An interesting trend in lighting tech right now is the growing use of flexible circuit boards for lighting — commonly called “flex-tape”. Think of this as the high-quality evolution of ye-olde LED rope light. Lots of suppliers showed flex-tape components … Continue reading light + building 2014: flex-tape
Via Cool Hunting: Beautiful light art by artist Craig Dorety that reminds me a great deal of the James Turrell installation at the Guggenheim — but at a different scale. Continue reading craig dorety: division
Another way conductive inks are moving towards mainstream applications…this time through low-cost inkjet printing. Continue reading Quickly Prototype Circuits With New Inkjet-Printable Conductive Ink
Wicked funny video flowing around the web on being the only expert in a meeting… And yes, I’ve unfortunately been the “expert” in many meetings that went very, very much like this one. Particularly when architects and sales guys were involved. … Continue reading on being an expert (in lighting?)
Light + Building is a beast. Every two years, close to 200,000 people, thousands of manufacturers, journalists and customers from the lighting and building automation industries descend on Frankfurt’s sprawling Messe convention center. This is my 4th Light + Building…and … Continue reading light + building 2014: 37 kilometers in 3 days
The big deal here in Amsterdam on Monday was President Obama visiting the Rijksmuseum. He made one a hell of an entrance, considering they blockaded the entire Museumplein and landed not just one, but four helicopters for his short trip … Continue reading rijksmuseum: president obama visits
Ever wonder where 2′ x 4′ ceilings come from? Or occupancy sensors? I just read an interesting biography called “Building Tall” by John L. Tishman. John Tishman led the construction division of his family’s real estate company for many decades. … Continue reading tishman construction: developer of 2′ x 4′ ceilings and occupancy sensors?
It is interesting to see how much fundamental R+D work is going into flexible electronics, including systems focused on LED and lighting applications. The PLACE-it project (Platform for Large Area Conformable Electronics by InTegration) is a research consortium funded via the European … Continue reading PLACE-it project
Sometimes it’s nice to brag about your company… Philips has been honored with 47 prestigious awards at the 2014 iF design awards, including an unprecedented 4 Gold awards. The iF seal of good design is awarded by one of the world’s most influential design competitions. This year Philips has achieved the highest number of awarded entries in 2014, in the product category. According to the rankings: Samsung is #1, with Philips in a very close #2 position, followed by Sony in #3. Apple is down at #6. And you can bet that Philips covers its ass with IP: Royal Philips … Continue reading philips rocking the iF design awards and european patent office
Hive Systems is an interesting Dutch startup that is building software for simulating and controlling networks of interactive devices. I met their team after I presented at the GlowNext Symposium in Eindhoven (November 2013). Quoting their site: HiveKit is a … Continue reading hive systems
Coming soon: Combining the power of mobile apps with connected lighting, Philips Lighting is connecting Disney bedtime stories to color-changing ambient lighting. What a powerful natural combination: Disney has a long history of using show-control systems to create magical experiences … Continue reading philips + disney storylight
Fast Company just released a fantastic article exploring Philips Lighting and the technological changes impacting the lighting industry. For once, a properly researched and well-written article about the changes in lighting! Nice! For posterity I’ve saved it as a PDF … Continue reading how philips altered the future of light
I have high hopes for Transcendence, the upcoming Johnny Depp science-fiction flick directed by the cinematographer for the Dark Knight and Inception. Hopefully we’ll see some cool sci-fi lighting and futuristic scenes. I pulled a few screen-caps from the … Continue reading transcendence
I recently presented at and attended the US Department of Energy’s Solid State Lighting 2014 R+D Workshop in Tampa, Florida. A terrific event, the US DOE’s SSL group uses this input from key industry participants to help guide their long-term funding programs with the goal of promoting the adoption of energy-efficient LED and OLED lighting technologies. You can find my slide deck here: 20140106_BK_DOESSL_2014 Workshop_Tampa_V3_extra annotations We need to find ways to reduce the total costs of advanced lighting systems. And as big a fan as I am regarding digital lighting technologies, I want our industry to leave behind a positive … Continue reading US DOE SSL R+D Workshop
Via PCMonitors, if you are a hard-core lighting science nerd, here is a very interesting article detailing the LED sources used for LCD monitors and TV screens. Continue reading the evolution of LED backlights
View Dynamic Glass produces electrochromic tinted glass for architectural curtainwall systems. According to the Wall Street Journal, View just won $100m in VC investment — “one of the largest deals for a clean-technology company in the past 12 months”. Electrochromic … Continue reading view dynamic glass
Plastic Electronic is a German company that makes touch sensitive control panels using integrated, laminated electronics. These sorts of processes might one day be critical for integrating lighting into building materials via low-cost processes. Via the Holst Center’s website. Continue reading plastic electronic
I’ve always liked the groovy Fleetwood Mac song “You Make Loving Fun“…but now I have a whole extra reason to like it: The song was actually inspired by an affair between Fleetwood Mac’s keyboardist Christine McVie and their lighting designer … Continue reading lighting designers make loving fun
Via Cool Hunting: A Kickstarter campaign for an interesting little design concept for a portable light cleverly disguised as a folding book. This is just amazing to me: This Kickstarter campaign raked in over a half-million in funding for an … Continue reading lumio
Nest is pretty awesome, and it is blatantly obvious that they are going to be getting into residential lighting controls at some point. Google is ambitious, and three years ago was messing around with some sort of new wireless mesh … Continue reading google buys nest
Lucept 