Flexiglow UV Reactive Neon Paint

VL is running a review of (no I'm not kidding) UV Reflective Paint for whatever sort of artistic case design aspirations you might have. Various colors and some bad photos make me kind of wonder about the whole thing, but perhaps others have more informed thoughts...

Keyboards and goth clubs

[skinfitz]

Painting up a keyboard would be great for a (particularly goth) club DJ's PC - both in looks and functionality.

How is this different...

[cbrocious]

from Clearneon?
Is it just that clearneon sprays on and this has to be applied by the applicator?

Note

[elid]

Note that you can see some pretty interesting "pre-painted" gear directly at the company's website [flexiglow.com].

I have to ask

[Ryvar]

I'm not terribly familiar with the latest in case-modding, so I have to ask - are these UV lights entirely safe for longterm exposure? Say, 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year?

--Ryv

the laws

[myukew]

did you know that (at least here in germany) it's actually forbidden to use computers which don't have a complete metal cover? it's because of the radio interference, I believe.

Re:Keyboards and goth clubs

[davesplace1]

This is art people, you can't expect it to be pretty, but it can be cool.

Re:I have to ask

[WareW01f]

Prolly not. Most things I've read indicate that even the tamer wavelengths of UV used in black lights can still cause cataracts [postgradmed.com] I would imagine that the UV LEDs would cause problems too (with enough exposure) although there is not yet an LED out there at the right wavelength to do real damage (and be useful for things like steralizing things, or say, keeping water in water cooled PCs from getting slimy... if I'm wrong about this please post a link here as there are many that would like to know) There are many fun links (like here [nasa.gov] and here [hps.org]) on the fun effects of the different forms of UV. Most deal with tanning beds and sun, but I'm sure if you spend enough time in blacklight, the same applies.

I'm sure in the end most Slashdotter's will opt for more enertaining ways of going blind. >;^)

Re:making a bitchin hoopty

[bergeron76]

Interestingly, they sell clear versions of this paint for use on license plates. They apparently make your plate illegible to Traffic Camera's.

I'm disappointed

[Anonymous Coward]

When I saw the heading "UV-reflective paint", my first thought was "Oh Wow!!! Paintings for Bees!!"
Bees see into the ultraviolet, and many quite plain looking flowers have quite garish patterns in their UV reflectance so the bees can easily see them and home in on the nectar.

But this is just fluorescent paint. Colour me unimpressed.

Wildfire UV, various wavelengths

[telemonster]

There is a professional company called Wildfire that makes UV lights and paints for stage and theater (think Mr Toads wild ride @ Disney).

They sell the lights and paints at different wavelenghts... so you can actually paint several scenes (clearly) over a standard painting... then fire up wavelength #1 and kill normal light and you will see one wavelength of paint.. .then you can fade into another and another. I always thought it would be awesome to paint a house with it. Find a nice house in a normal neighborhood with a stringent neighborhood association. House is normal by day. But at night time, it turns into some sorta sick florescent tetris looking freakshow.

I've experimented on this for arcade walls

[AtariDatacenter]

My gameroom is filled with arcade games, and there is UV lighting from overhead. But I experimented with different designs and patterns to put on the walls (for what little wall-space remains visible).

The interesting combination I came across, which could apply to PC case mods as well, is by using regular paint, UV reactive paint, and glow-in-the-dark paint.

By using the three different types, you can create an image under normal everyday light. Then, when the lights go off and the UV light goes on, you can have a different image (caused by both the UV reactive paint and the photoluminescent paint).

Finally, once the UV light is off, you are left with the images created only by the photoluminescent paint colors.

So you can create some interesting changes in a picture based on the timing of regular and blacklight exposure.