Recently in Humour Category

8-bit_jack_o_lantern.gifA timely post for Halloween. Thanks to CrazietGadgets for flagging this one.

They write:
Kick your Halloween into the retro future with this 8 Bit LED Jack-o-Lantern. Safer and much cooler looking than setting a blazing gourd on your front porch, this 11" x 9.25" Halloween decoration uses LED lights to simulate a flickering fire. Since it's both 8-bit and has LED's, it's old and new school all at once.
It would cost you $17.99 online dollars to buy.

See the full post >>

Fancy this one? Making your books blink to stand out from the crowd...

DevCore from Jisu Choi on Vimeo.

Thanks to BoingBoing for this one:
My pals Tod Kurt and Mike Kuniavsky are the proprietors of ThingM, a company that makes nifty programmable LEDs and other smart electronic components.

firewider in action.jpgA bit of fun - check out the "Firewinder", the LED Windlight. Courtesy of ThinkGeek, it is a wind-powered LED lighting effect where "breezes provide cool light effects".

The product specifiaction, they write, is as follows:
    * 100% wind-powered outdoor light
    * Innovative eco-designed light visualizes the energy in the wind
    * The faster the wind, the brighter Firewinder glows
    * 14 ultra bright LED lights create a spiraling light effect
    * Helical wing captures wind from all directions
    * Clean & green power generator
    * Uses recyclable materials
    * Weather resistant design for max outdoor life
    * High performance fixtures for hanging on a post or wall
    * Simple and sturdy installation with a quick-release system

A bit of fun for a Friday afternoon: LED Skateboards, anyone? Spotted this one highlighted in the Techoverse (a.k.a. the large and ever-growing collection of gadget blogs) while preparing the latest Gadget of the Week post...

LED Skateboard.jpg

GadgetsAndGear.com writes:

ping pong clock.jpgA light-hearted diversion for a Friday afternoon. Have a look at this LED-powered Ping-Pong Ball Clock.

Thanks to TechnaBob for flagging this one.
The clock looks a lot like the ones you might see on the outside of a bank, but uses ping-pong balls as the diffusers on top of a 15×7 matrix of LEDs. The LEDs are pressed into a piece of pegboard, and the display is run by an ATmega168 and a Maxim DS3232 real-time clock, connected in a circuit consisting mostly of transistors and wires. When turned off, the whole thing looks rather unassuming - like a bunch of ping-pong balls glued to a piece of wood. Oh yeah, that's what it is.
For more fun with ping pong balls and LEDs, check out these two videos:
chameleon LED.jpgJust so ever slightly creepy, maybe - but a bit of fun to highlight on a Friday. Yes, it's an LED Chameleon. Or Chameleon LED...

Check out "Huey the Colour Copying Chameleon Lamp", it'll set you back $29.99 from ThinkGeek.com.
"How does Huey do it? Well, he lights the surface underneath him with two hidden white LEDs then uses a sophisticated optical sensor to determine the correct colour. He then matches this colour by adjusting the shade of numerous multi-color LED's imbedded in his body. Huey is truly a toy of the future. Five years ago the colour sensing technology he uses was too expensive for consumer products and was featured mainly in scientific measuring devices. Now you can leverage this cool tech for your own frivolous pleasure and ThinkGeek is proud to assist you in your noble quest."
flashlight bazooka.jpgThis one caught my eye recently. And if the real thing caught your eye, you would be blinded. An LED Bazooka torch, comprising 500 5mm super-bright white LEDs... Just 50 Watt power consumption at full power!



Thanks to Techeblog for flagging this one.

Luxeed Dynamic Pixel LED Keyboard.jpgErrm. Not sure about this one...

I spotted this on the ThinkGeek website - the Luxeed Dynamic Pixel LED Keyboard.

According to the website:
With 430 LEDs the Luxeed is capable of individually lighting each key in your choice of color. What's more it can do some amazing tricks like an animated rainbow across all the keys, or make each key light when you press it.
Apparently, the U5 model requires no driver software and works with any OS. All the controls for setting the color of keys, modes and storing key presets are part of the hardware.

It will set you back around $150. If you are tempted, check out the video of the keyboard in action:
We've had LEDs in Samsung fridges and now Medea Vodka bottles feature a customisable blue LED scrolling display...

I've already blogged about a tongue-in-cheek campaign to hack this display, on Gadget Freak, but the original post from Hackaday is worth highlighting again on LED Luminaries. Check out the official instructional video for programming the display.





