LED, or light-emitting diode, technology, once confined to the tiny red indicator lights on TV remotes, is the next big revolution in the consumer electronics industry.

LED, or light-emitting diode, has come a long way since its first discovery in the early 1900s. Back in the 1970s, manufacturers used LED as a status indicator on consumer electronic products (yes, the red little dot on your watches and TV remotes) or alphanumeric display on calculators. LED technology has since evolved to offer more colours and higher brightness, diversifying its application especially in the lighting world. With more colours – green, yellow, orange, blue and white, to name a few – LED has made its way to don traffic lights, billboards, signages and vehicle dashboards. In tech gadgets, LED is used as light source in projectors and backlight in notebook computers.

Increasing usage
LED usage has gone up worldwide as the technology allows manufacturers to advance their products by offering slimmer and brighter models.

“Edge-lit LED backlighting helps reduce the depth of products and upsell the slimness factor,” says Wee Teck Loo, head of global consumer electronics research, Euromonitor International.

Notebook makers also use LED as backlighting to reduce the thickness of the machines and get longer battery life. Acer, for example, has refreshed its Aspire One range and launched the LED-backlit netbook D250 in Malaysia.

Apple’s new iPad tablet has a touch-screen that uses LED as backlighting,
and this is touted as a key selling
point.

LED usage goes beyond consumer electronics. Audi, for example, uses LED daytime-running lights to improve visibility so its cars can be quickly seen by motorists to avoid potential road accidents.

Wider appeal
As prices of the LED modules fall, what was once traditionally a backlighting technology for high-end displays, is now going mainstream.

“In the PC monitor space across the Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) over the last three quarters, we have seen this market grow in excess of 150 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

“There are advantages of more uniform lighting across the monitor, longer-lasting backlight, so the monitor lifecycle can be extended and power consumption lowered,” says Reuben Tan, senior manager for personal systems research, IDC Asia-Pacific.

He sees more end users jumping onto the LED bandwagon when pricing of LED-backlit monitors falls to as low as that for their traditional CCFL, or cold cathode fluorescent lamp, counterpart.

“For higher-end desktops (such as gaming machines) or workstation bundles, this could happen this year, or as an upsell to regular monitors,” he says.

LED application

Mobile phones
Due to its durability, small size and high luminous efficiency, LED is practical in mobile devices such as phones. The backlighting in phones such as in keypads and panels uses low-power white LEDs. Some phone models feature a flash light mechanism which uses multiple LEDs that are connected to give brighter illumination.

Apart from white LEDs, RGB (red, green and blue wavelengths) LEDs are used to enhance phone aesthetics. With a combination of colours, RGB LEDs may be used as a blinking light for incoming messages or calls.

Notebook computers
The popularity of notebooks came about mainly because of their light weight, advanced features and handy size. A key driving technology behind such miniaturisation is LED lighting.

Apart from efficient illumination in monitor displays, LED lights need little battery upload, giving notebooks additional energy for other functions. Not only that, the LED driver provides flexibility in implementation of programs, synchronisation with other applications, and advanced safety features that help redefine the functionality of a notebook.

Digital cameras
The efficiency of LED is needed in the flash fucntion of digital cameras so clear photos can be taken. The industry is keeping up with this demand by providing flash LED drivers, display backlight drivers and lighting management units.

Digital cameras also now come with high zoom capability and impressive features even for night photography. This is made possible by high-power LEDs (one watt) used in camera phones to back up picture taking in dark environments.

What’s more, LED lighting uses minimal power.

Automotive lighting
LED can greatly reduce accidents, especially at night, since it offers steady, bright illumination over a long distance. This gives the driver of oncoming traffic more time to react and avoid a collision, especially rear-end crashes.

Also, LED, unlike incandescent and other automotive lighting types, does not break and is shock-resistant.

Personal navigation devices
Consumers have moved from standalone GPS receivers to personal navigation devices to get around in unfamiliar territory. Just like in mobile phones and PDAs, LED has made the backlighting in display panels as well as indicator and keypad lights clearer and brighter.

