after looking at your rough calculations briefly youre probably right. probably would last like 2 minutes or something realistically...wonder what we're missing (probably not much)...or what he is missing haha.

2/22/2008 1:10:25 PM

Quote :

"it already uses 50lbs. of weights to get those 4 hours, which makes it impractical or impossible for children, the elderly, super lazy people, etc. to use. if they could double the time and cut the weight in half, it would be much better off."

pullys, levers

2/22/2008 1:17:59 PM

Minion your calculations are fun... but your leaving out stuff in the conversions... V=IR... P=VI... and your dealing with diodes which are non-linear devices...

power does remain constant over infinity, but temporarily it's possible to borrow power from the future(average)... it's a very basic principle as to how your 1000w amp only pulls 600VA's or so...

(I don't have time to really derive stuff... but it definitely wouldn't take much to make this work... blue LED's I worked with were stupid bright and only required 10uW each)

2/22/2008 3:34:19 PM

i'll give you that they are non-linear, but they're still going to have draw that's higher than what he's assuming, given that he's trying to achieve something that's going to produce 600 lumens on the low end. i'd still argue that it's not possible to produce 600 lumens of light with what he's proposing.

as far as leaving stuff out in conversions, what have i left out? i'm curious (not trying to be arrogant).

2/22/2008 3:43:31 PM

Quote :

"but I hate press releases and articles that take generally known ideas and try to present them as something new. I don't see, for example, how they could get through a whole press release on that lamp without writing something to the effect of "it works on the same principle as a grandfather clock". To pretend like this is a new technique to power anything is intellectually dishonest"

Newsflash, 99% percent of new inventions are new applications and innovative uses of already existing technology and ideas, "if I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" - Isaac Newton, but I guess all the ideas he came up with were total crap ripoffs too

2/22/2008 3:53:05 PM

jesus dude, who said anything about "crap ripoffs"? I know that almost all science, technology, inventions, art, humor, entertainment, etc is based on older material. And that's great - that's how we make progress. I just think that when one thing (a falling weight to power a lamp) is so blatantly based on another thing (a falling weight to power a clock) then it should be noted.

As has been pointed out on page 1, though, the official description of the device on core77.com rightfully attributes the concept of the lamp to ancient timepieces, just the VT press release didn't pick up on this important note. So it's not so much that I have a problem with the device itself, the problem is, as usual, shoddy science and technology reporting. The newspaper would have been better off just reprinting the 4 paragraphs written about the Gravia on the core77 product description, which were very clear, concise and accurate.

from http://www.core77.com/competitions/greenergadgets/projects/4306/

Quote :

"The precedent for this lamp lies within horology, the science of keeping time. Gravia recalls the archetypes of 'grandfather clock', 'hourglass' and 'wind-up clock'. User input provides the potential energy for these devices, and maintains a cycle of timely upkeep for the life of the object."

[Edited on February 22, 2008 at 4:21 PM. Reason : .]

2/22/2008 4:05:22 PM

looks like others have done the same calculation minon did. They updated the article with the following:

http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2008&itemno=111

Quote :

"Feb. 21 Update: While many people want to know when the lamp will be available, many others point out that it won't actually work. The criticism is that a great deal of weight –- tons -- would be required and current LEDs are not sufficiently efficient. Designer Clay Moulton acknowledges that the current state of the art isn't sufficient to actually build the lamp. The news release should have said: “based on future developments in LED technology." Moulton said: “I was told it was not possible given current LED's, but given the rapid pace of innovation in low powered lighting, it would be a conceptual challenge. The mechanism itself is the novelty. I hope everyone understands that this criticism and even failure is all part of a process, and that my job as a designer is to take this feedback and work on." The award was for a conceptual design project based on future technology, and the lamp was one of many futuristic designs recognized at the Greener Gadgets Conference. "

so in the end, this guy is an architecture major working on an industrial design project with little knowledge about the engineering that would be required for his product to actually work.....

the first time I read the article, I actually thought it was kind of odd that 2 paragraphs were devoted to talking about the acrylic and the material the lamp would be made of, which is (at least to engineers) not nearly as interesting as the actually mechanism of how the lamp would work. but I guess it makes sense that a student focused on Industrial Design would spend more time working on and talking about the materials than the engineering

[Edited on February 22, 2008 at 4:26 PM. Reason : .]

2/22/2008 4:23:57 PM

well fuck this guy for winning 2nd place in a design contest then. here i am trying to defend his little invention and it's not even real! i guess it's my fault for assuming but when you are awarded 2nd place, are applying for a patent, and give out specs like how long it will run and how bright it will be, i figured they at least had a proof of concept prototype or something.

maybe i will invent a machine that turns piss into cold beer (only in my head) this summer and see who will give me a prize.

2/22/2008 5:37:05 PM

^then when someone actually does the engineering behind it years later, you just slap them with a patent infringing...

2/22/2008 6:01:12 PM

Quote :

"maybe i will invent a machine that turns piss into cold beer (only in my head) this summer and see who will give me a prize."

They already have that.

It's called Busch Light.

2/22/2008 6:55:54 PM

zing!

2/22/2008 7:31:17 PM