Awesome Fiber Optic

Add a splash of ambient light and color to your campsite or backyard with this waterproof string lighting from Nite Ize. It has a light source at one end and a 10-foot-long fiber-optic strand, along with ties for stringing up the light. Its rechargeable battery lasts for up to six hours per charge. Comes in blue, white, and lime green.

Dot-matrix displays are typically made using LEDs or LCDs mounted directly at the location of each dot. Elliot Made created this unique and fascinating display using a grid of LEDs mounted a short distance away, then channels light to each dot using fiber optics. It can display text, digits, animations, and also works as a clock.

Make the ceiling of your home theater, car, or other space look like a dark night sky with one of these twinkly fiber optic light kits from AMKI. They come in sizes from 400 to 835 points of light, each along with a bright 32-watt LED RGB/W light engine. You’ll need a drop ceiling or a false headliner to poke the fibers through.

To help deploy high-speed Internet access to rural areas, Facebook Engineering has been developing a robot which can ride along on existing power lines to install fiber optic cables, saving time and money compared to conventional methods such as digging. The system uses with special cables which resist weather damage.