Personal media devices
Among the many personal media devices within the consumer electronics industry, the PDA is the most popular. It not only helps you keep track of your schedules, but also let you send and receive e-mail or used as an Internet phone.

Like MP3 players and handheld gaming consoles, modern PDAs that use LED lighting in their monitor panels and keyboards have been able to reduce their bulk considerably. Coupled with efficient energy use and brighter displays, it is little wonder that such devices are getting more popular.

Printers and multi-functional devices
In the printer and multi-function device market, LED helps enhance performance and cut energy use.

With advanced exposure control technology such as Digitally Enhanced Lighting Control Imaging System, LED printheads can achieve a consistent high print resolution (1,200 by 2,400 dots per inch), resolving the conventional laser printhead limitations. LED printheads also use 45 per cent less energy.

LEDs are also used as a scanner’s light source. Scanners using high-intensity LED light source can achieve up to 1.5 times brighter scans than conventional scanner lamps. LED also allows scanners to use two-thirds less energy with improved scanning precision and speed.

Three key benefits

• Technologically advanced
LEDs consume less power at the same level of brightness compared to conventional lighting. For example, a red traffic light signal head with 196 LEDs consume 10 watts compared to incandescent light which uses 150W. They are also smaller, so they can be used in smaller and lighter devices.

• Benefits to consumers
LEDs are cooler to the touch after significant periods of operation compared to existing incandescent bulbs. They produce a clear white light (more like a fluorescent tube) rather than the warm yellow light from an incandescent bulb.

• Long-term savings
LEDs last up to 100 times longer than an incandescent bulb and use up to 80 per cent less energy to produce a comparable amount of light. Efficiency ensures 82 to 93 per cent savings in terms of operational and maintenance costs. LEDs also have a long life, about 100,000 hours, as they are stronger than an incandescent bulb and harder to break.

This intriguing – and somewhat complex – concept design for a bathroom mirror brings the water crisis right in front of your face. The mirror is lit with LEDs powered by the flow of water in the pipes. As you use the mirror throughout the year, the patterns of water use and supply create a frame, and you can see how your habits affect the planet.

Designer Jin Kim’s idea is that the mirror breaks down daily, monthly and annual use of water. As you use too much water, there’s a control in the mirror so your supply can be limited. And if the lights are meaningless to the user, there are also icons for those who are affected by water misuse – kids, ecosystems, polar bears – so you’re guilted into shutting off the faucet.

At the end of a year, you can see your usage patterns and know what kind of progress you’ve made in trimming down your consumption.

Design kinks aside – such as how to power the mirror’s LEDs if you’re constantly reducing the flow of water down the drain and so reducing the amount of harvested energy, and if that’s even a way to harvest enough energy for 1 LED, let alone dozens – if you needed a way to keep the water crisis front and center during your morning routine, this would be the design for you.

Originally Posted on Treehugger.com
Images via Yanko Design

Digital boards outside fast-food restaurants can pay for themselves in as little as four months, according to display maker Daktronics.

In a new study, the firm cites testimonials from unnamed users of digital reader boards saying that the displays have increased their business by between nine and 20 percent, as well as U.S. Small Business Administration figures suggesting sales uplifts can range from 15 to 150 percent.

Working with the lowest of these figures – a nine percent uplift – Daktronics then calculates that if a quick-service restaurant (QSR) with gross annual sales of $1.175m and a gross margin of 68 percent spends $30,000 on a digital reader board, sales over the year will increase by just under $72,000.

That represents a return on investment in the first year of nearly 240 percent.

“A digital reader board with effective messages typically will pay for itself within four to 18 months,” the firm concludes.

But “the return is proportional to the content quality displayed on the digital reader board and its integration into a marketing campaign”, cautions Daktronics.

The boards are also more effective than conventional media on the basis of cost per thousand exposures (CPM), argues Daktronics.

Taking the Seattle area as an example, the company says that the main local newspaper carries a CPM of at least $22.52, TV at least $5.14, and radio at least $1.80, against just $0.35 for a digital reader board.

