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
Lighting Science Group has launched a line of LED bulbs called “Definity Digital” that are offering customized spectral outputs for specific scenarios. Their “Good Night” lamp is an A19 shaped bulb with reduced blue-light content– that results in a 2500K … Continue reading lighting science group: definity digital
I recently found a fascinating and very detailed description of the design research and development process that led to the “Google Smart Lamp” demonstration, which was developed as a collaboration between Google and London design shop Berg. I originally posted about the … Continue reading google smart lamp: design process
Via Core77 – two more robotic desklamps! We’ve seen robotic desk lamps before (check out this post or this post) and I promise…someday, I’m totally going to build myself a robotic desk lamp!!!! I’m thinking maybe two — a boy robot desklamp on one side … Continue reading more robotic desk lamps!
I continue to be fascinated by a small MIT tech startup called FINsix, which I wrote about previously here and here. Looks like they had a sort of “coming out” party at CES in Las Vegas, demonstrating their incredibly tiny … Continue reading FINsix
I just found an interesting 2011 article from MIT’s Technology Review : A startup called Transphorm is using GaN power electronics to substantially reduce power converter sizes. The possibility of using gallium nitride in power electronics has been known for decades, but producing high-quality versions of the material has been a challenge. That problem, however, was largely solved by researchers who figured out how to use gallium nitride in LEDs, Mishra says. Transphorm has optimized the material for power electronics, and it has developed novel devices (such as transistors), circuits, and complete modules that include all the components needed to … Continue reading transphorm – GaN power electronics
If you’ve ever taken the Thalys high speed train from Amsterdam to Paris, then you’ve probably seen the massive greenhouses stretching out to the horizon as far as the eye can see. These are not just simple greenhouses or indoor farms: Think … Continue reading philips horticulture lighting
Ninebyfour is a beautiful, elegantly minimal linear pendant design that uses a unique material source: Felled urban trees gathered from within the city of Amsterdam . Designed by local design shop Waarmakers — they’ve tracked the location of where the tree originally … Continue reading ninebyfour by waarmakers
Via Gizmodo: DropShades — Glasses with bands of music-reactive LED lighting. There is no practical reason for these to exist whatsoever, but if you’re desperate for a gift for someone you know who is a total lighting dork, you could do worse… Continue reading dropshades
Audio gear manufacturer JBL recently released a portable Bluetooth speaker called JBL Pulse with built-in LED lighting effects. Looks a little small for the lighting effect, but of course it is meant to be portable. An interesting mix of audio, … Continue reading jbl pulse
Via Cool Hunting — A cool Kickstarter campaign led by two Brooklyn-based creatives to develop glowing, interactive building blocks for children (it was successfully funded back in October). Very cool. I especially love the physical color mixing. According to the Tangeez site: … Continue reading tangeez
About a year and half ago I posted a brief roundup of emerging lighting tech companies. Here we go again… I recently received the conference program for the upcoming 2014 Strategies in Light, to be held this February in Silicon Valley. SIL is a fantastic conference that really focuses on cutting edge tech for the lighting industry…a brewing pot of R+D and investors (I spoke at both the 2013 SIL conference in Silicon Valley and the 2013 SIL Europe conference in Munich). In flipping through the program, I saw a few interesting tech companies that I would like to point … Continue reading emerging tech roundup
Via a survey article from Gizmodo, here is a very interesting demo from the design firm Frog, showcasing some interesting UX simplifications that result from networking all the sensing (3D stereo vision cameras, microphones, etc.), displays (including ambient projections), devices … Continue reading room-e
During our trip to Barcelona back in October, we came across a neat little shop called La Case de cousin Paul that sells a beautiful little collection of spun globes. Available in a riot of colors, sizes, and combinations, what … Continue reading la case de cousin paul
A great post gathering some of Louis Kahn’s quotes regarding light. Continue reading An Architect of Light: Louis Kahn
Wireless , preset scene, Zigbee, blah, blah, blah??? Try this for the ultimate easy to use control system…as seen at Bosco, a cool local little bar in Amsterdam. Continue reading lighting control for dummies
Goldee is a crowdfunding project trying to launch a wall-mounted light controller that uses Zigbee communications to control “smart” lights like the Philips Hue. The references to Nest seem appropo, as Goldee includes proximity sensors, light sensors, gesture control, and … Continue reading goldee
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