Osram shrinks infrared LEDs for facial recognition

Keeping with its new emphasis on “high-tech photonics” over general illumination, Osram has introduced two new infrared LEDs — which Osram calls IREDs — intended for use as facial recognition chips that unlock smartwatches. The Munich company said that its new 850-nm SFH 4170S and 940-nm SFH 4180S “require about 50% less space” than comparable products already on the market. Osram mounts the chips in its Oslon P1616 packaging, measuring 1.6×1.6×0.85 mm.

Florida Tech’s Gleason Goes All-In on LEDs

Among the first places new Florida Tech students visit for orientation and the last place they see before walking over to the university gymnasium for graduation, Gleason Performing Arts Center has spent its nearly 52 years as an unobtrusive but essential facet of campus life. After a summer-long project it replaced the 1960s-era lighting system from lobby to stage with cutting-edge LED lights. “This is a huge jump in technology,” Jeffrey Richardson, Gleason’s assistant manager, said of the $225,000 project.

Better than LEDs? A revolutionary ‘eternal’ lamp designed in Russia

It’s more reliable, durable, and luminous than any other lamps currently available on the market. Plus, it promises to be cheap, if mass-produced. LED lamps brightened up our lives not too long ago as a more efficient alternative to the old school incandescent lamps. Yet it already seems they’ve got a new competitor. Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) and Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences came up with a prototype of cathodoluminescent lamp for general lighting - a technology which has been studied since the 1980s, but without luck - until now.

Rugged RGBWW LED light you can take underwater

Smart Lights Enhance Home Security and Shine a Light on Crime

Smart lighting turns something as simple and boring as a light bulb into a high-tech perimeter warning, and unlike a guard dog, it doesn’t shed. Smart lights outshine non-smart fixes like timers because they’re vastly easier to control, and they allow you to set them to better mimic the way a home’s occupants actually use lights (instead of on a predictable schedule). Once installed, smart lighting devices sync with your smartphone so that you can control them remotely, put them on a schedule, or randomize them; you can also automate them to work with other smart devices such as cameras and security systems.

LEDs Make Trump Look Orange!

The war on LEDs has nothing whatsoever to do with economics or politics and everything to do with the vanity of the putative president who is so insecure he has to surround himself with sycophants and gold lamé draperies. Tired of being called President Cheeto, or the Orange Orangutan, he is blaming LED light bulbs for the fact that his face looks the color of a hunter’s moon on most occasions. Not so, professional photographers tell the Post. Jocelyn Augustino, a DC-based freelance photographer, says professional photographers know how to adjust the white balance so that it is accurately reflects what is being seen in person. “It’s video or photo 101,” she says.

Plymouth Ice Arena Gets LED Lights

New LED lights will be going into the Plymouth Ice Arena this fall. “Right now we are in the process of doing lighting upgrades,” explained Erik Halverson, manager of the Plymouth Ice Arena. “We are going to all LED lights in the entire facility. It should be completed by the end of this month.”

RGB Lamp With Micro:Bit Powered Gesture Control

The Micro:bit is a very neat piece of hardware that, frankly, we don’t see enough of. Which made us all the more interested when Manoj Nathwani wrote in to tell us about the gorgeous 3D printed RGB LED lamp he created that uses the BBC-endorsed microcontroller to perform basic gesture detection. Purists will likely point out that an Arduino Pro Mini is tagging along to handle interfacing with the LEDs, but it’s still a good example of how quick you can get a project up and running with MicroPython on the Micro:bit.

Natural lighting is the key to Apple’s remodeled Fifth Ave. store

When it opened in 2006, Apple’s Fifth Avenue flagship quickly became a top destination for New York City residents and tourists, alike. Since early 2017, however, the store has been closed for renovations. Earlier this month, the company took the wraps off the outside of the cube. When the store reopens, a series of skylights flush on the ground of the plaza will be doing much of the heavy lifting for the lighting during the day. Each of those round portholes will be frosted to let the light in, while protecting the privacy of people walking above, with supplemental lighting from silver LED rings.

