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Seekway 3D LED Cube Amazes in Glorious Colour Phasing Fashion
Posted by Haroon Malik at 10:15 AM on April 7, 2008
Seekway has put together this spectacular 3D LED display, which is capable of displaying images in full 3D (duh) at an amazing, 30 fps. The prototype consists of a 16 x 16 x 16 grid of interconnected colour LEDs and if our mathematics doesn't fail us, that's 4096 individual diodes. We're sure you'll agree; it looks amazing, but the video is even more fantastic, so jump in.
Having successfully constructed the aforementioned prototype, Seekway now have plans to enter the device into production, but they're thinking of beefing things up a litlle—how does a cube containing a 48 x 48 x 48 grid of interconnected LEDs sound? Does it sound like 11,000 diodes? Yes, yes it does. We want. Unfortunately, there is no word on prices or availability as yet. Dammit. [Technabob]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Rususeruru
Posted 9:56 AM 7/4/08
Keeping up with the Joneses just took a whole new dimension this holiday season.
Rususeruru
Papsky
Posted 9:39 AM 7/4/08
whoooa dude... totally rad!
Papsky
itb
Posted 9:39 AM 7/4/08
Those remind me of V.I.K.I. from I, Robot.
You know, with the small boxes with the faces?
itb
gStar
Posted 9:29 AM 7/4/08
This venture of which you speak has been achieved, en masse.
+ Watch video
gStar
Jesustron
Posted 9:23 AM 7/4/08
The combination of this and lsd/mushroom would be an exciting venture.
Jesustron
stargatefan.0418
Posted 9:23 AM 7/4/08
You might want to recheck that last math. It should be 111,000 diodes.
stargatefan.0418
aaj111
Posted 10:15 AM 7/4/08
I want.
aaj111
Step666
Posted 11:08 AM 7/4/08
@Wess: he's talking about the proposed 48x48x48 version which Haroon has listed as 11,000 LEDs.
Step666
judacris
Posted 11:06 AM 7/4/08
@itb: Yes. Its Logic is Undeniable.
Spooky.
judacris
Wess
Posted 10:55 AM 7/4/08
@stargatefan.0418: But the vid says 16x16x16 which is 4096. Im confused now.
Wess
Amiash
Posted 10:46 AM 7/4/08
LED cubes? Dean Koontz mentioned this at one of his novels...and it was a old book. (could dean koontz be the next messiah?)
Amiash
jamesuschrist
Posted 11:36 AM 7/4/08
It looks like they're using something like this:
[www.elexp.com]
jamesuschrist
Jango
Posted 11:20 AM 7/4/08
Your math fails you. 16 * 16 * 16 * 3 = 12,288 individual diodes. Since each pixel contains red, green, and blue diodes.
Jango
Steve Hollasch
Posted 11:58 AM 7/4/08
The tricolor LED's mentioned above cost $1.35 a piece. I went and looked at an LED site, and that's about the same price as a triple of common red, blue and green LED's in big lot sizes.
Going with $1.35 per pixel, that's $1.35 * 48^3 = $150k for the LED's alone. Now throw in several miles of wiring, and you end up with a pretty expensive lava lamp.
Steve Hollasch
GiltProto
Posted 12:05 PM 7/4/08
You'd really have something if there could be an extra transparency bit for unused LEDs. This might work better with thin fiber optics delivering the light to each 3D location to a little translucent or clear sphere. This an obviously good application for a MATLAB based controller.
GiltProto
LittleJon
Posted 12:40 PM 7/4/08
Give me... now!
LittleJon
way_down_east
Posted 12:23 PM 7/4/08
Wow, you write as if you are sleep deprived. Get some rest. Mix in a spell check. Write a blog in the morning.
way_down_east
technabob
Posted 12:55 PM 7/4/08
@Jango: From what I could tell (my Chinese isn't very good), they're using multicolor LEDs, so it is just 16x16x16 (not x3).
technabob
jawzxy
Posted 12:54 PM 7/4/08
I was excited about the 3D possibilities of this device. Then I watched the video. This needs some work...
jawzxy
technabob
Posted 12:53 PM 7/4/08
@Wess:
The video shows the 16x16x16 (4096 LED) prototype. Seekway plans on building models up to 48x48x48 (a whopping 110,592 LEDS, not 11,000).
technabob
jamesuschrist
Posted 1:28 PM 7/4/08
@Steve Hollasch: You wouldn't think they pay list price if they're using ungodly amounts of them.
jamesuschrist
malaklaze
Posted 2:02 PM 7/4/08
How come no one thought about nice round edges for that cube?
malaklaze
FinalValgas
Posted 2:16 PM 7/4/08
It's cool, but it's seizures too.
FinalValgas
CPFReviews.com
Posted 5:54 PM 7/4/08
Nice, but LED size is one of the issue, so is the connecting wires. the display seems to be impractical.
A True 3D Display should have 1mm x 1mm or LESS in size of LED, atleast 800 x 800 and wires connecting to LED's should be at most .01 mm.
I believe with todays technology, this should not be that far.
CPFReviews.com
Sockatume
Posted 1:58 AM 8/4/08
"Very little will happen at first, and then a spark will pop into existence. It will hang for an instant, hovering in space, and then it will split into two, and those will split again, and again, and again... a detonation beyond all imagining, the big bang on a small scale."
Well, that's what I thought when I saw the neat little snow thing going on.
Sockatume
twilight-arc
Posted 2:31 AM 8/4/08
Looks cool, though I would be interested to know how to build one myself.
twilight-arc
SigmundTheSeaMonster
Posted 2:54 AM 8/4/08
Now RGB Leds are about $10/ea (4 leads needed for R, G, B and Ground). Surface-mount RGB LEDs are about $1.20 each (6 leads needed)
So if they used 4096 LEDs, that's only $40K just in LEDs (and maybe less for the bulk order). However, if they used surface mounted LEDs (RGB), it would be cheaper (but not as bright).
This site has some interesting LEDs and prices...
[www.ledtronics.com]
SigmundTheSeaMonster
Subterfuge
Posted 4:24 AM 8/4/08
Why not just stack 16 OLEDs far enough apart to make a cube shape, then only use the pixels spaced out 1/16th of the screen size away from each other to create the same effect.
Subterfuge
The Great Aussie Evil
Posted 10:55 AM 8/4/08
I'd like that as a coffee table!
The Great Aussie Evil
DozeUser
Posted 2:15 PM 7/4/08
@malaklaze: that would be because cubes don't have "nice" round edges
DozeUser
leMel
Posted 8:33 AM 10/4/08
Needs 3D pong.
leMel