Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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LEDiamond

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Women (and some men) have an irrational love of very high refractive indices, with values well above 2 (particularly in the visible wavelengths) being particularly sought after. Unfortunately, one of the materials with the highest refractive index, across the visible range, is diamond. Even though synthetic diamonds are now available in quite large sizes, they are still fairly expensive.

Closer investigation, though, reveals that diamond-lovers are often unaware of refractive indices, and instead use words like "sparkle", "fire" and "flash". All they are really interested in is having an object that can bounce, refract and split light so as to produce multiple flashes of different colours.

MaxCo. is therefore developing LEDiamonds for the cost- conscious sparklophile. Each lovingly mass-produced LEDiamond is hewn from the finest borosilicate glass, and has a dense array of tri-colour LEDs bonded to each of its surfaces, except the front one. A tiny light sensor is also bonded to the back surface. The LEDiamond, in turn, interfaces with a genuine gold-effect ring that houses a small battery, a wireless charging coil, an accelerometer and some integrated circuitry.

As you move your hand to show off your LEDiamond, the light sensor detects the ambient light. The accelerometer, in response to your hand movement, triggers a series of bright, transient flashes, in colours that are a subset of the incoming light. The light sensor can also be deactivated, so that your LEDiamond can sparkle brilliantly in even the dimmest room.

So far, we have only managed to produce LEDiamonds down to a size of around 10 carats. We hope to be able to get things down to 5 or even 2 carats, though these will of course be much more expensive.

MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 27 2019

floating parabolic mirror illusion causes 3d things to appear to float above it https://www.google....ish+mirror+illusion
[beanangel, Jan 27 2019]

[link]






       Pretentious idiocy will beat practicality ten out of ten times, but here's a small loaf for trying.
Voice, Jan 27 2019
  

       [mb] You might find a number of halfbaked minds that think alike on this idea.   

       You could fancy it up even more if you put a floating parabolic dish illusion [link] at the glass so the "fire" appears to levitate above the ring.
beanangel, Jan 27 2019
  

       Apparently cubic zirconia gems have more 'fire' than diamonds, and there are processes used to nerf it back. Seemed to me like they'd kind of missed the point.   

       Maybe you could have a few settings:   

       Fake (or as described by marketing - "Like a diamond")
Chav (about twice as sparkly, still somewhat realistic. A.k.a. "ultimate bling")
Full-on, constant glittering ("Princess sparkle pixiedust")
Loris, Jan 28 2019
  

       // Women (and some men) have an irrational love of very high refractive indices, with values well above 2 (particularly in the visible wavelengths) being particularly sought after. //   

       Having correctly stated the issue (irrationality), the proposed solution fails to address the actual problem.   

       That problem is not "sparkle", "fire", "glitter", shortage of supply, difficulty of synthesis, or anything so related. What is required is a better (much better, although even a slight improvement would be beneficial) version of the human female, which exhibits an alarming tendency to malfunction in a number of unpredictable and catastrophic ways.   

       If this were done, not only would the "sparkly things" problem be solved, but many others too.   

       It astonishes us how your species has survived as long as it has. Then again, won't be for much longer ...
8th of 7, Jan 28 2019
  

       grr, I had essentially the same idea over Christmas but was too busy deciding between booze varieties to write it up. Anyhow, I thought mounting the LED behind the stone was the way to go, in a sort of pyramidal shape to fire at all the relevant internal faces. It might be sensible to go with phosphorus coating as RGB LEDs might lead to embarrassingly notchy spectra should it be expanded over some white paper or something.
bs0u0155, Jan 28 2019
  

       I presume you mean a phosphor coating. Phosphorus is not a phosphor, AFAIK.
notexactly, Jan 28 2019
  

       //RGB LEDs might lead to embarrassingly notchy spectra// That is a good point. Howevertheless, room lights these days tend to be either fluorescents or LEDs, and both are a bit notchy (at least, according to my CD-spectroscope*), so you might get away with it as long as you don't go outside.   

       (*I.E., a spectroscope made by looking at the reflections in an old CD; not a circular dichroism spectroscope.)
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 28 2019
  

       //broadcast the bonded swiss bank acccount// Actually, [bigs], you might have actually had an actual idea. If there were some way to display your total net worth in simple digits, but with no possibility of fibbing, it might become the next fashion accessory.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 28 2019
  

       // CD-spectroscope*   

       *I.E., a spectroscope made by looking at the reflections in an old CD; not a circular dichroism spectroscope. //   

       Reminds me of trying use Google to find instructions to build a compact disc spectroscope, years ago…
notexactly, Jan 28 2019
  

       //It astonishes us how your species has survived as long as it has//   

       Me too. We've been around for between 300,000 and 800,000 years. The Borg have been around since 1989, which makes them...Hey! Happy 30th birthday!
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 28 2019
  

       Your species has only been aware of us for that long ... we have been watching you for a lot longer.   

       Still, a card would have been nice.
8th of 7, Jan 29 2019
  

       Isn't Borg just the abbreviated name for Borgasuarus, a loathsome type of dinosaur that somehow survived the great extinction and eventually evolved into a strain of turnip eating maggot?
xenzag, Jan 29 2019
  

       No, that's Belgians.
8th of 7, Jan 29 2019
  

       Wait. You're saying the Borg are Belgians? That explains all the waffle.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 29 2019
  

       The nearest we've ever got to Assimilating a Belgian was Jean-Luc Picard, who claimed to be french. That was more than enough, thankyou ...
8th of 7, Jan 29 2019
  

       //condescension squared// Damn. I was going for cubed. I knew I should have used more 'actually's.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 29 2019
  

       //the Borg are Belgians//   

       No, but "Borg" is the most common surname on Malta.
pertinax, Feb 01 2019
  

       Waffling on again about the Gecko's Foot book, couldn't you do something like the Peacock feather shimmer?
not_morrison_rm, Feb 03 2019
  
      
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