5 ways the right lighting can elevate your home

It’s easy to fall in love with the design of a light fixture or lamp, notes interior designer Maggie Griffin, but how will it illuminate your space? How will it work with the lighting you already have? And which variety of light bulb will provide the kind of light you need? Here, three interior design experts — Griffin, founder of the Atlanta-based Maggie Griffin Design; Jennifer Bunsa of Bunsa Studio Interiors and co-founder of WorkRoom Miami; and Caitlin Murray, founder of L.A.’s Black Lacquer design — offer advice on choosing the best lighting for any room, and on navigating the range of new light bulbs and LED technology.

Chemesis International Inc. Announces Results of VividGro LED Lighting Installation

Chemesis International Inc. has completed installation of VividGro LED lighting and environment controls at its Natural Ventures cultivation facility in Puerto Rico. The completion of the previously announced partnership allowed the Company to double its cultivation area and was able to significantly decrease its energy requirements and costs. During this installation,

The LED lighting system and environmental controls are state-of-the-art, and they are installed together to ensure the cultivation operations are controlled centrally. These controls allow operators to automatically adjust for temperature, humidity, lighting and other key elements, which are for growing conditions.

Chemesis has an increase in production levels and efficiencies while seeing a major reduction in cultivation costs. Along with domestic production, the Company is continuing to expand operations for international distribution of hemp-based CBD products.

Signify adds filament bulbs to Hue LED lamp lineup

Signify, a pioneer of the home smart bulb back in 2012 with the launch of its Hue lamp, has now added retro style to the range, introducing filament LED bulbs in three different sizes. The Philips Hue Filament bulbs do everything that Signify’s “conventional” Philips Hue LED bulbs do, but provide the throwback filament look. Users can remotely change brightness, color, and correlated color temperature (CCT) on the 7W LED bulbs, which come in three different sizes using the E26 screw-in fitting in the US and the E27 in Europe.

Global $8.86 Billion LED Trunking Market to 2027

The global LED Trunking market was valued at US$ 5.33 Bn in 2018 and is expected to reach US$ 8.86 Bn by 2027 with a CAGR growth rate of 5.9% in the forecast period from 2019 to 2026.

For the installation of the energy-efficient lighting such as LEDs, an appropriate lighting fixture holds an important position. These fixtures are termed as LED trunking, which provides tailored LED solution to different end users requirements. The trunking system is capable of offering a flexible and stable platform to ensure proper fixing of the luminaires/lights at even intervals for warehouses and retail stores in aisle lighting applications.

The factors driving the LED Trunking market is embraced with, demand for better & advanced energy efficient and energy saving products, rise in the adoption of LEDs over traditional lighting products are anticipated to have a massive impact on the growth of LED Trunking market in the coming years. Also, the huge capital investment required for the installation of LED trunking and lighting fixtures, is expected to hinder the market growth in the coming years.

With the support received from government bodies of the Americas, Asia, and Europe, utilization of energy efficient and less energy consuming lights are gaining high momentum with the commercial and large spaces. The requirement of stringent product testing methods to uphold the performance of LEDs is needed to provide a high certainty of energy savings. To accomplish the objective of enhancing product performance requirements, use of familiar and recognized international performance testing standards including, Design Lights certification schemes and US Energy Star is helpful.

Elgin hires firm for switch to LEDs; residents to weigh in on brightness

A Wheaton-based company has been selected to manage the conversion of Elgin's city streetlights into LEDs, including doing an inventory and community outreach.The Will Group was awarded a $201,267 contract by the Elgin City Council last week for the first phase. In November, a representative from The Will Group took part in a presentation given by Public Works Superintendent Aaron Neal about LED conversion.

