Fan spins your name in lights

FANS WHICH use rapidly rotating LEDs to display text have been around for a while. But so far, they've been limited to a word or two pre-programmed into them by the manufacturer, plus a temperature display. By next year, you could be seeing your own name in those rotating lights.

Taiwan-based Polo Tech, which claims a patent on rotating LED fan display technology, has plans for a USB-programmable model, although the release date is undecided, company representative Alice Wang said at Computex in Taipei. Users will be able to use an internal USB connection and software to change the fan display in real time to show their name, or any other text or simple graphics.

At the moment, Wang said, changing the text requires a whole new IC, so is only feasible for large quantity orders.

The fans generate the display with a rotating stick of circuit board with a vertical line of LEDs on it. This is mounted on the fan's axis, and spins as the fan spins. Polo Tech's driver IC can also handle simple animation, and even colour changes, given suitable LEDs. The IC also handles the precise timing calculations required to keep the display steady.

To avoid excessive flicker, the rotation speed needs to stay above 2000 RPM, Wang said. The display remained visible even in the bright interior lighting of the Computex hall.

At Computex, the company displayed its original $7 medium sized fan - which appears to have been taken up by companies including Thermaltake and Foxconn - as well as a larger prototype (see photo). µ