
Japanese scientists invent floating 'firefly' light - interconnector
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-lights-floating/japanese-scientists-invent-floating-firefly-light-idUSKCN1G7132
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neotek
I don't get it. Maybe I'm missing something, but how is this in any way novel?

You can get a cheapish acoustic levitation kit from Tindie[1], and inductive
power transmission is hardly a rare technology these days, so where's the
innovation? It seems to me all they've done is made a tiny LED with a tiny
coil attached to it, right?

And how the hell do they expect to achieve any of the ridiculously speculative
things they talk about in the article anyway? Fleets of these things flying
around drawing messages in the sky isn't particularly useful if you need to
position a massive bank of ultrasonic speakers and a power coil underneath
them.

It all smacks of the Hendo Hoverboard[2] bullshit which bad "science"
"journalists" breathlessly obsessed over a few years ago, which was similarly
just a rebadging of existing technology that was utterly impractical in any
context except marketing, coupled with thoroughly nonsensical claims of future
utility (levitating buildings during earthquakes, for instance.)

[1] [https://www.tindie.com/products/Makerfabs/acoustic-
levitator...](https://www.tindie.com/products/Makerfabs/acoustic-levitator-
kit/)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMZ2cyNxPwg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMZ2cyNxPwg)

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virtuowl
It is cool but the goals they have are total bs and they know that themselves
because noone who unserstands how this works would believe that stuff

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doitLP
"New study links widespread ultrasonic 'firefly' devices with disappearing
insect populations and [other unintended ecological disaster]." \- Headline
from 2042

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pharrington
"Hated in the Nation" was written in 2016.

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anonytrary
Although I haven't looked into the exact mechanism here, I think people who
find this interesting may also be interested in optical tweezers.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers)

~~~
TeMPOraL
The mechanism here is more like
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_tweezers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_tweezers).

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booleandilemma
Reminds me of Navi from The Legend of Zelda, in a way.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navi_(The_Legend_of_Zelda)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navi_\(The_Legend_of_Zelda\))

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imron
This was my thought to.

"and be built to float about, helping us in our everyday lives"

This guy has grown up on Ocarina of Time and thought "I'm going to make that
happen".

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PhasmaFelis
I'm confused. The article implies that it can hover around independently, but
in the gallery, it's only seen levitating inside a fat loop of copper wire
connected to a stationary structure.

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stevenwoo
It requires 285 audio speakers working at 40Khz to fly so it's going to be a
stationary display like a potted plant with a light that moves.

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vikiomega9
Reminds me of Localizers from A Deepness in the Sky. That was a great book

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jonathanyc
Finding out that it was actually a prequel bummed me out so much.

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make3
was A Fire Upon the Deep not good?

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jamesgeck0
A Fire Upon the Deep is good. It might not be what you want out of a follow up
story set in this universe. It has a heavy focus on a low technology world
deep in the slow zone.

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mirimir
I didn't like the Tines stuff. I'd have rather read more about the Qeng Ho.

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FraKtus
That's exciting even if we are still far from a real product. There is a place
for a new way of manipulating light and giving that to artists. For me, it can
le be linked to the demo that Intel is going with drones and light, but on
another scale...

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sandworm101
But there is nothing new here. Artists are free today to levitate things above
ultrasonic speakers. Google ultrasonic levitation. Just dont expect any local
cats to be happy about your next street art installation.

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FraKtus
There is a place for something smaller and more flexible, it's not clear from
the article it this method can scale, however.

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incompatible
"Japanese scientists invent floating 'firefly' light" followed by "Japanese
engineering researchers say..." I'd guess it doesn't involve any new science
and is purely an engineering project.

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jdmichal
Five to ten years, eh?

[https://www.xkcd.com/678/](https://www.xkcd.com/678/)

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anonytrary
This is a very relevant comic for quantum computing. Mainstream seems to think
useful QC is 10 years away. It's cute.

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IntronExon
Imagine how people in nuclear fusion research feel! 50 years for 50 years...
and in 50 years? 50 more years.

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make3
If you had really perfect sound/airflow control you could maybe get what looks
like a movie hologram I guess, if you really miniaturize each light

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robkop
I assume they are pumping enough power to a single point to ionise the air and
produce light.

Would that much ultrasonic power be enough to burn human skin?

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edmundhuber
It's an LED on a tiny PCB with an inductive loop around it. One of the images
in the gallery has a picture of it.

The ultrasonic puffs of air keep it suspended.

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edmundhuber
The first image is a composite, the actual light is not microscopic.

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vanderZwan
I think it's a long-exposure shot, with the LED moving around in space and
blinking in a specific way to generate a floating R

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edmundhuber
I think you're right.

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Johnny555
I expected something more like Groot's free-flying fireflies:

[https://youtu.be/SdZvguUeiB0?t=18s](https://youtu.be/SdZvguUeiB0?t=18s)