Godox wants a piece of the LED market

When it comes to lights, we used to have a pretty good distinction. Godox did Strobes, and Aputure did LEDs. Of course, we had the occasional SL 60 or SL 200, but generally, it was quite a split world. Now Godox are expanding into the LED market with a Bowens type light, and it looks like it is aimed to directly compete with Aputure’s line of 120D and 300D. Still not formally announced, Godox is showing two new Bowens mount LEDs at IBC 2019. The VL150/VL300 and the FV150. Both lights have a separate power/controller unit, similar to the common Bowens mount LEDs. The LEDs are still not 100% ready to market, so all specs below are subject to change, but this is what we got from Godox so far:

Is it time to say goodbye to blue-pump LEDs?

As claims abound on the negative impact of the blue light emission from phosphor-converted white LEDs, perhaps it is time to take a lesson from fluorescent lamp technology. In the quarter century since Nakamura invented the first high-brightness, 450-nm blue gallium nitride (GaN) LED, phosphor-converted white LEDs (PC-LEDs) have come to dominate the lighting market. Driven by the desire for low-cost and high-luminous-efficiency devices, the majority of available PC-LEDs are high-CCT, 450-nm blue-pump variants. As the deployment of PC-LEDs became more widespread, so did reports in the media relating to potential negative impacts of their associated strong blue emission, from photochemical blue-light retinal injury and age-related macular degeneration to disruption of the circadian rhythm.

TCL Shows Off 132-Inch Micro LED 4K UHDTV: 24,000,000 Micro LEDs

Direct view Micro LED displays are a relatively new display technology that so far has been publicly demonstrated only by Samsung and Sony, the two of which tend to experiment with variety of technologies in general. At IFA last week TCL, a major maker of televisions, threw its hat into the ring by demonstrating its ultra-large Micro LED-based Ultra-HD TV. Dubbed the Cinema Wall 132-Inch 4K, TCL’s Micro LED television uses 24,000,000 individually controlled LEDs as RGB subpixels, and features a 1,500 nits max brightness level as well as a 2,500,000 contrast ratio (good enough to compete against OLEDs). The manufacturer claims that the TV can display a wide color gamut, but does not disclose whether they're using DCI-P3 or BT.2020.

ARRI introduces Orbiter ultra-bright LED point source

ARRI has introduced Orbiter, an entirely new lighting fixture design. It’s an ultra-bright, tunable, and directional LED fixture. All systems in Orbiter are completely new and have been designed with versatility in mind.

Detroit finishing up replacing all defective streetlights

The city’s Public Lighting Authority is expected to complete the replacement of nearly 20,000 defective LED streetlights that caused premature dimming and failures. The replacement, which is expected to cost between $7 million to $8 million, is ahead of the lighting authority’s goal earlier this year to swap out fixtures on 19,500 lights by the end of the year. The authority, which is funding the project, is seeking reimbursement from the lighting manufacturer, California-based Leotek Electronics USA.

New Approach of InGaN Nanowire LEDs on Flexible Substrate

After publishing the research paper demonstrating Micro LED integration with amorphous silicon TFTs, the research team from the University of Waterloo in Canada further revealed its approach of transferring InGaN nanowire LEDs on flexible substrate without degrading optical performance of the LEDs when the substrate bends. Researchers use vertical GaN nanowire LEDs to separate the electrically active region of the LEDs from the bending platform. LEDs are transferred onto flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with a “paste and cut” process. In this way, when the LEDs are integrated to flexible substrate, its emission performance degradation can be minimized.

Trade war gives domestic lighting makers a competitive edge

With the country embroiled in a tariff war with China, the benefits of a “Made in America” tag just skyrocketed, and companies that produce goods here — including lighting — are leveraging that distinction. While the vast majority of lighting is still made abroad, a handful of manufacturers have done it in the U.S. for decades. “As a U.S. manufacturer, we enjoy the competitive advantages of having complete control of our designs, delivery, service, quality, inventory levels and costs,” said Rene Quintana, principal, Fine Art Lamps. “We are less dependent on ‘uncontrollables’ with foreign countries.”

