Special Glass
 

ok, i'm doing a project at school (NEDC) and one idea that i'm pursuing is using this special glass that can go from see through (like a window) to dark (and therefore protecting your privacy) by running an electrical current through it. i remember seeing something on slashdot a while back, but i forget what it was called or how exactly it worked. if anyone has any info on this, i'd be grateful if you told me :).

A company came up with an invention that sounds lke what you're talking about. The glass would change colors or go opaque when you touched either a button to control it or the glass itself.
I don't know if they even exist anymore. the company name was "Reliant Laser" of some city in the San Francisco Bay area (I'll have to look it up, it's been over ten years now). But they had an origional patent on something like this.

There was also some talk a few years back in the housing industry about special windows that would become opaque with the use of lcd technology. Look up window manufacturers. that might give you a good start.

<edit>
I think it was "Reliant Laser of Foster City". All I remember is that my self appointed godfather/family friend whom I worked for at the time dragged me along to a meeting to pose as his personal secretary to make him look important (he was too cheap to hire a real one). (The information isn't proprietary anymore so I can say all this.) -Anyway They dealt mostly with laser technology and as a result had to develop special safety goggles that could instantly change to adjust to thier new machine that could produce several different kinds of laser beams for medical procedures instead of the doctor having to get a whole new machine to finish whatever procedure. The basic idea was that the doctor could switch beams and safety glass values mid-procedure, without getting up to get a whole new laser machine from accross the room or changing his goggles. It was pretty cool.

It's called "electrochromic glass". Do a google search for more info. This glass tints when voltage is applied. It never becomes completely opqaque.

The variety you're looking for is called "Liquid Crystal Glazing" or PDLC. It turns completely transparent when voltage is applied.

http://www.glassonweb.com/glassmanual/index.php

http://www.howstuffworks.com/smart-window2.htm


This company, Priva-Lite, will send you their demonstration kit to keep for 245 Euros... ~ $238... a bit pricey, eh?

http://www.sggprivalite.com/en/sommaire.html

http://www.sage-ec.com/


These aren't commercial products... so that $250 demonstration kit is all you'll find. I suggest you switch projects. If this is a research paper, tell me so I can delete this post and you can DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.

Re: Special Glass
 

**cough**Thief**cough**
**cough**My idea**cough**

:p

Jnadke wrote:
NEDC is the National Engineering Design Challenge. I did my own research and found that out.

Heaven forbid we should help anyone, ever. :p

well, this is only one idea i had (i just started thinking about it today really) and i remembered reading about that electrochemical glass, and figured it'd be worth a shot to try and find. for $250 though, i think i'll find a different material (or design it differently) which isn't all that hard considering the fact that we've just started throwing ideas out today. :p

Here's the deal...you can do this "color change glass" easily. You just have to look at it from an idiot's point of view. A bucket of black paint with a device to make it pour evenly across a plane is mounted directly above a plane of glass. When a button is pressed the paint is poured onto the window. To undo this painting, the same process is applied with paint thinner. Voila. Color change glass

Just have a black window shade that rolls up or down on a switch.

Or make the window out of two way mirror.

Not as high tech, but it makes sense to me.

-Andy A.

those ideas would work, but it would have to be something simple and relatively unexpensive (i had no idea about how much electrochemical glass cost). so yeah, i think i'm going with a different approach :).

I think the new mercedes lines have these windows built in. its like tinting on demand i guess...

for like those glasses that turn dark in sunlight, they have chemicals that react when there is sunlight and break down into some chemicals that aren't transparent. when the sun goes away, they recombine into the transparent one.

shouldn't be too hard to do with electricity.