This is so cool. I realize that it doesn't look quite that cool in person but am definitely interested in seeing about building one.
I'm now wondering if we could add LED lighting to the top of our sliding glass door by drilling holes down to the edge of the glass and installing 1W LEDs.
I suspect your sliding door will be made of multi pane glass filled with argon. that probably won't work too well. in order for total internal reflection to work well the glass needs to be pretty homogeneous, so that the wave fronts are all parallel. that requires a nice straight, flat, unscratched surface and uniform refractive index. hence sapphire.
also, he uses thick glass so as to catch the led light. since power leds don't distribute their power very narrowly, it will be tricky to get a large fraction to start transmitting down a thin plate of glass.
it could be made to work but it just will be harder / not as good.
I'm now wondering if we could add LED lighting to the top of our sliding glass door by drilling holes down to the edge of the glass and installing 1W LEDs.