Lixie is an open-source hardware, LED-based edge-lit display that combines the look of Nixie tubes with the techniques invented for their distant ancestors, the edge-lit display.
Lixies project low-power, microcontrolled LED light into a stack of engraved acrylic sheets. They’re like a 5V alternative to 170V Nixies!
You can build your own or order them for $38 from their inventor, Connor Nishijima.
Lixie works by shining light through the edge of a clear acrylic. When the light hits an engraving or edge, it scatters in a different direction, and lands in your eye! This allows the flat surfaces of the acrylic to stay clear, and have only edges light up! Now put ten pieces in a stack, each marked with a different number 0-9, and you can show each number individually, on a clear surface!
LIXIE – an LED alternative to the Nixie Tube!
[Connor Nishijima/Tindie]
(Thanks, Blacksmith_TB!)