11 ms·
Isamu Akasaki, inventor of first efficient blue LED, has died
- ur-whale 6y agoIIRC, the company he worked for when he discovered / invented the blue LED was - shall we say - not particularly inclined to give him his dues.
- slow_kindjal 6y agoYou are talking about Shuji Nakamura.
- biscuit1 6y agoAnecdotally, Nakamura seems to get most of the credit in American academia
- fireattack 6y agoProbably because he's in American academia?
- gimmeThaBeet 6y agoI believe you might be thinking about Shuji Nakamura (and his then-employer Nichia), one of the other two who shared the prize. Akasaki and Amano were mostly associated with Nagoya University, and Akasaki later with Meijo.
- ur-whale 6y agoYou are correct, didn't recall correctly.
- amelius 6y agoWell, do inventors at Apple ever get any recognition? I only hear about their product designer Jony Ive.
- Blikkentrekker 6y agoI would assume that dues are about money, not recognition.
- amelius 6y agoMost likely, but they are very related and I was thinking about both.
- bumbada 6y agoUsually Apple does not invent anything, they design using what other people have invented. Apple does not focus on research as much as in development. They put billions into factories that mass produce what has been already proven to work. Multi touch for example was not invented by Apple, Apple bought a company that invented most of the technology and brought it into telephones. They did not invented Gorilla glass or accelerometers or small hard drives(like in the old ipod). They approached inventors and offered using their technologies in the millions or tens of millions of units.
- mjhagen 6y agoThey used to, with the original Macintosh.
- astrange 6y agoYou can find their names on their patents or on their Linkedins.
- ChrisMarshallNY 6y agoJapan, in general, does not like to highlight individuals; instead, focusing on the team. My boss wrote a book about color management, featuring the devices we made, and they made him remove his name. He did 100% of the work.
- asiachick 6y agoIt's true. But still there are plenty of examples of people in Japan taking credit vs the company. Hideo Kojima, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Yu Suzuki, to name a few. Also, they take all the credit even though they also had teams, often who did all the real creative work. They also rarely share the rewards. Yu Suzuki had 6 expensive sports cars (Ferrari, etc...) while his teams worked 80hr weeks and got paid $30k-$40k salaries.
- robin_reala 6y agoI think my first blue LED was in the power button of the Playstation 2. Something that made it seem exceptionally futuristic at the time.
- handol 6y agoThen came the fad of the bright blue, "plugged in but turned off" indicator on consumer electronics that had to be taped over if you wanted to sleep in the same room as the device.
- ed25519FUUU 6y agoThis fad has unfortunately not fully died yet!
- oblio 6y agoAgreed. One of my monitors can attest to that. Black duct tape, to match the monitor design :-))
- JonathonW 6y agoThe PS2 got it right-- its power button was a red/green bicolor LED (red on standby; green when powered on). The blue LED was on the eject button, and was only lit while the console was powered on (and a disc was loaded, IIRC).
- raimondious 6y agoYes! One of my first hobby electronics projects as a kid was adding a blue LED to an RC car just for the cool factor.
- mjhagen 6y agoMy Sony amp from '99 had one which they actually enhanced with some acrylic to make it appear even larger. Yes I bought it specifically because it had that blue LED.
- _Microft 6y agoThe effect that some people's work eventually has on everyone's life can be just amazing. In this case it enabled LED lighting for everyone. Transistors (Bardeen, Shockley), lasers or artificial fertilizer (Haber, Bosch) also come into mind.
- ampdepolymerase 6y agoA more important question is, how well were they compensated? Most of the value are not captured by the original inventors.
- netrus 6y agoTo be fair, to a certain degree that's part of the deal in academia. Tenure is like an reverse insurance, everyone gets a salary, even if only few will be able to make significant contributions. And that's okay, because a lot of luck is involved in individual success in academia.
- neolog 6y agoWhat do you mean by original inventor?
- outworlder 6y agoCompany's gross went from 200 million USD to 800 million USD. He got $180. After a lawsuit, they settled for around 8 million. Got a Nobel prize too.
- sneak 6y agoSimilar story around AIDS-denier Kary Mullis, who invented PCR. I think his employer sold the patent for >$1B. 1993 Nobel in chemistry. I remember reading about him in Omni magazine.
- dls2016 6y agoRegarding the lawsuit, I believe you’re thinking of Nakamura. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuji_Nakamura https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuji_Nakamura
- boredpandas777 6y agoI remember back in 1990 there were no efficient blue LEDs. We were desperately looking for a solid state blue light source to get some chemical to fluoresce and the source had to be small and efficient. The initial SiC diodes which I think came out in 1992-1994 were not powerful enough. Huge progress has been made since then.
- edoceo 6y agoOh, I remember when blue LEDs became readily available (late 90s for me) and I would mod all my stuff to blue. Had this MS ergo keyboard, with the LEDs in the middle hump, came with green. So, I replaced with these 2.5 hi-blues and I was blinded by my own Numlock-Beam. Had to cross a resistor over there to take the edge off. Anyway, I think HN should get a black-bar because the blue LED is so cool.
