Hasta La Gadget!

We’re still waiting for this so-called QR code revolution to hit North America, but our contemporaries across the Pacific are already looking to develop the next big thing. Reportedly, a smattering of mega-corps (including the likes of Toshiba and NEC) are joining hands in order to concoct a rivaling technology that requires even less effort to get content from billboards, books and posters to one’s mobile. The heretofore unnamed system utilizes blinking LEDs to send data to phones, and so long as an ad has enough room for a minuscule light, consumers can come within five meters of it and receive the associated information by simply pointing their handset in the direction of the light. If all goes well, the technology will be ready for commercialization by 2013, or just after phase one of the Robot Apocalypse.

Blinking LEDs to give QR codes a run for their (ad) money originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Look, we get the whole drive behind this 3D thing. For some, there’s no better way to experience sports, films, or console game play and consumer electronics companies are desperate for a source of new revenue. But creating a 280-inch 3D LED display meant for public areas doesn’t make a lot of sense long-term unless we’re expected to carry those swank, polarized glasses everywhere we go. Nevertheless, Sony was demonstrating the 6.4 x 3.4-meter behemoth at the International Broadcast Equipment Exhibition 2009 in Japan. The panel combines 70 LED displays into a single monstrosity of overlapping images. If nothing else this “3D LED Wall” demonstrates Sony’s rabid commitment to 3D for 2010 and an ominous future for our friends working in Times Square. See it in action after the break if you care.

Continue reading Sony 280-inch 3D LED display headed to Mr. Lee’s Greater Hong Kong

Sony 280-inch 3D LED display headed to Mr. Lee’s Greater Hong Kong originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In general, we’ve found the whole LED dress craze to be kind of a snoozer — after all, the results are usually pretty tacky, in our opinions. It seems, however, that all that has just changed — with the introduction of Cute Circuit‘s Galaxy Dress, which is made of silk and has 24,000 LEDs measuring just 2 by 2-millimeters each embroidered onto its surface. As you can see from the photograph, the dress is also quite classic and beautiful — not your usual raver’s delight. To make the dress lighter and more flexible than your average light-enhanced couture, the designers used layers of organza crinoline and silk chiffon, and they power the dress with many small iPod batteries, which are light and easily hidden in the dress. The Galaxy Dress is currently on exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago — but you can check it out for yourself in the video after the break.

[Via Wired]

Continue reading Dress lit up with 24,000 LEDs, perfect for your next formal rave

Filed under: Wearables

Dress lit up with 24,000 LEDs, perfect for your next formal rave originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Next time you compliment a woman at a party that’s she glowing, it may literally be so. Two London-based designers have created a dress embroidered with 24,000 full color LEDs .

Called the ‘Galaxy Dress’ it claims to be the largest wearable display in the world  and will be the center piece of an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

“We used the smallest full-color LEDs, flat like paper, and measuring only 2 by 2 mm,” say designers Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz in an email. “The circuits are extra-thin, flexible, and hand embroidered on a layer of silk in a way that gives it stretch so the LED fabric can move like normal fabric with lightness and fluidity.” The duo run an interactive clothing company called CuteCircuit.

Beyond the LEDs themselves, the Galaxy Dress is crafted in a way that should make the pickiest seamstresses proud.

To diffuse the LED light, the dress has four layers of silk chiffon and a pleated silk organza crinoline skirt. The extra-thin electronics allows the dress to follow the body shape closely like with normal fabric.

Instead of having one large and heavy battery, the dress is designed to run on many tiny iPod batteries hiding in the crinoline, says Rosella. “They are not visible or uncomfortable,” she says.

With the batteries, the Galaxy Dress wearer can walk around–all lit up–for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

The areas without LEDs are decorated with more than 4000 hand-applied Swarovski crystals that range from clear crystal to bright pink.  “The dress looks good even when it is switched off,” say the designers.

So far, the dress hasn’t been worn by any real woman. It went straight from the fittings model to the museum.

More photos and a video of the dress

See a video of the LED Dress that, according to the designers, consumes about the same electricity as two household bulbs.

Photos: J.B. Spector/the Museum of Science and Industry.

Bang & Olufsen may be irrelevant to those with annual salaries having fewer than six digits to the left of the decimal (or comma, if that’s how you roll), but even the laypeople can’t help but drool at a spectacle such as this. The BeoVision 10 has just landed down across the pond at Electric Pig, and they were kind enough to snap a few shots and show ’em to the world. The £6,000 price tag is definitely a stunner, but those lucky enough to lay eyes on it have said that it just might be worth it — if money ain’t a thang, you know.

Filed under: Displays

Bang & Olufsen’s BeoVision 10 orders up the ‘hands-on special’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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