I was looking at this webpage that had pics of the new Prius on it (don't stone me yet!) and it was showing the 'Yota emblem with a black background but a blue hue around the chrome emblem, which got me thinking because it sort of looked like an LCD... Someone could remove their hood emblem, say the Hood Bird for the Firebirds and then in it's spot, recess in a square LCD screen that would be flush with the body, and then you'd run in a controller board that you'd plug into with say a USB port (I'm sure they make a controller board like that to program it). Then you could program the screen with a background color to match your car's color and then have anything on it you want Such as an animated flaming Firebird or well anything you can think of

Hell, with that new Electronic Paper (aka E-Ink) that only requires a couple watch batteries to run, and is INSANELY durable, you could overlay that across the whole hood and have an animated Hood Bird A magazine was mailed out with them as part of the cover and a guy had bought a bunch of them and did a torture test; fire, screwdriver punctures, folded with a crease, liquid... They still worked! After the fire it sort of killed part of the 'screen' but c'mon how many of us are going to have a car fire
Example:
http://www.eink.com/products/index.html
More Info:
http://www.eink.com/technology/

Anywho, just one of those crazy ideas that pop into my cranium during the day (as you can see from my other thread on LED headlights).

 

that would be way to much work to make it look right. the hood is curved, the paper thingy is flat.

 

it would be easier on the filler, i think. im pretty sure it would be illegal though. you cant have motion, unless a turn signal. someone might stare at it for a few secs and crash into something, or you. thats why underglows are illegal.

 

The paper thingy bends... like paper That's why I mentioned the one guy creasing it (folding it in half) and it still working. They have to be flexible due to it being an electronic paper media, so if you include it in magazines like the one company that already did, you can't have a hard flat piece or it just wouldn't be a feasible solution. They even have flexible LCD screens as prototypes, for actually around 3 years now.

Now, for the curved bit, the only ones that would work out easily would be the 98+ Sleak Beaks and Firehawks. 93-97 is just too hard due to the two 'vents', and the Ram Airs 03-02 are just too 'mountainous'. The 93-97 Ram Air/WS6 would be much easier to apply it to, but the 98-02 would be pretty hard.


That's true, I didn't think about that, BUT since it'd be on the front (at least the small nose-bird, I said hood first but meant nose) and the car in front wouldn't be able to see it and the car in back really wouldn't The eInk hood bird though is a different story, but I'd think you could fairly easily wire it into the speed sensor to only turn on when you're going 0mph. The awesome thing about that eInk, is when there is no power supplied to it, what ever was last displayed is stuck on there. It's not like a CRT or LCD which when the power is removed, there is no display. Which is why I mentioned it as something to put over the hood. Imagine what people at car shows would think about that?

There's actually a car that one of the big audio companies did, I think it was Alpine and a Lexus or Mercedes. Anyways they replaced the tail lights with LCD screens and then for the turn signals they turned into arrows Come to think of it, I don't know how illegal something like that would be, for two reasons: Motorcycles have a flashing break light which can easily set off a seizure in... damn forgot the medical term, those who are prone to seizures from 'loud' and flashing visual stimulation (such as those web adverts that flash in multiple colors saying "YOU'RE A WINNER!!!!!!"). And secondly the old Firebirds (2nd gen?) had the 'animated' turn signals that would light up one light, two light then 3 lights progressively in the direction of the turn signal. They make kits for newer vehicles like that, which work nice on 3rd and 4th gens.

 

^ yeah sequential. i bought a kit which should come in today . but in theory your turn signals are on for 3 seconds, unless not moving at light or stop sign. Since you have an auto you could also wire it to work only when in park, but then it wouldnt at lights (although at a light if a policeman in front of you sees it id bet he pulls you over). you could put a button in the interior to turn it off too. it will be a lot of trouble but it would be cool.

 

Well, a switch would be a BREEZE for the eInk. Before I explain, from the pictures it used the 2 watch batteries as I said, which I think are the 3v ones. I assume a larger 'display' would require more power and hopefully 12v would do it. If so then we'd be able to run it off our general car power (yea I know, 14v when running, but do to the size it might need more). So with that said, a switch would be simple due to you only needing to wire it in the power wire So it works out pretty nicely, especially with it retaining it's image w/o power.

Dunno, maybe I'll look into this. I'm uncertain as to how expensive this could be. On one hand, it's pretty snazzy tech and they love to charge as much as possible for that, yet on the other hand that magazine shipped thousands of copies with it at what I'd assume would still be standard issue price. So for circuitry, batteries and the eInk paper, that would could a CRAPLOAD if it was pricey. Yet they may have gave them a super discount as a bit of a "you're putting our product out there in huge quantities, so we'll give you a killer deal since we won't have to spend as much on advertising". So, we'll see

 

Just to show some of you how close we are to seeing high image quality flexible displays (think of your car totally covered in this and it's displayed 'paint' job being just as glossy as a real only) and actually HOW flexible they are. As well as a bit more info on the eInk.

Flex Display
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/10/post-2.html

eInk (price on the bottom is for an 'electronic book', not a page cost)
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/0...ic-logics.html

 

all you need for the blue hue is 1/32 acrylic heat form it to the body with a heat gun. then drill 2 small 3.5mm holes for some led's behind it.

that will light the acrylic up and will make the edges glue. put your emblem over the plexi and trim the plexi to the same shape as the emblem

 

K... Awesome >_> heh How much of the thread did you actually read?

 

1st post

 

And only the first sentence too huh?

 

lawl i fail

 

S'Ok mang

 

Don't get me wrong here, I think those little flexible screens are cool and all, but putting one on a car just seems ricey to me. I just think of all of the pimp my ride episodes where they stuck LCD's on various parts of a car's exterior

 

haha That's a very VERY valid point I think the only difference between my idea (at least the eInk hood overlay) and what Make My Ride Retarded do, is this is to aid in the style and theirs is to .... what IS the point of them adding LCD screens in inane locations?