garyfixler.com/elWire05.jpg
and you can wear it like an electric headband:
http://www.garyfixler.com/elWire06.jpg
Just be careful - the high voltage through it can shock you.
tasadar24 is correct that HDR screens that use LED grids for crazy high brightness and contrast levels are not only on their way, but are here. I got a chance to see Brightside's offerings at Siggraph 2005 in LA, and the level of contrast is like nothing I've seen short of real life. The brightness levels can actually hurt your eyes, like the feeling of pain in the back of your eyes you get when looking at the sun. While beautiful, with color and contrast that were impossibly vibrant for a screen, I left thinking this couldn't possibly be good for our eyes, especially if you don't have a lot of other light on in the room to balance things out. We're going to end up with rectangular dim spots in our retinas. I already get that sometimes from Dell flat panels. Here's a pic of one of the TVs they were showing:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyfixler/31116035/in/photostream/
Look at the light on the guy's face. The amazing part is if you see a shot of someone looking from a dark room out into a brightly lit outdoor scene. The dark details are all there in the internal parts, but you have to shield your eyes from the window to see them, just like in real life - like how you can be blinded by a flashlight shined in your face, or by the real world version of the same window setting. If you look out the on-screen window, your eyes adjust, and you can see all the detail out there. If you then look back at the shadowy interior, you just see black, until your eyes adjust again, and the details re-emerge. Crazy. - raid517, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Mmm it looks like z00k just peed himself. Again...
Man aren't 12 year old kids really annoying?
Anyway z00k a word of advice, your ativar sucks (orange as a colour sucks), your nick sucks and your sig. sucks too - but more than that pretending to know something and pretending you can hold a conversation with adults really, really sucks too.
Hey you know what, have you ever watched the movie Napoleon Dynamite? I have no clue why that just popped into my head... But anyway, whatever.... - wush, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17"Because orange squares are annoying."
:-( - R4000, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Can we all just give this a rest?
z00k isn't repling, and he has gained my respect for not taking your bait...
but you all need to (and i quote from my other comment) "SHUT THE ***** UP!"
we don't need this on digg.... go use msn or something to argue!
-- R4000 - junkmail02, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1funny
- junkmail02, on 10/12/2007, -114/+3cover up my desk with this while i work on my macbook pro
- Llanowar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22I so need that for my home build interrogation room!
- R4000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'd love to help you with that :)
- seventoes, on 10/12/2007, -20/+6They could have used a better looking model...
- Kickersny, on 10/12/2007, -15/+4Wow, she's pretty rough ...
- bclinton, on 10/12/2007, -14/+4Nothing flat about her......
- junkmail02, on 10/12/2007, -70/+2perhaps this model (cute blonde)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnYPJDpgLIw
-z00k
- TexTurboesq, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1Now, that's some cool *****.
- wush, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17"My wallpaper cost more than my house!"
- selil, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6If these are bright enough they could stop a lot eye strain from computer monitors. Diffused lighting is much better for art galleries, computer rooms, and any environment where you want concentration on something that might reflect like a computer or glass over a photograph or painting.
And did you notice the reference to the Tesla? http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2006/07/20/tesla_motors_un.html - krackle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Product page: http://ceelite.com/products/lamps.asp
Anybody find out how much this stuff costs? It'd be pretty hand to have a couple of these, but it's seems like one of those damn websites that tell you all about the product, but fail to mention if it's in the reasonable price range, or for the filthy rich. There needs to be a rule out there that if you have a product on the Internet you have to at least give a price range on penalty of death.- junk, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4They have a special for an 8.5x11 inch panel and inverter for $68 here
http://www.ceelite.com/products/NYtime-Kit.asp
They need to hire a better web designer quickly. When you are selling "futuristic tech" nothing is worse than showcasing it on a website from 1997. - Philbert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3What's wrong with the web design? Not enough bells and whistles? Content is key, function before form. To me it looks stylish and gets the point across, that's all you need unless your business is web or graphic design.
- ricree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I agree with Philbert here. The site works fine, looks good, and does what it needs to do. There is no need to add in a bunch of extra bloat to the site just so they can brag about it being high tech. That's the kind of attitude that got us all those god awful flash websites.
- junk, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4They have a special for an 8.5x11 inch panel and inverter for $68 here
- mebob, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0This is pretty much just really wide EL wire or strips no?
- MrLunar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"Light bulbs go flat"
I thought for a moment they were going flat like batteries go flat. :-x - Ourasi, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Strange, I can see her fingers castings shadows on that panel. Maybe she is using PhotoShop to light her house?
- elnerdo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Isn't this what OLED's are?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oled- stephanh, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1i think its pretty close, but oled's use mostly carbon based compounds (a wide variety) and this uses phosphorus, i guess thats probly y there are no different colours
- blacksh33p, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://ceelite.com/products/NYtime-Kit.asp
- daedalus1982, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1can we got a watts comparison with say a fluorescent lights?
- daedalus1982, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2get, can we get...
- StephenCIreland, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1get 6/9 of em and make a window matrix in an office block
- vinterstille, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I happen to have a ceelite test kit (at work). While it IS flexible and do light up translucent materials - It also makes a high pitched humming noise that REALLY annoying and isn't really THAT bright.
- gfixler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The whining is the inverter, required because EL panels, which is what these are, require high voltage AC to run (usually 100+). I think specifically, the whine comes from the coil in the inverter. EL is used a lot by artists, and the Burning Man crowd, and when it becomes a problem, a small box with sound dampening is usually constructed to house the inverter. I have 100' of blue EL wire, which can run for about an hour or two on 1 9V battery, off of an inverter as small as 1" cube, which would be easy enough to hide in a box not much bigger.
It seems it should be possible when using mains power to avoid the inverter, as it's already AC, and already 110V, or 220V (or whatever you have locally), or if that's not enough, through something as simple as a voltage doubler, which shouldn't make all that whining.
- gfixler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The whining is the inverter, required because EL panels, which is what these are, require high voltage AC to run (usually 100+). I think specifically, the whine comes from the coil in the inverter. EL is used a lot by artists, and the Burning Man crowd, and when it becomes a problem, a small box with sound dampening is usually constructed to house the inverter. I have 100' of blue EL wire, which can run for about an hour or two on 1 9V battery, off of an inverter as small as 1" cube, which would be easy enough to hide in a box not much bigger.
- molecool, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Forget the light bulb - nice *****!!!!
- Flankk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Everything *does* go flat.
- molecool, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2On a more serious note - these could be great for video and film productions. They have a pretty good Kelvin range and you can basically place lights with those whereever you want.
- xjbri, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That woman looks strangely similar to Captain Janeway.
Did they have these on Voyager? Seems like Star Trek Tech. - Qtip42, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Well it's about ***** time. No more light boxes for me.
Digg is coming to a city (and computer) near you! Check out all the details on our 
© Digg Inc. 2008 —
Content posted by