- Aardwolf 6y agoI found myself taping over some blue LEDs because they were so bright at night!
- randrews 6y agoI have a laptop charger with one that I taped over with kapton tape: the orange kapton is almost the exact opposite of the blue LED so you're left with a dim white indicator, no blinding brightness.
- boomlinde 6y agoI hate them with a passion for this reason but on second thought maybe I can't really blame it on the LEDs themselves. People seem to give them too much forward voltage and don't always use diffusing packaging, which would have made them much more pleasant to look at. Then again, I rarely see such problems with products with red or amber LEDs. I have a synthesizer with blue LEDs that's particularly obnoxious. It's probably feeding them 5V and there's of course no diffusion at all. I've taped all of them over with a layer of duck tape and they're still too bright.
- bawolff 6y agoAllegedly blue LEDs are supposed to be really disruptive to sleep (not just due to brightness but due to wavelength. Body interprets blue as daylight and red dusk or something)
- httpsterio 6y agoWell, you're right sort off. Blue light is related to the production of melatonin, which is used regulate our sleep cycle. Blue light (aka shorter waveforms) blocks the melatonin production, most likely a genetic factor as the blue wavelength is related to the sun's day cycle.
- ericj5 6y agoDo blue LEDs on home electronics bother anyone else at night time as much as it does me? They appear so much brighter to me than other colors
- chrisseaton 6y ago> Do blue LEDs on home electronics bother anyone else at night time as much as it does me? Don't have home electronics in your bedroom is my advice.
- kgermino 6y agoEasier said than done unfortunately. For example: it's hard to get through summer without a fan or air conditioner in your bedroom by me. A surprising number of those come with always on lights and it's not always clear until you plug them in. Beyond that there's just "not everyone has the luxury of a single purpose room." Especially now, lots of people need to setup their home office in their bedroom. I have a vacuum with an always on indicator light, and the only good place to put it is a bedroom. Some people have studios and their entire apartment is their "bedroom." All in: you're right, it's best to keep your electronics out of the bedroom, but that's not always practical and way to many things have unnecessary status lights.
- Cerium 6y agoI just black tape everything in my bedroom. I don't need to see a light to know the fan is on.
- mhh__ 6y agoHaving grown up in a small house and spent quite a lot of time in a friends house which is a lot bigger (I'm still young, so this was very much post video games for example), I think the mental separation of having multiple rooms in a house (rather than everything being done in my bedroom) is probably worth another 5 or 10 percent on exams for me at least. The idea of having a "games room" for example is utterly unthinkable to me still, for example.
- 6y ago
- gus_massa 6y agoI remember in ~2000, I went with my wife to buy some LEDs. The price of red, orange, yellow and green was $0.1 each, so we bought 10 of each. We were very surprised that they also had blue LEDs, so we asked the price and it was $2 each. After some deliberation we only bought only 2 of them. I'm still surprised when I see a cheap toy or device with a blue or white LED.
- hathawsh 6y agoI agree, fond memories. Today you can get all the popular colors for less than a penny each. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32848810276.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32848810276.html
- stevebmark 6y agoNow's a good time to read up on blue light, macular degeneration, blue blockers, and F.lux.
- cush 6y agoSo he's who I can blame! Just kidding, but in reality I do cover up any and every blue LED that comes in my house. No thank you every electronics manufacturer in existence!
- oblio 6y agoWell, if you look a bit past the immediate effect of having blue LEDs, I doubt you cover any and every LCD screen/touch screen that comes into your house. Since you know, those use LEDs (including blue ones) as backlighting :-D Similar story for LED lamps, I'm reasonably sure those are derived from blue LEDs.
- cush 6y agoWhere would we we in a world without Zinc!? wakes up in a cold sweat Noooo come back zinc!
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- kbelder 6y agoJust as important, or even more-so, this allowed efficient controllable multicolor and white LED lights, since we already had red and green LEDs.
- HWR_14 6y agoIt allowed white LEDs in another, more important, way. There was a quantum leap required to go from Green to Blue. That same technical insight led to UV leds, which means florescent white light LEDs in various temperatures.
- anorphirith 6y agoI remember reading the article about blue LED's finally being invented, then about a year later I saw my city (Lyon) started using them downtown to light the street markers. I as impressed at the adoption speed
- karmakaze 6y agoI remember reading the story of the development and breakthrough of the blue semiconductor laser in Scientific American (in print). Looked it up[0], it was Sept '97. Quite fascinating, it was a holy grail of sorts in that it would lead to higher resolution applications (Blu-ray) as well as round out the RGB to be able to make the range of visible colors. One thing I remember about the article was that it's hard to say 'blue' with a Japanese accent and it comes out 'true baroo'. Shortly after there were lots of expensive blue LEDs being added to lots of high-end items, including audiophile equipment that two of my family members made (separate brands: one tube, one solid-state). [0] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/true-blue/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/true-blue/
- TedDoesntTalk 6y agoThat article mentions blue laser. Is that the same as blue LED?
