upr00ted

These ideas come to me at the oddest times, thoughts about how to make the world just a little better, or more often, how to make a piece of technology a bit more fun. My latest one happened when I was at MASS MoCA with a few friends. We were in a dark room where there was a video playing of a car full of fireworks exploding super-imposed over Times Square. At the end of the video it faded to black before repeating. But the room was still lit by the LCD projectors that couldn’t quite do “black.”

My million dollar idea would make LCD projectors go all the way black. It seems like a simple task, yet hasn’t been done to my knowledge.

If anyone manages to use this theory, I’d appreciate some credit, or royalties, though I know that by putting this out on my public blog, for all 2 readers to read, I’m essentially giving my idea away.

Here it goes.

Take an idea like those sunglasses that get darker when you walk outside and lighter when you go inside. As far as I know those are just a photo sensitive skin placed on the lens. If there were a way to tell those glasses to go totally dark immediately or totally light immediately you have just created an electronic shutter. All you need is some material that when electrically activated (or deactivated) goes completely opaque. Then you simply have to test the incoming signal to the projector and see if it is supposed to turn on any of its pixels. If the answer is no, then you activate the shutter. If a single pixel is supposed to be on, then you deactivate it. The benefit over a real shutter is simply that it shouldn’t increase the internal heat inside the projector where a physical barrier would.

Alright, time for bed for me, I’ll see if this still looks good in the morning.