The potential of interns! Design firm IDEO challenged its summer interns to redesign ye olde light switch. Some very creative and impressive results followed in the “Let There Be Light” exhibition. Here is the PDF that documents the results: Let_There_Be_Light_Exhibit_IDEO Continue reading IDEO redesigns the light switch
I just realized I’ve never given Cooledge Lighting a dedicated post, despite covering their “stealth mode” and academic background at Rogers Research Group. Cooledge Lighting is exploring LEDs set in sheets of flexible plastic substrates. They’re following the core tech trends of … Continue reading cooledge lighting
Without a doubt in my mind, the future for the lighting industry will be heavily based on roll-to-roll electronics assembly processes. The use of individually assembled printed circuit boards makes little sense for many lighting applications, such as many common linear … Continue reading bosch rexroth – roll to roll plastic electronics
A Japanese R+D group called Tateyama Kagaku showed at Lux Live 2014 an interesting LED sheet design with a flexible, highly reflective “solder” coating on different substrates. One of the substrates was a tough woven fabric, which felt very robust. … Continue reading tateyama kagaku
This post marks my 500th on Lucept! After six years, thanks to everyone who keeps checking in on this blog! I use Lucept as my personal R+D research notebook for advanced lighting. But rather than keeping it private, I’ve found it very useful to keep online and open to all to share. I certainly don’t run a media empire, but I see from the stats that in an average month I get about 1,500 visitors and 5,000 page views. Who would have thought that there were so many lighting nerds out there??? Continue reading 500 posts!
Liza Stark is a game designer and teacher at Parson’s in New York. I came across her interesting website called “The Soft Circuiteer” which demonstrates very creative explorations into the integration of electronics with textiles. For example, she has a … Continue reading liza stark
I just found another project called “Living Wall” from Leah Buechley’s High-Low Tech group (which I previously posted here). This one dates from 2010. From their High-Low Tech site: This project experiments with interactive wallpaper that can be programmed to … Continue reading living wall
Nice lighting on the newest Apple store in West Lake, China, by Foster and Partners. I like how they clearly Photoshop’d the ceiling to be darker just behind the Apple logo — the ceiling is apparently TOO uniform for Apple’s marketing … Continue reading apple store
Interesting project from Astrid Mody, a PhD candidate at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, created in conjunction with Philips Research. Continue reading textilisations
A very interesting projection-mapping art project, which I find very inspiring as a possible alternate lighting simulation tool: …the projection-mapped installation by Ravensbourne University students Mike Alger, Ana Mickovic, and Jenil Buria. Projected onto a 3D-printed diorama, different videos and textures appear to transport a couple cuddling under … Continue reading miniature projection mapping
Functionally useless, but a beautiful art form nonetheless…sort of like a Rube Goldberg machine for light paintings: Students at Carnegie Mellon University are using to create industrial light portraits: a massive robot, typically used for heavy-duty manufacturing, that paints with … Continue reading industrial light painting
Beam is a Kickstarter project that integrates an LED pico projector, Android device, LED light (and presumably a AC/DC power supply) into a housing with an E26/27 socket. I like the concept because it supports my view that light sources … Continue reading beam: projector in a light “bulb”
Via DesignBoom. A sculptural ceiling installation that is back-lit with RGB LED to create dramatic effects as the light escapes the cracks between the panels. Great installation, but it looks like it was accomplished via tedious on-site assembly — a … Continue reading softlab – installation at rise nation
The pan-European EnLight research consortium is making progress. According to their introduction page: Intelligent lighting The EnLight project aims to exploit the full potential of LED lighting through breakthrough innovations in integrated lighting solutions beyond retrofit applications. This includes intelligent lighting … Continue reading EnLight research consortium
BMW and Audi have recently announced laser-based lighting systems for extreme-distance high-beams. Here is an excellent video actually explaining the technology: Laser diodes pump small phosphor plates to convert the high-energy blue light into white light, but allow for precision … Continue reading automotive laser lighting
Coelux is an Italian academic spin-off company that is launching a new line of artificial skylights. The images are impressive, but there is almost no technical information at the moment: All I can find is “based on nano-structured dichroic materials“. Here … Continue reading coelux
Jam Jar Lights. Exactly as it says: Pendants made from old jam jars (I would call them “Mason” jars in the US). From a small British company. They might be finding their way to my kitchen in the near future… Continue reading jam jar lights
The large Integrated Systems Europe expo is a crazy mish-mash of professional grade audio systems, display technologies, video processing technologies, a smattering of lighting controls, plus a host of ancillary accessories and supporting companies. The show is held every year here in … Continue reading the future of architectural lighting experiences: integrated systems europe 2015
Italian fixture manufacturer ExNovo utilizes 3D printing technology for some interesting pieces. They follow on the early lead set by Materialise and their MGX line. Continue reading exnovo
Introduction – The Next Evolution Part I – Connected Lighting Part II – Embedded Lighting Part III – Sustainable Lighting Circular Economy — What goes around comes around. The “circular economy” is a movement to stop the industrialized world’s bad habit of … Continue reading the next evolution of lighting: sustainable lighting
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