- karmakaze 6y agoI'm no expert but I think they're closely related. There are gas lasers and semiconductor lasers. I think a semiconductor laser without any amplification/mirrors is essentially an LED. The blue LED used Gallium Nitride (GaN) which also used in blue lasers.
- anyfoo 6y agoI distinctively remember buying my first blue LED in what must have been the mid-90s. I simply walked into an electronic parts store and bought a single spare LED. I don't think I had ever seen a blue LED in action before, it was completely new to me, so I was very curious. It was of the very common standard shape and size LEDs were during that time, and its case was colorless but cloudy, not clear. A good thing, because that meant the LED would emit its light along the entire casing, not just straight forward, making it much easier to look at. It also wasn't much brighter than other LEDs, that came later. When I applied power and saw it shining in that beautiful blue color, I was positively amazed. This was so much cooler and so much more beautiful than the red, green, and yellow LEDs I had been using before. I distinctively remember just leaving it attached to power, sitting on my desk, just for something nice to look at.
- uncledave 6y agoI totally get that. I did exactly the same. Cost £8 at the time if I remember as well which is a hell of a lot of money for an LED. It was just so different to the yellow, red and green ones. I was buying a bit of the future. But roll on to today and the things are mostly a nuisance In my life. I’ve got one shining at me off my monitor now. If I scoot myself up in my chair a bit it doesn’t annoy me as much. I may stick some tape over it. Still, RIP Mr Akasaki. Your contribution to the world is a net good one. Without it we probably wouldn’t have white leds :)
- VBprogrammer 6y agoI remember there was a phase in the late 90s when all of the premium gear had blue LEDs. I remember a Cambridge Audio amp rack and CD player a flat mate had. Now of course they are used on all of the most tacky direct from China stuff.
- nfriedly 6y agoYep, I have one computer with black electrical tape over the blue LEDs, and another where I added a resistor in between the motherboard and the light.
- 6y ago
- sneak 6y agoThe purple made by mixing blue LEDs with red LEDs (it's a very distinct purple) is my favorite color (after black, of course). This man made it possible for LED purple to be everywhere.
- cyberpunk 6y agoDo you have an image of this? I am having a hard time imaging it..
- sneak 6y agoI'm not sure if it doesn't photograph well or if modern displays aren't good at reproducing it, but I have never seen a photograph that does the color justice. Perhaps that's why I like it: it's novel when one is used to looking at screens all day.
- antonzabirko 6y agoDang covid has killed a lot of brilliant humans. So many obituaries here are from covid
- 1-6 6y agoPlease read carefully and comment after. He passed away from Pneumonia. There is no mention of COVID anywhere in this article or online.
- junon 6y agoI remember when I saw my first blue LED. It immediately felt like I was in the future, and I remember how bright it was lighting up the entire room in the dark.
- sjwright 6y agoA joke I first saw on Twitter: LED status key Green - online Red - error Amber - busy Blue - modern (Source: https://twitter.com/deviantollam/status/1345143016307113985 https://twitter.com/deviantollam/status/1345143016307113985 )
- Black101 6y agoThis is the error I get when clicking that Twitter link: https://i.imgur.com/B4ackBV.png..............I_HATE_TWITTER/a.png https://i.imgur.com/B4ackBV.png..............I_HATE_TWITTER/... Reloading the page fixes it.. I've had this issue for probably about a year with Twitter.
- mrweasel 6y agoBlue = Bluetooth. At this point a blue LED is a little early 2000 electronics.
- Goog_l_Dude_l 6y agoFor anyone wondering (like I was): Why A Blue LED Is Worth A Nobel Prize (2014) https://www.popsci.com/article/technology/why-blue-led-worth-nobel-prize/ https://www.popsci.com/article/technology/why-blue-led-worth...
- 1-6 6y agoI remember when upgrading Nokia 3310’s to Blue LEDs was a thing in Chinatown. People’s phones glowed like something out of the world back then.
- koreanguy 6y ago"had been recognized for the invention which has contributed to bright and energy-saving white light sources," contributing and inventing are two different things the real info Oct. 9, 1962: First Visible LED Is Demonstrated Nick Holonyak, Jr. demonstrates the world’s first light-emitting diode (LED) to General Electric suits,
- discordance 6y agoWould be interesting to see how many deaths are attributed to 'pneumonia' of late in Japan.
- person_of_color 6y agoThis makes me want to work on fundamental technology that will change the world.
- backtoyoujim 6y ago"I gotta get me a blue LED or something because that blue light ... is bad ass." https://www.theunticket.com/audio/drops/mattmcconbluelight.mp3 https://www.theunticket.com/audio/drops/mattmcconbluelight.m...
- mark-r 6y agoI always have trouble with the official story of the blue LED, because I had a 1985 Volkswagen Golf that had a blue LED for the high-beam indicator. It might not have been as bright as today's blue LEDs, but it was bright enough to be useful.
- toast0 6y agoCould have been electroflorescent, like the timex backlights?
- LgWoodenBadger 6y agoHow do you know it was an led?
- winrid 6y agoIt wasn't an LED, but was made to look like the LEDs next to it: https://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&id=how-to_2%2Freplacing-dash-leds https://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&id=h...