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Japanese scientists invent floating 'firefly' light
- edmundhuber 9y agoThe first image is a composite, the actual light is not microscopic.
- vanderZwan 9y agoI think it's a long-exposure shot, with the LED moving around in space and blinking in a specific way to generate a floating R
- edmundhuber 9y agoI think you're right.
- doitLP 9y ago"New study links widespread ultrasonic 'firefly' devices with disappearing insect populations and [other unintended ecological disaster]." - Headline from 2042
- pharrington 9y ago"Hated in the Nation" was written in 2016.
- labster 9y ago"Japanese scientists invent robot girlfriends for lonely insects" -- the real cause of the insect population decline.
- jdmichal 9y agoFive to ten years, eh? https://www.xkcd.com/678/ https://www.xkcd.com/678/
- gigogkggi 9y agoHow does one read alttext on mobile devices?
- loa_in_ 9y agoLong press the image on Android browsers I used
- anonytrary 9y agoThis is a very relevant comic for quantum computing. Mainstream seems to think useful QC is 10 years away. It's cute.
- IntronExon 9y agoImagine how people in nuclear fusion research feel! 50 years for 50 years... and in 50 years? 50 more years.
- robkop 9y agoI assume they are pumping enough power to a single point to ionise the air and produce light. Would that much ultrasonic power be enough to burn human skin?
- edmundhuber 9y agoIt's an LED on a tiny PCB with an inductive loop around it. One of the images in the gallery has a picture of it. The ultrasonic puffs of air keep it suspended.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Johnny555 9y agoI expected something more like Groot's free-flying fireflies: https://youtu.be/SdZvguUeiB0?t=18s https://youtu.be/SdZvguUeiB0?t=18s
- neotek 9y agoI don't get it. Maybe I'm missing something, but how is this in any way novel? You can get a cheapish acoustic levitation kit from Tindie[1], and inductive power transmission is hardly a rare technology these days, so where's the innovation? It seems to me all they've done is made a tiny LED with a tiny coil attached to it, right? And how the hell do they expect to achieve any of the ridiculously speculative things they talk about in the article anyway? Fleets of these things flying around drawing messages in the sky isn't particularly useful if you need to position a massive bank of ultrasonic speakers and a power coil underneath them. It all smacks of the Hendo Hoverboard[2] bullshit which bad "science" "journalists" breathlessly obsessed over a few years ago, which was similarly just a rebadging of existing technology that was utterly impractical in any context except marketing, coupled with thoroughly nonsensical claims of future utility (levitating buildings during earthquakes, for instance.) [1] https://www.tindie.com/products/Makerfabs/acoustic-levitator-kit/ https://www.tindie.com/products/Makerfabs/acoustic-levitator... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMZ2cyNxPwg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMZ2cyNxPwg
- virtuowl 9y agoIt is cool but the goals they have are total bs and they know that themselves because noone who unserstands how this works would believe that stuff
- FraKtus 9y agoThat's exciting even if we are still far from a real product. There is a place for a new way of manipulating light and giving that to artists. For me, it can le be linked to the demo that Intel is going with drones and light, but on another scale...
- sandworm101 9y agoBut there is nothing new here. Artists are free today to levitate things above ultrasonic speakers. Google ultrasonic levitation. Just dont expect any local cats to be happy about your next street art installation.
- FraKtus 9y agoThere is a place for something smaller and more flexible, it's not clear from the article it this method can scale, however.
- vikiomega9 9y agoReminds me of Localizers from A Deepness in the Sky. That was a great book
- jonathanyc 9y agoFinding out that it was actually a prequel bummed me out so much.
- make3 9y agowas A Fire Upon the Deep not good?
- jamesgeck0 9y agoA Fire Upon the Deep is good. It might not be what you want out of a follow up story set in this universe. It has a heavy focus on a low technology world deep in the slow zone.
- mirimir 9y agoI didn't like the Tines stuff. I'd have rather read more about the Qeng Ho.
- jonathanyc 9y agoFire Upon the Deep was good, but was sad to find out what happened to Pham Nuwen. Makes the ending to the prequel rather bittersweet. Loved both books though :) Sorry if I gave the wrong impression.
- make3 9y agoIf you had really perfect sound/airflow control you could maybe get what looks like a movie hologram I guess, if you really miniaturize each light
- anonytrary 9y agoAlthough I haven't looked into the exact mechanism here, I think people who find this interesting may also be interested in optical tweezers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers
- TeMPOraL 9y agoThe mechanism here is more like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_tweezers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_tweezers.
- PhasmaFelis 9y agoI'm confused. The article implies that it can hover around independently, but in the gallery, it's only seen levitating inside a fat loop of copper wire connected to a stationary structure.
- stevenwoo 9y agoIt requires 285 audio speakers working at 40Khz to fly so it's going to be a stationary display like a potted plant with a light that moves.
- incompatible 9y ago"Japanese scientists invent floating 'firefly' light" followed by "Japanese engineering researchers say..." I'd guess it doesn't involve any new science and is purely an engineering project.
- booleandilemma 9y agoReminds me of Navi from The Legend of Zelda, in a way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navi_(The_Legend_of_Zelda) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navi_(The_Legend_of_Zelda)
- imron 9y agoThis was my thought to. "and be built to float about, helping us in our everyday lives" This guy has grown up on Ocarina of Time and thought "I'm going to make that happen".