Imagine, if you will, a place where illusion is a game and can be controlled by those around you. Now imagine that you can control the illusion. Opportunities such as these can only be found... In the Brakelight Zone.
Replace the lens and bulb setup with an LCD screen, similar to GPS, cell phone, and PDA displays. In standard mode, this LCD would fill up with red as a standard brakelight. This could be modified within limitations set by the local government's transportation, auto, or safety consortium. Hue could be chosen from a palette of reds and oranges. Blues would be right out. Shape could also be chosen from Altezza style street racer look to full on square 80's family truckster to a classic octagon to a large hand. Interface would allow animations to be selected for turn signals. You could also program the signals to your own choosing. Perhaps you want the light to have an exploding effect when you hit the brakes (central pinpoint expanding outwards like a smoke ring). Or the brakes could activate a swirling pattern or flash repeatedly in order to grab the hind driver's attention.
While driving, animations would still be allowed though on muted tones. Certainly several jurisdictions would outlaw their use or strictly limit it.
Backlit and plexi'd per BubbaCo's marketing division.-- bdag, Nov 19 2009 Really, Q, do you need to be so vulgar? You are more than welcome to edit your post for politeness.
Around my whereabouts there are several large LCD screens exterior to buildings that are used to flash advertisements. These can be seen from plenty far away to be considered safe enough and bright enough. If you're suggesting that I'd need a second battery to power the screens, then could you please be a little more specific? If you've ever been inside a Prius or Lexus you would see that they have LCD displays that are big enough for a brake light. If the car can power one of these without a serious drain on the electronics, I would think that two slightly smaller ones should be quite possible.-- bdag, Nov 19 2009 Somewhat aggresive but essentially correct, 21Q. Fishbone from me too.-- DrBob, Nov 19 2009 Modded to address your concerns. Tongue in cheek removed.-- bdag, Nov 19 2009 OLEDs could probably do this.
We award a bun.
<pokes [21Q] with pointed stick>-- 8th of 7, Nov 19 2009 That's PIMPIN' but imo a bad idea. [-]-- Jscotty, Nov 19 2009 Wow - are we all living in the Northern hemisphere???-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 19 2009 Which planet ?-- 8th of 7, Nov 19 2009 //They're also really not as bright as you may think//So much irony, so few words.-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Nov 19 2009 random, halfbakery