World’s Strangest

These are quadrotors equipped with multicolor LEDs — 49 of them, flying/dancing in unison. The show, called Cloud In the Network, took place at German art conference Ars Electronica. This is reportedly the largest number of synchronized drones in flight, and as Motherboard author Derek Mead notes, is probably “what the end of the world will [...]

(vimeo link) Is it confetti? Is it snow? No, Pixel Rain is a beautiful cloud of LEDs falling from the sky at at a Black Keys performance. The stunt was a collaboration between the Moment Factory and Air France, recorded at the closing concert of Osheaga 2012 music festival in Montreal. -via The Daily What

European surfboard manufacturer Pukas made some prototype surfboards embedded with LEDs and sent them out to some professional surfers for a tryout. They look awesome! See more pictures and some videos at If It’s Hip, It’s Here. Link  -via Buzzfeed

Last night, talk show host Conan O’Brien revealed his holiday decorations (which includes Godzilla, King Kong, and the Christmas UFO) while wearing a Santa Claus beard composed of tree lights. He also sported a fiber optic topknot on his lighted hat. The costume was over the top, but it wasn’t exactly a breakthrough in illuminated clothing. [...]

Mike Szczys went all out this Halloween and installed a matrix of 70 LEDs in a pumpkin! The result is a way to scroll messages in the dark for visitors and trick-or-treaters. See a video of the Jack-o-Lantern in action, and the complete process of building it at Hack a Day. Link -Thanks, Mike!

LEDs are the way to use tons and tons of lights and still use very little electricity. Artists, sculptors, and architects use LEDs to create stunning light displays, like this one found at the Italian Light Sculpture Festival in Nanjing, China. See more pictures from the festival and other LED art projects at WebEcoist. Link [...]

There are traditional Jack-o-Lanterns with a face carved on the front and a candle inside. Then there are art pumpkins, with skillfully carved scenes of all kinds. A third category contains the geeky Jack-o-Lanterns that do something strange and unexpected, like the ones we are looking at today. 1. RoboPumpkin Yes, this is a real pumpkin! The [...]

This Tardis cake by Barbara-Jo of Do it myself! blog is so awesome that the Time Lord himself would probably go back in time to prevent it from being eaten. The Tardis cake a quarter-scale (2 feet tall) and has LEDs and mirrors to  create the illusion that the inside is actually larger. Everything that you [...]

XP3 Ultra Clock, a “persistence of vision” clock – $59.95 This one’s a classic, but it’s still pretty nifty. Here’s a clock that uses an oscillating wand with LEDs and the concept of the persistence of vision to tell time and display messages. You can even program your own messages. Over at the Neatorama Shop: Link