LED

Currently the brightest options for those looking to ditch their incandescent light bulbs in favor of the longer life and more energy efficient LED variety are those equivalent to 60 watt incandescent bulbs, such as the GeoBulb II. Things got a little brighter last month when California-based Switch Lighting announced its 75 watt-equivalent LED bulb and now the company has gone one better with the announcement of what it claims is the world's first 100 watt-equivalent LED bulb.  Read More

Anyone who thought making the switch from their old 4:3 analogue TV to a 16:9 widescreen digital model would mean the end of unsightly black bars at the top and bottom of the picture will likely have discovered otherwise – particularly if they also picked up a Blu-ray player along with the new TV. With most movies filmed in the wider 2.35:1 or 2.40:1 and many of these now available on Blu-ray, cinephiles are once again faced with the choice of viewing the entire image with black bars, or zooming or stretching the image so it fills the entire screen. The new Cinema 21:9 Gold Series LED TV from Philips solves this dilemma with its 21:9 aspect ratio allowing widescreen movies to be displayed in all their glory.  Read More

LED light bulbs are becoming increasingly popular with designers and consumers of green technology, as they use less electricity, last longer, and emit more light on a pound-for-pound basis than traditional incandescent bulbs. However, while it may be tempting to look at them as having solved the problem of environmentally-unfriendly lighting, researchers from the University of California would advise against such thinking.  Read More

Zhantra Entertainment has recently merged dance and technology to create a captivating spectacle. Resembling characters from sci-fi films such as Blade Runner and Minority Report, dancer Milena looks like she has stepped straight out of a cyberpunk future world. Dressed in an outfit custom-designed by Zhantra’s in-house designer, Gustavo, featuring LED lights, 17 individual lasers, and ballerina point shoes, the Bionic Ballerina displays moves that seem to defy the laws of human flexibility.  Read More

Internet-connected television is not new, with LG’s Netcast, Panasonic’s Viera Cast, Samsung’s Internet@TV and Sony’s internet-integrated Bravia all presenting cut-down versions of the internet. The world’s first TV with an Android operating system though, is a breath of fresh air by comparison, using proprietary graphics processors inside the set to enable the 42 inch HD LED Lava Scandinavia to handle the full internet experience you’d get with a normal computer. Gizmag’s Mike Hanlon and Noel McKeegan spent some time with the Scandinavia recently and came away VERY impressed.  Read More

We’ve heard of surgeons using a SpectroPen during the tumor removal surgeries, but now Californian scientists are shedding light on cancer, literally, in the hopes to find a new cure for skin cancer. The team of scientists from the University of California, Irvine are currently developing new techniques to image cancerous lesions using LEDs (light emitting diodes) with the hope of then being able to treat skin cancer using photodynamic therapy (PDT).  Read More

Head torches – they're fantastic on your head, but when not in use they tend to end up a tangled mess somewhere in the nether regions of your backpack. Some might come with a sturdy case but, in my experience anyway, the case rarely get used (or gets lost in the first week). The LED Lenser H4 solves this by giving you a reason to put the head torch away – when stowed in the case it becomes a clip-on flashlight.  Read More

Now here's something we've never seen before – a rechargeable lightglobe. Chinese company Magic Bulb has patented a new type of device which incorporates a battery and LED lightblobe to produce a lightglobe which uses only 4 watts but produces the equivalent light of a traditional 50W globe. If the power fails, the globe will keep running for around three hours or it can be screwed out of its socket and the handle extended to turn it into a bright torch.  Read More

It would seem kind of strange if you were driving on a back road at night, far from any known source of electricity, when you suddenly came across a working streetlight. Such a thing is possible, however, and could even become a common occurrence. That’s because Lighting Science Group now manufactures solar powered LED streetlights, that can run entirely independent of local power grids. Even if the availability of electricity isn’t an issue, Lighting Science states they are also brighter, more efficient, and require less maintenance than regular HID streetlights. Those claims obviously impressed somebody, as the company’s PROLIFIC Series Roadway streetlights are now being installed on a 23-kilometer (14-mile) stretch of Mexico City’s elevated Viaducto Bicentenario superhighway.  Read More