false eyelashes composed of tiny fibre optic strands on a soft backing which can be lightly glued to the partygoers’ eyelids just above the real lashes and powered from the energy garnered from the blink effect; the more you blink, the quicker the colours change.
our blink rate reflects psychological arousal; the normal, resting blink rate of a human is 20 closures per minute, with the average blink lasting one quarter of a second (Karson 1992). significantly faster rates may reflect emotional stress and so the excitement of meeting someone drop-dead gorgeous or equally – a signal to a friend to “rescue me from this twit NOW!” will result in your lashes batting like an australian in danger of losing the ashes and a psychedelic display of twitching colour playing around your eyes.
just imagine: a darkened room, the hum of lively conversation, the heady aroma of wine and scent and all lit by the sparkling eyes of your happy guests – the saving on electricity and candles is an added bonus.-- po, Oct 18 2004 Not fibre optic, glow in the dark http://www.mydivasc...m/glowindarand.htmlShiny like an Englander batsman's arse!! [ConsulFlaminicus, Oct 18 2004] Nano-scale fibre optics http://www.css.sfu....cro-fibre-pipe.htmlGetting them small enough won't be a problem then... [wagster, Oct 19 2004] Crazy contacts http://www.sporteyes.com/crazyeyes.htmJust for you Dr. Curry. I have just got wolf-eyes! [wagster, Oct 20 2004] FliWire Illuminated Necklace http://computer.how...s.com/ces200418.htmSimilar; pulses controlled by sound input [rgovostes, Nov 05 2004] Fiber Optic Wig http://www.costumecraze.com/WIG14.html [Amos Kito, Nov 05 2004] //like an australian in danger of losing the ashes// - not likely. You know you're onto a good thing [po] when people (me, for example) keep saying "I wish I had thought of that" whenever they read your ideas. Keep 'em coming.-- vigilante, Oct 18 2004 I had quite a lot of nice things to say about this idea several hours ago, but they seem to have disappeared in the aftershocks. This time I'll merely add my positive vote. (But I still think you need a more robust power source.)-- jurist, Oct 18 2004 po's done her blinkin' homework.-- FarmerJohn, Oct 18 2004 phew! glad jurist realised I had not deleted him. would I do such a thing?-- po, Oct 18 2004 Heh! Do some Londoners speak with a Cockney accent? Or do they just bat their lashes?-- jurist, Oct 18 2004 some do both! at the same time, mate...-- po, Oct 18 2004 WiFi fiber optic eyelashes, so they all blink in unison to the beat of the music. +-- sartep, Oct 18 2004 Okay I get the power source but where do the colors come from?-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 18 2004 Making a fibre optic system compact enough to use as falsies would be very difficult, but then again the Japanese are very good at making little things. The light source, blink detector and power source will be much too big to fit in the lashes, so you'd have to have *tiny* fibre optics which could be bunched together in a loom that leads away from the eye around the back of the head. The loom, if flesh coloured, could easily be blended in with the skin using make up (we mount miniature microphones on peoples faces in musicals this way). Once the fibres are away from the face and can be led down to a control unit of some sort (maybe an attractive pendant?), strobing colours through them would be relatively simple. Two or three full colour range led's could happily produce the rainbow in motion and pipe it up the fibres. The blink sensor could be something as simple as the two outermost lashes being the ends of a pair of tiny wires that make contact when you blink. Probably pushing what miniturisation can achieve, but I should think it's possible.
It goes without saying that if it can be done then it should be.-- wagster, Oct 19 2004 When wearing these, you would see some interesting patterns too, eh?
Since it's fiber, you could easily have the source be on a necklace, belt, or something, and discretely route it up to the eyes.
And, then you could also add a little dial to it so the wearer could control it. Such as, to turn on just one eye to wink at someone and then turn it off. A powerful wink indeed.-- sophocles, Oct 19 2004 I like the necklace idea. Have a mood dial to set the colors displayed. Or wait! Using LEDs as your light source, controlled off a tiny accelerometer on your lids, you could spell out messages with every blink (google "propeller clock" if you don't know what I'm talking about).-- Worldgineer, Oct 19 2004 Can I get glow-in-the-dark contact lenses to go with mine?-- DrCurry, Oct 19 2004 I might be able to help with that one, Doc Curry. Sodium fluorescein, that yellow dye they occasionally put in your eyes at the optometrist, absorbs nicely into the matrix all soft contact lenses. It's usually a nuisance to optometrists, because it permanently discolours the lens, but if you want yours to glow under UV lights, this would be perfect. I guess the fluorescein would leach out after a few wears, but it'd be no trouble to keep them topped up.-- vigilante, Oct 20 2004 [world] - that is sheer genius!
[DrCurry] - UV responsive contacts (lensless) are widely available in a variety of patterns. See link.-- wagster, Oct 20 2004 [Po] I love the reference //batting like an Australian in danger of losing the Ashes// When did that last happen?-- energy guy, Oct 20 2004 As suggested in the link. Doesn’t this like already exist? And if you are talking about a fiber optic version I don’t see much 'fundamental' difference in the link that [ConsulFlaminicus] provided.-- nomadic_wonderer, Oct 20 2004 well, the ability to change colours was the original idea and secondly to possibly develop the idea of blinking energy.-- po, Oct 20 2004 Fibre optic lashes would look *very* different. Fibre optics produce a bright glow at the tip whereas UV reactive lashes glow all over, but not as brightly. Furthermore, you cannot strobe or write words with UV reactive lashes.-- wagster, Oct 20 2004 ////batting like an Australian in danger of losing the Ashes// When did that last happen?//Watch this Space! Love it, Miss [Po]!-- gnomethang, Oct 20 2004 What a de light-ful idea.
el dueno-- el dueno, Oct 15 2008 Facebook (Tinsdale if I'm not mistaken) brought be back here. I thought it was gonna be a UnaBubba idea. But no, it's po! One of your best. I know it's uncouth to speak so candidly on the halfbakery, but I just had to. Cheers!-- daseva, Jun 02 2017 What if we made eyelashes out of those tritium-filled capillaries that they use in glow-in-the-dark watches. Sure it might be a bit risky to put glass tubes next to your eyes but we used to put lead in makeup back in the day and people didn't seem to mind.-- Cuit_au_Four, Jun 02 2017 Well no, because the lead damaged their higher cognitive functions to the point where they lost self-awareness and eventually died. It was a really stupid idea, they really should have been stopped before they founded the Democratic party.-- 8th of 7, Jun 02 2017 The lead also resulted in large numbers of heavily made-up women being found head-down in lakes.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 02 2017 ...but with a surprisingly low rate of precancerous lesions of the facial tissue.-- Wrongfellow, Jun 02 2017 random, halfbakery