Daktronics also argues that heavy commuters – those most likely to pass a digital reader board regularly – are less exposed than other segments of the population to newspapers and TV, necessitating another way to reach them.

Other factors making digital reader boards attractive to QSR operators, according to the display manufacturer, are that they attract attention; can promote multiple different products and services, changing according to the time of day; are safer and quicker to update than non-digital boards; and encourage impulse buys, which account for nearly 40 percent of fast-food restaurant business.

originally posted on screen.tv.com

Establishments around the world are realizing the potential energy and maintenance savings associated with LED technology. Eco-responsibility is proving that it is not just a passing fad. Countries all over the world, including the United States, have created programs and incentives for companies switching to LED technologies. In fact, the European Union began a ban of incandescent bulbs in September 2009. Sources predict that by the year 2016, incandescent lighting will be completely phased out of commercial and residential settings to make room for more energy efficient lighting, namely LEDs. Cell phones, DVDs, CDs, and MP3s have all popularized this technology years ago. It was only a matter of time before LED lighting was paid proper attention. For restaurants, LEDs benefit include 90% less energy consumption, no radiant heat or UV, no mercury or hazardous materials and useful life that is double that of traditional sources.

Aside from opting for eco-responsible products being a good business practice, it also does wonders for a restaurant’s finances. As all business owners know, costs have a direct and significant impact on an institution’s bottom line. In an economic downturn companies often have to cut corners to cut costs. Fortunately, LED technology makes it possible to upgrade and save money. One bulb uses 90% less energy than traditional sources. This has huge implications for any restaurant that has a substantial utility bill. They are able to cut their utility bill to 10% and actually benefits associated with eco-responsibility and reduction in energy consumption. In addition, LED bulbs lasts 10 times longer than fluorescent. This means LEDs virtually eliminate the cost of maintenance for over 10 years after installation. In addition, LED lighting gives off substantially less heat, reducing air conditioning costs.

Companies all over the world have taken advantage of LED technology. Macy’s has one of the historically biggest plans for LED lighting in their stores. By replacing a 75W bulb with a new 10W LED bulb, they are on tract to save $45,585,056 in the first year, alone. McDonalds and Dunkin Doughnuts have switched lighting, signs, and menu board lighting to LED technology to become more efficient.

In addition to all the financial benefits there are to switching to LED technology, the switch can have some great implications for the restaurant’s environment and the environment at large. Most importantly, LED technology does not contain Mercury or other hazardous materials that would be harmful in any environment and especially food service.

For more information about LED technology please feel free to call Dave Goldberg at Millennium Visual Systems, (845) 356-4100.

Outdone by an tower extending over 800 meters in Dubai, the world’s former tallest building, Taipei 101, wants to become the highest green structure by completing a checklist of clean energy standards, a spokesman said on Monday.

Taipei 101 will spend T$60 million ($1.9 million) over the next year to meet 100 criteria for an environmental certificate that it would hold over Dubai, spokesman Michael Liu said.

The office-commercial tower that reigned for five years as the world’s highest building at 509 meters (1,670 feet) expects the U.S-based Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design to give it the certificate in 2011.

“We’re focused now on becoming a Taiwan landmark, that won’t change, and on going green. We’d be the tallest building to get a green certificate,” Liu said by telephone. Taipei 101, he said, would work with its 85 office tenants to cut electricity and water use, while encouraging them to recycle more refuse. Annual utility savings should total T$20 million.

Restaurants would be asked to bring in supplies from as close as possible to reduce transportation.

“We can reduce power, trash and water by more than 10 percent,” he said. “We’re already pretty green. In principle there’s no major problem.”

The Taiwan skyscraper, complete with an observation deck popular with tourists, has already met 60 of the checklist items, including double-paned windows to retain cool air.

Meet the next generation of art installations. Together, the SENSEable City and ARES Labs atMIT have created an adaptable, remote-controlled display comprised of dozens of robotic, flying “smart pixels.”

