[HN Gopher] Air Powered Segment Display? [video]
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       Air Powered Segment Display? [video]
        
       Author : ProfDreamer
       Score  : 135 points
       Date   : 2026-04-11 09:32 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | rbanffy wrote:
       | It becomes more interesting when you couple a flexible display
       | with it.
        
         | Wowfunhappy wrote:
         | ...especially if that display could be a touch screen...
        
           | joezydeco wrote:
           | It's been tried with fluid instead of air.
           | 
           | https://www.engadget.com/this-oled-screen-can-fill-with-
           | liqu...
        
       | tyleo wrote:
       | Wow, this is underrated. The start of the video cuts between a
       | few other inventions this creator made using air. They discussed
       | using air for digital logic gates generally.
       | 
       | Really neat stuff I hadn't thought about before!
        
       | pointpth wrote:
       | sometimes humans are awesome.
        
       | scentoni wrote:
       | If the active elements were convex instead of concave, I can
       | imagine this being useful for people with visual impairments. How
       | does this compare to existing technologies for braille displays?
        
         | fhdkweig wrote:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refreshable_braille_display
         | 
         | The technology hasn't changed at all since the 1992 film
         | Sneakers with the blind character Whistler.
         | https://youtu.be/GS3npSv8iuM?t=124
        
       | olalonde wrote:
       | Rocky would approve.
        
         | sudo_cowsay wrote:
         | niche
        
       | caditinpiscinam wrote:
       | A whole new type of "vacuum tube"
        
       | guiambros wrote:
       | Dupe from a few days ago [1], but glad this is gaining some
       | attention. Truly remarkable work.
       | 
       | [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47733345
        
       | gherkinnn wrote:
       | If you liked the pneumatic segmented display like I did, here is
       | a meditative video on alternative segmented displays.
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTB5XhjbgZA
       | 
       | No affiliation, just one of my favourite videos.
        
       | aspiringLich wrote:
       | Sometimes I wonder whether computing would have been possible if
       | electricity and its related effects could not be harnessed for
       | logic and computation. In that alternate universe I could imagine
       | us creating quite sophisticated devices running off of compressed
       | air; perhaps not to the atomic level of precision we can achieve
       | with solid state devices, but extremely capable nonetheless.
        
         | r4ge wrote:
         | Charles Babbage designed his difference engine that was
         | mechanical and used punch cards for loading programs. The
         | machine was mechanical and used a steam engine to power it.
        
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