Ultra-shallow, surface mounted fixtures are becoming a hot trend in the industry, driven primarily by the plunging costs of mid-power LEDs. Lightolier recently released an interesting exploration in this area with their “Slim Surface Downlight” series. Using an edge-lit light-guide, … Continue reading lightolier slim surface downlight
Introduction – The Next Evolution Part I – Connected Lighting Part II – Embedded Lighting Miniaturization is a big deal. The lighting industry seems to chronically undervalue the importance of simply shrinking the size of components, to either reduce the overall volume … Continue reading the next evolution of lighting: embedded lighting
OpenAIS is a new EU-funded research consortium which is developing open standards for Internet protocol (IP)-based lighting networks, specifically for office applications. Philips Lighting, Zumtobel and Johnson Controls are among the participants. Good luck guys…the industry really needs this! From the OpenAIS website: Following the trends of the creation of the “The Internet of Things” (IoT) and the rapid penetration of SSL based lighting, it is very advantageous to connect the luminaires in buildings to the Internet. OpenAIS aims at setting the leading standard for inclusion of lighting for professional applications in to IoT, with a focus on office lighting. This … Continue reading openAIS project
Just came across this conference scheduled for May 20-21 in Berlin: Smart Lighting 2015. Continue reading smart lighting 2015
Introduction – The Next Evolution Part I – Connected Lighting In the next five years, the overwhelming majority of lighting fixtures and their controls will be connected to the “cloud” via IP-based communications standards. Let’s consider how connected lighting systems impact the lighting industry, … Continue reading the next evolution of lighting: connected lighting
The Next Evolution of Light: Introduction A View from the Year 2020 Let’s take a trip in our time machine 5-years ahead to the year 2020 and check out the evolution of the lighting industry. The lighting industry continues to face … Continue reading the next evolution of light: introduction
Philips recently announced its intention to divest its Philips’ OLED division. My colleagues in the OLED team did a fantastic job creating unique concepts for OLED and generated tremendous buzz for their products. I think the root cause is quite simple: … Continue reading philips lighting to divest OLED group
Jim Campbell is a San Francisco-based LED installation artist with a prolific collection of work. Campbell in particular explores abstraction through low-resolution media screens. Intel’s The Creators Project has an interesting piece on Campbell. Continue reading jim campbell’s sculptural LED installations
I love seeing the impact of various LED technologies on different applications. Edge lighting of light guides has been around for decades, but now combined with ultra-small and ultra-cheap mid-power LED packages, a range of new capabilities is emerging. I … Continue reading fotodiox flapjack studio lights
Flying into Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on an overnight flight, I saw the most crazy sight — a world that looked like something from a sci-fi movie. The massive industrial greenhouses dotting the flat Dutch landscape looked like phosphor-coated LED chips rendered at a gargantuan … Continue reading greenhouses at night in holland
There is tremendous pressure from the specification community for manufacturers to offer very long warranties on lighting equipment: 5 or 10 years is now the typical request. The usual comment goes something like “if you claim your product lasts for a bazillion hours, why don’t you back it up?” I find this naive on the part of the specification community. A warranty doesn’t solve the fundamental problem that many LED fixtures are designed as “disposable” items instead of as modular assemblies based on industry standard parts. Specifiers don’t like to imagine (or admit to their clients) that an entire fixture has to be replaced if … Continue reading a warranty does not equal a service commitment
Princeton-based McAlpine Research Group has successfully printed a complete combination of conductors and LED emitters, specifically quantum-dot based LED sources. Popular Science has a good explanation of the breakthrough. And the specific research can be found here. Here is the … Continue reading mc alpine research group: completely 3D-printed quantum dot LEDs
Katia Vega is a researcher experimenting with “Beauty Technology”. Her Kinisi project is awesome: Vega is using conductive ink to apply LEDs and some sort of movement switches directly to the skin, allowing the LEDs to be controlled by the wink of … Continue reading katia vega’s beauty technology
Rogier van der Heide is already busy at Zumtobel, opening a new R+D center in Amsterdam. According to the press release: Before January is out, the company, which is based in Austria, is to open a new “Lichtforum” (light forum) at the heart of Amsterdam. The new facility will be designed to act as an open house, facilitating dialogue and close collaboration with leading architects, lighting designers technology experts and research partners. The Lichtforum, which will be located on the top floor of the UP Building – one of the tallest office buildings in downtown Amsterdam – will also host … Continue reading zumtobel to launch customer R+D center in amsterdam
A funny little project for a “his and hers” bed loft by Hungarian designers Batlab. I like the integration of a continuous band of lighting. Via DesignBoom. Continue reading loft by batlab
Via FastCompany, Idaho-based startup Rohinni is demoing a new application of LED lighting they are calling “Lightpaper”. Rohinni is using a mixture of ultra-small LED die suspended in conductive ink: In its current state, Lightpaper is manufactured by mixing ink and tiny LEDs … Continue reading lightpaper by rohinni
A beautiful series of light reflecting off of water called “State Transference” by photographer Tim Macauley of Melbourne. As he states: “specular reflections off Bass Strait taken off a cliff at Point Road Knight, on new years eve. All taken in … Continue reading tim macauley
The science journal Nautilus devoted its 11th issue to exploring and understanding light. A very well-done collection of articles, I found several that offered unique perspectives on both the science and impact of light. In particular, I enjoyed: Take Light, Not … Continue reading nautilus: issue 11 — light — fields of vision
I recently read Steven Johnson’s fun new book “How We Got to Now: Six Innovations that Changed the World“. Of course, Johnson claims one of those six critical innovations is artificial light. Johnson references a very interesting study from Yale … Continue reading william nordhaus: the historic cost of light
A few interesting pieces relating to developing a Circular Economy: Philips hosted a expert panel debate in Brussels: In the past century, the developed world has followed a linear model of production and consumption. Goods were manufactured, sold, used and disposed. It has created immense wealth, but this model is starting to reach its limits. The circular economy aims to decouple economy growth from the use of natural resources by using resources more effectively and repeatedly, thus eliminating waste. It provides multiple benefits, including: innovation, new business models, creation of more value, reduce waste landfill and emissions, and better quality … Continue reading circular economy update
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