light

LEDs, or "light-emitting diodes," have come a long way since they were introduced as red, green, and blue computer indicator lights.

These days, LEDs are available in endless shapes and sizes, a wide variety of colors and neutrals, and offer many benefits over traditional incandescent lights.

For starters, LEDs can potentially cut energy usage by 25% in the U.S. How? Here's the science, made simple: incandescent bulbs convert most electricity to heat, whereas LED lights convert most of the energy into light. That's why LEDs don't give off heat the way traditional … Read more

Oscar Lhermitte wants to give city dwellers back their stars.

With his project "Urban Stargazing," the London-based product designer and graduate of the Royal College of Art has craftily used LEDs, fiber optics, nylon line, and giant slingshots to beat back light pollution and reconnect people with the aeons-old mysteries of the night sky. His "triangulated structures" stand in for the constellations that have fired human imagination for so long but that are now so often drowned out in metropolitan areas.… Read more

Philips on Sunday will start selling an LED bulb that sets a new bar for performance -- and price.

The company will release the Philips L Prize LED on Earth Day for $50, which includes an "automatic incentive" from the company. The general-lighting bulb came out of the Department of Energy's L Prize competition to develop long-lasting, efficient, and less expensive LED lamps.

Philips claims its L Prize LED is the most efficient 60-watt LED equivalent and improves on features from Philips own existing LEDs.

It gives off 940 lumens, consumes 9.7 watts, and has a … Read more

Sometimes we need to see to believe. I remember understanding on an intellectual level, from a young age, that smoking was bad, but I didn't really get it on a visceral level until I saw a smoker's blackened lungs. The effect was so profound that, to this day, I go so far as to hold my breath when walking past people smoking.

Unfortunately, it's not easy to peer inside our own bodies and check out the health of our lungs. It's also difficult to see the effects sun exposure is having on our skin, especially when … Read more

Many of the newer Android phones on the market are missing a notification light. This isn't a huge deal if you check your phone every 5 minutes, but what if you're in a meeting or listening to something when the alert goes off? For these situations and others, here's a selection of three awesome notification apps that help you notice every message or missed call.

NoLED will allow you to set custom notifications, like icons or dots that appear on a black screen. The whole screen is considered "on," but only the icon is … Read more

What's the No. 1 requested feature people want in an e-ink e-reader?

According to Barnes & Noble, it's an integrated light, which is why the company spent the last two years developing the new $139 Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, available today for preorder and shipping in early May.

I had a chance to play around with the new Nook at a launch event in New York and, as you can see from the pictures, except for the gray border around the edge, it looks identical to the standard $99 Nook Simple Touch, which remains on the market. … Read more

A year ago, hedge fund manager Philip Falcone's LightSquared offered the Federal Communications Commission a huge opportunity to satisfy some of its most lofty wireless broadband goals. Today, the company is facing possible bankruptcy and only the slimmest chance of actually building its network, leaving policy makers in Washington focusing on alternatives.

Earlier this week, Falcone, whose hedge fund Harbinger Capital is the largest stakeholder in LightSquared, told Reuters that bankruptcy protection is one of several options he is considering as he tries to keep the company alive. LightSquared, which has been battling the GPS industry over claims that … Read more

Cree is leaning on high design to get LED lighting onto lamp posts.

The company today introduced new lines of streetlights that use long-lasting and energy-efficient LEDs, including AeroBlades lamps which are an array of LED light sources in blade-like strips.

Cree also updated its traditional LED streetlights for overhead lighting and developed a lamp with traditional bulb designed to fit into historic districts.

The products are the first since Cree, which makes LED light sources, purchased Ruud Lighting to expand its lighting fixture business. LEDs are a good fit for street lights in that they last longer than other … Read more

It may not be the first smartphone-microscope combo, but creators of the SkyLight adapter say their device is different: it doesn't use any optics.

Attach the base of SkyLight to a microscope and slide in a smartphone--most any smartphone actually, thanks to the mount's adjustable clips. Users -- whether students or scientists -- can then capture microscopic images and send them via e-mail or to the Web.

SmartPlanet visits with SkyLight creators Andy Miller and Tess Bakke for a hands-on look at the device.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "SkyLight starts selling combo smartphone-microscope mount.&… Read more