'I always look orange': Trump rails against energy-efficient light bulbs

President Donald Trump on Thursday evening claimed that energy efficient light bulbs make him look orange, one in a series of bizarre claims about green energy and climate conservation in remarks to Republican House members in Baltimore. "What's with the lightbulb?" Trump asked introducing one of several environmentally related rants in his more than hour-long remarks. He described energy efficient light bulbs as "many times more expensive than that old, incandescent bulb that worked very well" and "the lights no good." "The bulb that we're being forced to use, number one, to me, most importantly, I always look orange," he said, to laughs from the audience.

New automated NIST lab improves accuracy and shortens LED lamp calibration time

In June, the National Institute of Standards and Technology began offering a faster, more accurate and less labor-intensive calibration service for assessing the brightness of LED lamps and other solid-state lighting products. Customers for the service include LED lamp manufacturers, the U.S. military, and other calibration laboratories. Well-calibrated lights ensure that the 60-watt-equivalent LED bulb in your desk lamp truly is equivalent to 60 watts, for example, or that there is proper runway lighting for the pilot in a fighter plane.

Pennywise’s Iconic Red Ballon

Are you a fan of horror flicks? If so, then a red balloon probably means something sinister to you. Its presence can only promise that Pennywise the Dancing Clown from Stephen King’s It is nearby. Standing a little over 13 inches tall, the lamp bulb looks like a real balloon. It’s held upright with a white string that doubles as a stand and drapes over the table to give the illusion of weightlessness. There’s an on/off switch at the base of the balloon, and the entire thing is powered by a USB cable that comes with the lamp.

5 ways the right lighting can elevate your home

When you shop for a new sofa or another piece of furniture, it’s not hard to envision how it might look in your living room. And if you’re considering a new wall color, you can test pretty simply with swatches. But shopping for lighting can be more complicated. It’s easy fall in love with the design of a light fixture or lamp, notes interior designer Maggie Griffin, but how will it illuminate your space? How will it work with the lighting you already have? And which variety of light bulb will provide the kind of light you need?

Tiny LED Cube Packs Six Meters Of Madness

Recently we’ve been blessed with a bevy of beautiful, animated RGB cubes but none hit quite this intersection of size and function. The key ingredient here is tiny but affordable RGB LEDs which measure 1mm on a side. But LEDs this small dwarf even the otherwise minuscule “2020” package WS2812’s and APA102s of the world. Pushing his layout capabilities to the max [Freddie] squeezed each package together into a grid with elements separated by less than 1mm, resulting in a 64 LED panel that is only 16mm x 16mm panel (with test points and controller mounted to the back). Each of these four-layer PCBs that makes up the completed cube contains an astonishing 950mm of tracking, meaning the entire cube has nearly six meters of traces!

A Dimming Plan For Lighting Efficiency

The Trump administration announced that it would be rolling back energy efficiency requirements for light bulbs that were set to take effect in 2020. The rules would have increased efficiency requirements for the traditional ‘light bulb’ shaped bulbs, and phased out the incandescent and halogen bulbs used in special applications such as candle-shaped lights, bathroom vanities, and recessed lighting. Those requirements, originally set up during the Bush administration and finalized under President Obama, were aimed at moving the country further away from energy-inefficient incandescent lights and towards more efficient options like LED lights.   

Future of LEDs Gets Boost from Verification of Localization States in InGaN Quantum Wells

Light-emitting diodes made of indium gallium nitride provide better luminescence efficiency than many of the other materials used to create blue and green LEDs. But a big challenge of working with InGaN is its known dislocation density defects that make it difficult to understand its emission properties. In the Journal of Applied Physics, from AIP Publishing, researchers in China report an InGaN LED structure with high luminescence efficiency and what is believed to be the first direct observation of transition carriers between different localization states within InGaN. The localization states were confirmed by temperature-dependent photoluminescence and excitation power-dependent photoluminescence.