The concept is simple: As with any digital image, the picture is made of groups of tiny dots of varying colors that, at the right scale, appear as one large image. Now imagine the pixels in a pointillist painting like a Georges Seurat aren’t tiny flecks of paint, but thousands of miniature helicopters with varying color LEDs arranged as the image.

Flyfire, though, takes things one further by adding depth. The face of the Mona Lisa, for example, can be blown out and backward to create a 360-degree rendering of the painting.

The helicopters are about the size of a golf ball, each with a color-changing LED. It took the expertise of the ARES flying robotics lab to make small ‘copters that fly steadily enough and that can adapt quickly and with utmost precision.

Right now, Flyfire is best suited for large-scale art installations, since the ‘bots are still a bit hefty. In the future, though, smaller parts will mean smaller ‘copters and more exact displays that don’t need to take up a whole room.

Reposted from: NicerNews.com

Millennium Visual Systems made a major contirbution of programmable, LED badges to the Eatontown Elks Club of Eatontown, NJ for their use in fundraising. Millennium is pleased to join with the Lions Club in providing this support to the community.

In December 2009, Millennium similarly made a contribution to the American Red Cross in support of their community efforts.

The new 70 foot long, 30 foot high sign has the same dimensions and the same general look as its predecessor, but the neon lights have been replaced with 4,800 CFLs for the white lettering and strip LEDs for the sign’s background. The end result is a sign that is crisper, brighter, and most importantly, more efficient than the original. 100 percent of the power used by the sign is offset by wind renewable energy certificates.

Wondering how you missed the sign switchover? The whole thing happened in just four days, with the new sign in place by Christmas Eve. Almost all the metal and wiring from the original sign has since been recycled.

It’s easy to chastise Coca-Cola for not taking down the energy-intensive sign altogether, but we have to applaud the company for figuring out a way to keep an iconic advertisement without compromising its sustainable ideals.

20 Jan 2010

Ann Arbor will continue its streetlight upgrade program, while a University of Pittsburgh study makes the case for LEDs.

Municipalities around the world realize the potential energy and maintenance savings associated with LED street lights, and more conversions are underway. Ann Arbor, MI was an early convert and is now planning a larger deployment. The University of Pittsburgh has completed a study that recommends in large-scale conversion in Pittsburgh, PA. Meanwhile, the conversion to LED traffic lights is much further along, but some new grant money will further accelerate that movement. Ann Arbor actually made news a few years back becoming one of the first municipalities in the US to install LED-based streetlights. As LEDs Magazine reported in 2007, the city trialed 25 fixtures with subsequent plans to convert 1000 fixtures. Last year, ElectricTV.net featured a video about the project. The city claimed that the savings they have experienced with their initial program leads them to believe that they can recover the cost of replacing all 6600 lamps in town in just four years. Fast forward to now, and the city is apparently ready to move forward with the program. AnnArbor.com is reporting that the city will convert 800 more lights by the end of 2011. The latest upgrade is being funded by a $1.2 million grant courtesy of the DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Conversion Block Grant Program. The Ann Arbor city government has taken a very proactive stance promoting LED usage. The city’s Energy Office has a web page dedicated to LEDs including a whitepaper developed by the office. The web site states the goal of cutting the streetlight energy bill in half. Pittsburgh In Pittsburgh meanwhile, the university’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation has completed a 72-page in-depth study on LED streetlights entitled “Life cycle assessment of streetlight technologies.” The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first reported the story that concludes that the city could save $1 million per year in energy cost and $700,000 per year in maintenance cost via a conversion to LED streetlights. Traffic signals Moving to traffic signals, LED traffic lights were in the news a few weeks back because of safety concerns focused on snow blocking LED bulbs with winter storms ravaging the US. In the past few days, however, cities across the US have moved forward with more aggressive LED-traffic-light-deployment plans. Just this past week, for instance, Texas comptroller Susan Combs announced that 15 Texas cities would receive $6 million in federal grants for traffic signal projects. The grants are specified for signal upgrades to LEDs, but that will be a prime use of the funds. For example, the Brownsville Herald reports that the money received by that city will go to LED signals.