Imagine having to never replace a light bulb.
Ever.
A light bulb that can be customized to any colour, any level of brightness and can be controlled through mobile devices.
Light bulbs that provide you with the fastest internet known to mankind.
Light source that can be wore around one’s hand.
Or maybe those that don’t need any deliberations for working, ones that can be controlled by virtual assistant or by your movements.
From Edison inventing the first light bulb in 1879 to present day, humans have come a long way.
In this post we’ll be talking about the evolution of lighting technology and 9 of the biggest trends right now.
- What makes bulbs smart?
Smart bulbs are the most trending lighting technology to date. These LED bulbs are wirelessly controlled through mobile devices e.g. phones and tablets and are highly customizable according to user’s needs.
Customizability options include
- The choice to choose the color from the whole range of visible spectrum.
- Brightness of light, can be dimmed down according to the time of the day or user’s requirement.
These bulbs can be controlled through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and are preferred because it relieves the people from the hectic job of finding the right color of the light. And also saves them the money as these LED bulbs consume lower power and last longer as compared to ordinary bulbs.
- Motion Detecting Lights
You may have experienced automatic door when you visited your nearest grocery store. About how these doors opened automatically when you approached them.
Similar to this we now have motion sensing and movement sensing lights. For sensors to detect human beings, it is important that they are sensitive to human body temperature. Hence these sensors use infrared rays to detect rapid change in motion.
Motion detecting lights are cost saving as they are only triggered with activity, if some area doesn’t have activity for a long time, the lights close automatically.
These lights also have application as security measures. People install these in the vicinity of their homes and organizations, discouraging intruders from coming near as then these will light up and alert people of the thieves.
- Can lights make you healthy?
According to new research, light have a great influence on people. A new field of medicine has emerged known as light therapy or phototherapy.
It is used as a treatment for various problems e.g.
- Migraine
- Anxiety
- Stress
- Depression
- Insomnia
- Increase body’s metabolism
- Faster healing
Phototherapy is a trending field in medicine right now due to its non-invasive properties.
- Organic LEDs
No, these are not vegan LEDs. But a new type of LED that are not only thinner than a paper, but also more efficient than normal LEDs.
OLEDs have emissive display, which means that it doesn’t need backlight light normal LCDs and have anti-glare properties.
These new generation of LEDs have wide number of properties, like
Hence it has many applications like
- Li-Fi, evolution of Wi-Fi
Whereas Wi-Fi uses radio frequency for the transmission of data, Li-Fi uses the visible, ultraviolet and infrared light for data transmission.
Li-Fi is incorporated in LED lights that are embedded with chips that modulate light.
Li-Fi has many advantages over Wi-Fi like
- It has higher speed than Wi-Fi due to 10000 times larger bandwidth
- More secure than Wi-Fi
- Safe from neighboring network interference
- Unimpeded by other forms of signals
- Does not create interference in sensitive electronic devices hence can be effectively used in environments like airplanes, nuclear facilities, hospitals etc.
Imagine how helpful will this technology be for students, they could easily search for their academic queries like assignments, resources and books or even dissertation writing help.
Due to these properties Li-Fi is being used, to overcome limitations and develop technology for launching 5G.
- “Alexa, turn on the lights”
Nowadays lights are being programmed to be controlled by virtual assistants like Alexa and Google Assist.
These virtual assistants control the lights by either directly controlling the smart lights or by controlling the smart outlets installed in place of normal outlets (if smart lights are not installed).
User can control the lights using voice activation via virtual assistants, or even automatically set the routines of the lights.
This technology is trending at a very great pace due to it’s applications and transition of many people towards smart homes.
- Tesla’s Solar Roofs
A new trend has been introduced by Tesla of solar roofs to light up houses.
These are modern designer tiles that have life expectancy longer than that of normal solar panels. These tiles are 3-times stronger than normal roof tiles and are much sturdier. But irrespective of all these qualities, these are comparatively very cheap.
These tiles are a step forward in smart housing. Making homes and appliances self-sufficient. With real-time monitoring of light and electricity consumption, for people to optimize their use.
- Lights festivals and tomorrow land
Have you ever wondered how all these beautiful lights keep changing and pulsating at the beat of the music?
Well these lights are controlled by an artificial intelligent software that changes the lights whenever it detects change in music.
These softwares are readily being used in concerts and music festivals nowadays to produce visual aesthetics that imitate the music.
- Is Edison back?
In present era home décor trends, the Edison bulbs are back in fashion. Mainly due to come back of retro and industrial trend that were famous for adding warmth and soft beauty to elements present in the room.
As tungsten bulbs consumed a lot of energy, had a low life and generated a lot of heat, they have been replaced by LEDs that are designed in the shape of Edison bulbs, thanks to the technology.