Signify, Cisco team up again for PoE

Signify has teamed up with its old Power over Ethernet (PoE) collaborator Cisco to provide PoE to Atea, a $1.1 billion Norwegian systems integrator that is sampling several other Signify smart lighting technologies including visible light communications (VLC) for location services and Li-Fi for Internet. The deployment at Atea’s new three-story Stavenger office is serving as a “living lab,” allowing Atea to showcase the technology while also using it, the three companies said in a joint announcement. Atea is a Cisco technology partner and is also joining Signify’s value-added partner program.

Apple illustrates a micro-LED Display for a Future Foldable Device

Patently Apple discovered a patent application published in Europe with references back to its original U.S. filing that we didn't cover titled "Display with Embedded Pixel Driver Chips." Apple's embodiments relate to high resolution display panels and the technicalities of replacing TFT substrates in a display with a matrix of micro-LEDs on the microcontroller substrate. Two out of the five inventors were previously with LuxVue, a micro-LED company that Apple acquired in May 2014. One of the inventors is the former Vice President of LuxVu Sandy (Hsin-Hua) Hu who is now listed on Linkedin as working at Apple with the title: micro-LED, MEMS, III-V & Silicon integration pioneer.

High Performance from Extraordinarily Thick Organic Light Emitting Diodes with Perovskite Layers

By combining thin organic layers with thick layers of hybrid perovskite, researchers at Kyushu University in Japan have developed micrometer-thick organic light-emitting diodes that could improve the affordability and viewing angles of high-performance displays and televisions in the near future. Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) use layers of organic molecules to efficiently convert electricity into light. The molecules, though great emitters, are generally poor electrical conductors, so the name of the game has been thin - as in 100 nm, or about 1/500 the thickness of a human hair. Only by using such thin layers can electricity easily reach where emission occurs in the middle of devices.

EPISTAR Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit

EPISTAR filed a patent infringement lawsuit against GMY Lighting Technology (GMY), Lightinthebox Holding, Light In The Box, Lightinthebox International Logistic, and LITB, (collectively, LITB) in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The complaint asserts that GMY’s LED filament bulbs sold and offered for sale on GMY and LITB’s website infringe seven EPISTAR patents, and seeks injunctive relief to halt further sale of the infringing products.

Philips Hue ‘Fugato’ and ‘Centura’ smart lights leak again in new imagery

Earlier this summer, Philips debuted new Bluetooth smart lights that don’t require a bridge. Now, the company is set to further expand its smart lightning array with the Bluetooth-capable Philips Hue Fugato and Centura lights. We first heard whispers of these new Fugato lights earlier this year, but now German news site Smart Lights has obtained detailed images of the new forthcoming accessory. According to the images, the Fugato lights will be available in single, double, three, and four packs.

Ring Smart Lighting Floodlight Wired

Ring’s acquisition of Mr. Beams in 2018 enabled it to significantly expand its smart lighting offerings, with mostly positive results. The Ring Floodlight Wired is essentially the same device as the Ring Floodlight Cam, but it costs significantly less because it doesn’t include a camera. If you’re already in the Ring ecosystem—with that or another of the company’s products—and you need more outdoor lighting, this wired floodlight is a no-brainer.

Energy-Saving New Red LED Phosphor Developed at University of Innsbruck

Light emitting diodes or LEDs are only able to produce light of a certain colour. However, white light can be created using different colour mixing processes. "In a white LED, red and yellow-green phosphors are excited by the light from a blue diode. The particles emit light in the red and green range, and in combination with the blue light they produce white light," describes Hubert Huppertz from the Department of General, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. He and his team are working on improving the red and green phosphors. In cooperation with OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, his team has now succeeded in synthesizing a new red phosphor that has excellent luminescence properties and can make LED lighting significantly more energy-efficient.

InGaN nanowire LEDs stand free on flexible substrates

Researchers from the University of Waterloo, Canada, have integrated closely arranged GaN-based nanowire light-emitting diodes (NW LEDs) free standing vertically onto a flexible sheet of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Because the active light-emitting region is situated at the upper tip of the nanowires (a so-called dot-in-wire design), bending or flexing the substrate does not creates stress in this active region, preventing performance degradation in the LEDs. The researchers published their results under the title “Optically invariant InGaN nanowire light-emitting diodes on flexible substrates under mechanical manipulation“ in Nature‘s Flexible Electronics journal.

