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Glow in Dark Book Text

Books pick up intermittent light, allowing continuous reading.
  (+8, -1)
(+8, -1)
  [vote for,
against]

This is what I thought the "lamppost" detector idea was about after the first couple sentences, but it was not.

So we have all tried to read a book in the car or on a train, etc. at night or dusk. Whenever a streetlamp passes by, there is more than enough light to read by, but then it passes, and you only get half a sentence or so in.

If there was high efficiency glow in the dark chemical in the ink, then the few lamps that pass by could charge up the text to allow you to read during the intervals between as well, so long as the light sources were frequent, as with street lamps. This also works during the day in tunnels, heavily tree covered areas outside at morning or evening while walking, etc.

Edit: The pages would have to be a dark color, to contrast with the light, greenish glow chemical colors that most glow in the dark things have, and to prevent the contrast from reversing when in the light versus the dark. Or, if glowey stuff can become cheap enough/people dislike reversed contrast books, the pages could be made glowey rather than the ink.

Smurfsahoy, Mar 18 2007

[link]






       [+]. I would make the paper, rather than the ink, luminous. Otherwise, as you go past the lamps, you'll alternate between dark-ink-on-white (under the light) and light-ink-on-dark (in the dark).
MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 18 2007
  

       Well, not necessarily. Glow in the dark stuff is likely to be more expensive than any normal ink OR paper, so having more of it is worse if it can be avoided.   

       Instead, what if the pages on such books were made darker than white, while the text becomes light colored (which most glow in dark chemical is anyway)? Dark dye for pages must be cheaper than the balance of glow chemical.   

       Thus, it would be light text on dark background at all times, without alternation.
Smurfsahoy, Mar 18 2007
  

       Fair enough.
MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 18 2007
  

       or have a bookmark with a wee solar panel.
po, Mar 18 2007
  

       I've recently started borrowing e-books from the local library, in part because their backlit screens mean I can read them while walking along at night. I'd prefer to be able to read a normal book rather than from a screen, so [+] for your invention.
imaginality, Mar 18 2007
  

       + I like the idea, though I don't really like that green day-glo color, I'm sure it can be made more subtle so as not to hurt the eyes.
xandram, Mar 18 2007
  
      
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