A bit of fun. This is what a robotic plant looks like, with (white and infrared) LEDs in the flower.

It's name is Himawari (Japanese for sunflower) and its design has apparently been influenced by the motion pattern of sunflowers, with it reacting to human movements. The stalk is driven by servo motors and there are alloy actuators in the head, but it is the reflected light from the white LED tentacles - and infrared LEDs which are used to reflect IR light - that enables movement to be tracked.
OLED noose bulbs.jpg
Is it just me or do these OLED 'pretend filament bulbs' look like nooses?

This one caught my eye over the weekend, in a blog post highlighting the flexibility of OLEDs - because there is no point-source of light they are more amenable to specialised shapes.

philips oled prototype.jpgTechnabob flags that Philips has made some interesting prototype fixtures using their new Lumiblade OLED technology.

Check them out, some are very cool. I lke the OLED rocking chair-n-light.

Alien LED jumper cable.jpgOne for your car, maybe - they jumped out at me on Sunday, browsing a website called Craziestgadgets.com.

Why are these jumper cables on this blog? They feature LED lighting on the clamps that give the alien eyes a certain blaze, and help illuminate the work at hand.

They are available from the Herrington catalogue for 35 online dollars:
"Ingenious, high-intensity LEDs on each clamp automatically light up when you squeeze open the jaws -- illuminating dark engine bays and poorly marked battery terminals," it writes.

led dragonfly.jpg
We've been writing about the rollout of LED streetlights, well, why not go the whole hog and have LED Dragonflies atop the lamps?

Note, however, they also conceal cameras for eyeing the street below. Street art and security benefits...

See these efforts, apparently from Seoul, South Korea (thanks to www.newlaunches.com for this one).
bulbdial clock built.jpg
Check out this ingenious use of LEDs, for time telling.

Basically, "Bulbdial" clocks rely on changing electric light to emulate the principles of sundials. Very impressive in their design, and they look like works of art.

Stop or I'll shoot ...my LED gun!

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When one of my friends told me that LEDs were now being used as a weapon to incapacitate suspects I was a little bit sceptical to say the least, or more truthfully I thought he should lay off the heavy stuff. However, I decided to do a quick Google search, more to shoot down his theory in flames than to see if it was true.

 

I was more than a bit surprised when I actually got some results.

extreme shepherding.jpg
A bit of fun for a Friday.

Check out this amazing video of LED-based "extreme shepherding" on the Electro-ramblings blog.

LED Lighting guides

See also Electronics Weekly's roundup of content related to LEDs, with a special focus on both white LEDs and coloured LEDs, and Lighting LEDs.

* White LEDs

* Coloured LEDs

* LED Lighting (1)

* LED Lighting (2)

* LEDs General

* LED optics

* OLEDs

* 50 year history of the LED








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Author Profiles

Paul Ward
As Opto Product Manager at Farnell, Paul is overseeing the company's involvement in the rapidly evolving and high profile LED lighting market sector.

As well as ensuring that Farnell offers the latest technologies and products related to solid state lighting, Paul is also responsible for ensuring that the resources are in place to make it easier for design engineers to specify and design-in LED solutions for their applications.

Educated in Production Engineering and Design at Sheffield Hallam University, Paul has worked in various engineering, training and marketing roles for companies including C&K switches, ITT Cannon, Cherry and LED specialist Chicago Miniature Lighting.

Away from the world of LEDs, Paul is a Founder of the charity RTTW, Photographer and Harley Davidson rider; he has ridden and snapped across Europe, New Zealand and the USA on his chrome hog!

Gordon Routledge
Gordon Routledge is one of the original pioneers in LED illumination having worked with LEDs in illumination applications since 1996. Currently VP of Illumination at Dialight, Gordon founded Lumidrives in 2001, having previously been managing director at ACDC Lighting Systems. Gordon has a degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from university of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.

Ian Bryant
ian bryant.jpgIan Bryant is Business Development Manager LED Division at Carclo Technical Plastics. He has worked on and off at Carclo (Formerly Combined Optical Industrial) since leaving school. He has worked through the company from Toolmaking to starting the company on the road of LED optics business some 6-7 years ago, starting with a standard range and more in line with the business of custom optics. In between all this he has worked in engineering and as a works Director for a hydraulics company but kept getting pulled back to the optics industrial. We are able to offer the full solution from idea to parts so have a very good understanding on what is needed. You will see some posts from our design team also under my name.

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