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Collection: Accelovation Crawl

Web crawl snapshots generously donated from Accelovation. This data is currently not publicly accessible.

From the site: Accelovation is pioneering the delivery of Insight Discovery™ software solutions that help companies move from innovation idea to product reality faster and with more success.

Our solutions are used by leading firms in the Fortune 500 and beyond – companies from a diverse set of industries ranging from consumer packaged goods to high tech, foods to chemicals, and others. We help them mine the online world for market and technical insights to help speed the process of innovation.

Modifying an IBM ThinkPad 770

Here is how Moonlight™ Illumination was added to an IBM ThinkPad 770.

The IBM ThinkPad has a large 14.1" inch screen, which fills most of the plastic case. As shown in the photo below, the screen's backlight runs along the bottom of the screen, behind a metal shield. Immediately below the screen, positioned between the hinges, is a circuit board that drives the backlight.

In a new design, Moonlight™ Illumination could be added by opening a slot in the metal channel surrounding the backlight. This was the approach used in adding Moonlight™ Illumination to a NEC-Zenith 320L. However, for this IBM retrofit, we decided that it would be easiest to add a light guide to carry light from the back of the screen. This is similar to the way Moonlight™ Illumination was added to a Toshiba T3400CT.

A plastic light guide was used to carry the light from the back of the screen. To minimize light loss, a reflective surface was applied to the front and back. In the picture below, the reflective surfaces are shown by the yellow arrows, and the light path is shown by the pink arrows.

The top of the light guide was tucked under the plastic diffuser that runs along the back of the LCD panel. A small cut in the diffuser was made, as shown in the following photo.

The photo also shows the light path, running from the back of the LCD panel, through the light guide, and out the front.  To provide room for the light guide to pass under the screen, the circuit board that was originally located under the screen was moved to the back of the laptop's case. 

The following photo shows the back of the laptop with the light guide installed along the bottom of the LCD panel. The yellow box shows the area depicted in the photo above.

To complete the modifications, a slot was cut in the laptop case and a hinged shutter was added.

Here is a photo of the ThinkPad's keyboard, lit only by Moonlight™ Illumination.

Please contact Moonlight™ Illumination to see our prototypes in real life and to discuss licensing.

David MacMillan
Tel: (650) 365-3392

Return to Moonlight™ Illumination Home page.

This page last updated on: January 19, 1999.