LED

The LED-meisters at macetech LLC seized upon this week's Maker Faire to unveil an eye-catching pair of prototype "LED matrix shades" that light up in a variety of dynamic patterns. When the shades hit the market in six to eight weeks, users will be able to program patterns of their own, thanks to the Arduino-compatible electronics from which they're made. macetech's Garrett Mace gave Gizmag an exclusive insight into the development of the shades, which look like they've fallen through a portal from some future urban dystopia.  Read More

Designed by Mieke Meijer, this lamp, simply called Balance, is a wooden LED floor or table lamp that only illuminates when perfectly balanced.  Read More

Following Gizmag's coverage of GE Lighting's 27 W Energy Smart and Switch Lighting's 100 W-replacement LED light bulbs, Osram Sylvania has been in touch to tell us about its 100 W-replacement LED light bulb, joining its Sylvania Ultra series: a 20 W, 1600 lumen light bulb with a warm, "incandescenty" color appearance of 2700 K. With Philips also to release a 100-W equivalent this means the big three manufacturers of light sources are joining Switch Lighting in offering high-output LED light bulbs for the home, but all things considered, Osram Sylvania's may prove the pick of the bunch.  Read More

GE Lighting has announced that it is getting in on the 100 W-equivalent LED replacement act. The 27 W Energy Smart LED bulb joins its range of incandescent bulb replacements that already includes 40 W and 60 W equivalents. And like an incandescent bulb, GE claims its LED bulb emits light evenly in all directions. But how does the 100 W equivalent stack up performance-wise?  Read More

The fearsome midnight pee: it's an experience that every camper would prefer to avoid. Yet long nights mixed with (lots of) cheap, light beer and chilly tents have a way of making wee-hour tinkles an inescapable part of the outdoor experience. The Snugpak Chrysalis sleeping bag arms you with a new weapon in the fight to break out of your tent and turn the faucet on high: a built-in LED light.  Read More

Bicycle accessory designer and manufacturer Copenhagen Parts has just announced a new range of magnetic bike lights. Called "Magnetic Bike Lights," the battery-powered LED lights may not have the novel power source of the Magnic Light we looked at in February, but they do have one nifty trick at their disposal: they automatically turn on and off when fitted and removed from a steel bicycle frame.  Read More

Guitar tablature is a powerful form of musical notation, where learners are shown where to place a finger on the neck of an instrument, and in what order. Such things as timing, note duration and playing force are not given, so unless a student knows or has access to a recorded version of the song being learned, the result may be somewhat different from what the composer intended. Usefully, such missing elements can be included in software like Guitar Pro to show users exactly how a song should be played. Two projects have now appeared on crowd-funding portal Kickstarter that take this idea and put it directly onto the guitar, so that learners won't need to keep switching views from screen to instrument. Tabber and the LED Sleeve guide players to the correct finger positions via LED lights on the neck.  Read More

Let's play a game of word association. If I said to you "LED lighting", the chances are the first thing you'd say would be ... well, honestly, I have no idea. But if I were to guess, I think a lot of people would say bright, or efficient, perhaps cool, or possibly colorful. I would too. My hunch is that the word beautiful would be used much less frequently. But that's a perception that might soon change, if London design studio Troika has anything to say in the matter. Which it does. Its mechanized, kinetic and grand LED chandelier, named Thixotropes, is, quite simply, a beautiful vision of the lighting of the future.  Read More

Night snowboarding usually equates to grueling pre-dawn slogs up backcountry routes or short, icy turns under stadium-like lights at small resorts. Nowness.com has put a new spin on those traditional forms of night riding. In this stunning piece of film, a unique LED suit is employed to turn the subject into a powder-slashing apparition.  Read More