Theatre Albany hopes for grant to upgrade stage lighting

Theatre Albany leaders said they hope to use money raised at a recent fundraiser to match a $40,000 grant. Theatre leaders said they applied for the grant from the Fox Theatre Institute, to help the theater upgrade its stage lighting. Board member Gary Unger said that would include a new light board, and new LED lights on stage.

Environmental Lights LiteLinks LED Bars Evenly Distribute Light

Environmental Lights is at the forefront of advanced LED lighting solutions, and the company's new LiteLinks Light Bar underscore the engineering it brings to the LED lighting category. According to Environmental Lights, the new LiteLinks line of products have been developed to serve professional integrators as a modular lighting solution that can be used for display and accent lighting. The U.L. listed products are designed to enable integrators to quickly install lighting systems.

Giant LED Display Is 1200 Balls To The Wall

When you’re going to build something big, it’s often a good idea to start small and work out the bugs first. That’s what bitluni did with his massive 1200-pixel LED video wall, which he unveiled at Maker Faire Hanover recently.

Cardinal Scale’s New SB600 Remote Display for Truck Scale Readouts

Cardinal Scale’s new model SB600 remote display features a high-visibility, full-color graphics display with double-row LEDs in large 6-inch/15.25-cm high characters that is ideal for use with digital weight indicators connected to truck scales, railroad scales, tank/hopper scales, livestock scales, and floor scales where weight needs to be viewed from a distance of up to 250 ft/76 m. The durable IP66-rated stainless steel enclosure is weatherproof for use in a wide variety of environments. The SB600 offers 1,280 RGB high-intensity LEDs for maximum visibility in all lighting conditions and integrated 6-inch/15.25-cm high red/green traffic light standard for directing vehicles on and off the scale. Multiple scales plus total weight readouts can all be displayed simultaneously.

Lume Cube Launches New Full Spectrum Bi-Color LED Light

Lume Cube announced today the launch of a fourth light to their line of innovative Specialty LEDs, the Lume Cube PANEL, a full spectrum bi-color LED panel for content creators. The Panel was designed to allow any creator, professional or beginner, to master the art of lighting to capture high-quality content. In a heavily saturated market of LED lights, Lume Cube designed the Panel to standout amongst the rest. The Panel utilizes the best possible LED specs on the market and is jam-packed with features that make the Panel versatile and user friendly (not to mention, they’ve included the ability for the Panel to double as a Power Bank to charge your phone, camera, or any USB-chargeable device!)

Lead Former Makes LED Cubes A Little Easier To Build

There’s no doubting the allure of a nicely crafted LED cube; likewise, there’s no doubting that they can be a tremendous pain to build. After all, the amount of work scales as the cube of the number of LEDs you want each side to have, and let’s face it – with LED cubes, the bigger, the better. What to do about all that tedious lead forming? TylerTimoJ’s solution is a custom-designed lead-forming tool, and we have to say we’re mighty impressed by it. His LED cubes use discrete RGB LEDs, the kind with four leads, each suspended in space by soldering them to wires.

GE's newest LED light bulbs feature Bluetooth speakers, motion sensors and more

In an age of dirt-cheap smart lights and color-changing LEDs you can control with your voice, people are beginning to expect a lot more from their light bulbs. Now, GE is answering the call with a new "LED Plus" lineup of specialized dumb bulbs. Each one offers an extra bit of light bulb trickery -- built-in motion sensors, built-in Bluetooth speakers, color control, battery backup, etc. With prices ranging from $8 to $30 per bulb, the LED Plus lineup is just beginning a retail rollout at Target. I'd be surprised if it doesn't soon appear on store shelves at other outlets where GE Lighting products are sold, too.