Patterned carpets are soft, warm, and pretty, but not long after you get them, boring. So use photolyto chipbuilding techniques to make fine conductive strands of little devices with microscopic shutters over the 3 primary colors – a single pixel of color e-paper - each with a unique ID built in. Weave them with ordinary wool or wool-like synthetic into yarn, loop-pull the yarn into a carpet. Send trickles of electricity for both power and data – the data packet is just START-address-r-g-b-STOP to draw an image. Now your room carpet can change its pattern, display photos, text, or whatever you can imagine and realize in software. And it’s still warm and wooly.
-- CraigD, Nov 05 2015

Actually this is a practical idea. Go to Quirky with it.
-- pashute, Nov 05 2015


Just one question, how do you map the space to address to get sharp lines? Carpet loops can change with brushing , compression and pets. I suppose if the 'loopixel' density is high enough, then some sort of statistical blur may still give good pictures.
-- wjt, Nov 07 2015


I think that problem could be solved with a high- resolution camera mounted on the ceiling. Software would simply activate each pixel on the carpet in turn, and the camera would map out its location. Then a simple Polanski-Swanson transform would be fed back to the carpet's software to produce a crisp image.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 07 2015


[MB] Would this allow motion (whirlpool) as well as still (elevator shaft)?
-- cudgel, Nov 07 2015


Love this for hiding wine stains!
-- po, Nov 07 2015


//Would this allow motion (whirlpool) as well as still (elevator shaft)?// I believe it very much would.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 07 2015


Yes, this does sound good for psychedelic carpet angels.
-- wjt, Nov 07 2015



random, halfbakery